Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a careful but unmistakable dual message about the administration’s Iran policy during a White House cabinet meeting on Wednesday, May 27 — reaffirming the president’s stated preference for a negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff while making explicitly clear that other, far more forceful options remain available and ready if talks collapse.
Rubio spoke after President Trump introduced him with warm praise and a prompt to address the Iran situation. The secretary delivered what amounted to a clear-eyed status report on negotiations, touching not only on the nuclear file but also on immigration enforcement, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a new diplomatic achievement in Armenia — but his Iran remarks anchored the substance of his appearance.
“The bottom line is Iran’s never going to have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said at the outset, echoing language Trump himself has used repeatedly. “And if recent events have done anything, it just reminds us once again that they are the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, and they can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Rubio framed the current diplomatic effort as an expression of the president’s personal preference rather than a requirement. “The president’s preference — your preference has told us repeatedly — is always to negotiate these things and to figure out if you can have agreements,” he said, addressing Trump directly. “Diplomacy is always the first option.”
He said negotiations are continuing through presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with Vice President JD Vance also described as closely involved. Rubio said he believed progress was being made and that an agreement is achievable, adding that the coming hours and days would be telling. “There’s an agreement to be made. We want that to be made,” he said. “I think there’s been some progress and some interest, and we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made.”
But Rubio was careful to ensure that the diplomatic framing did not obscure the harder edge underneath it. Addressing Trump directly, he said: “I just want to remind everybody, Mr. President, you know this well, you have other options available to you if that doesn’t work.”
He did not detail what those other options are, but the broader context of the meeting left little doubt. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had moments earlier described Iran’s navy as sitting at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, its air force destroyed, its defense industrial base degraded, and a global blockade choking off its economic lifeline. Trump himself said that if Iran fails to deliver what the U.S. is demanding, “the man on my left is going to finish them off” — a reference to Hegseth seated beside him.
Rubio also highlighted a significant diplomatic achievement on the immigration front, announcing that 20 countries have now signed third-country national agreements with the United States — arrangements under which individuals who cannot be deported to their country of origin can instead be sent to a cooperating third country. He said these agreements have proven effective, as many individuals facing third-country deportation elect to return to their home countries instead.
On the Ebola outbreak currently concentrated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rubio said the administration has “surged assistance” to contain the crisis and is working aggressively across multiple agencies — including the CDC, HHS, and the State Department — to ensure no cases enter the United States. “We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States,” he said.
Rubio closed his remarks on a notably different note, describing a diplomatic stop he made the previous evening in Armenia to initial what he called the “Trump Route for Prosperity” — a key component of the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan that the Trump administration has claimed credit for brokering. He said the administration also signed a critical minerals memorandum of understanding and a strategic engagement agreement with Armenia during the same visit.
“Just a reminder of another war you helped to settle, Mr. President,” Rubio said.
But it was his Iran remarks that carried the most immediate weight. The secretary’s careful construction — emphasizing the preference for diplomacy while explicitly preserving the president’s military latitude — reflected the administration’s deliberate effort to keep maximum pressure on Tehran while leaving the door open to an agreement, however narrow that opening may be.
“Iran and these people in charge of Iran can never have a nuclear weapon and they will never have a nuclear weapon,” Rubio said, “and they most certainly will not have one as long as you’re President of the United States.”