Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both joined President Trump’s Cabinet promising to restore “integrity” to their offices. Nearly four months in, however, both prominent Floridians are neck deep in administration controversies.

Though in a role seen as independent, Bondi says she works “at the directive of Donald Trump” and has proved her loyalty by threatening judges who rule against him and approving the gift of a luxury jet for Trump’s use from the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar — a country she once lobbied for as a Tallahassee consultant.

Rubio, meanwhile, has claimed the power to detain and deport students and travelers based on their social media posts and has echoed Trump’s rhetoric against allies such as Canada.

“I don’t think anybody should be surprised by anything that these two have done, or anybody in the Cabinet has done,” said Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.

“They are not making decisions on their own,” Jarvis said. “If they demonstrate any kind of independent thinking, they’ll be gone very quickly.”

But Evan Power, chair of the state’s Republican Party, said both have been successes in Washington, D.C. “Florida Leads the Way!” he said via text.

“Secretary Rubio has done an exceptional job as Secretary of State putting together great deals and peace efforts,” Power texted. “Pam Bondi has also delivered holding people accountable for supporting illegal immigration.”

Bondi was a prosecutor in Hillsborough County before she was twice elected Florida’s attorney general in 2010 and 2014. In 2013, she declined to join a multistate fraud suit against Trump University shortly after the Trump Foundation contributed $25,000 to her associated political committee.

She later served as a special adviser to Trump during his first impeachment and backed Trump’s efforts to challenge his 2020 election loss. At her contentious confirmation hearing in January, she refused to acknowledge that former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in 2020.

But she did slam what she called a “weaponized” Justice Department under Biden, which she said “has to stop.”

Following her confirmation along nearly partisan lines, she has repeatedly backed Trump on every controversial and constitutionally questionable act, including freezing and cutting off congressionally approved funding.

In a Cabinet meeting last month, she told Trump he was “overwhelmingly elected by the biggest majority,” despite his popular vote margin being the narrowest in 56 years, and said he has the sole authority “to determine how the money of this country will be spent.”

It’s in her numerous appearances on Fox News — three dozen as of Monday, according to the New York Times — that she has been most vociferous in threatening those she perceived to be Trump’s enemies.

She told Fox the judge who ruled to stop sending Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador “has no right to ask those questions.” She added the administration would “absolutely” keep the flights going despite the order.

In a Fox appearance in April, she said the judiciary was “deranged” and defended the arrest of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan on charges she interfered with immigration enforcement. “We are sending a very strong message today,” Bondi said. “”We will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you.”

One point of contention during her Senate hearing was her work with Tallahassee firm Ballard Partners, which received a six-figure monthly fee to lobby for the government of Qatar in advance of the 2022 World Cup. Bondi was registered through the firm to represent the Arab nation, which she defended as “anti-human trafficking” work.

Her ties to Qatar became a major issue this week amid reports she signed off on the royal family gifting the U.S. government a $400 million airliner for Trump’s use as Air Force One during his presidency and later for his presidential library and personal use.

ABC News reported Bondi wrote in a memo that the gift, which some analysts have argued is prohibited by the Constitution’s Emolument Clause banning “any present … from any King,” was not a bribe and was “legally permissible.”

Bondi “has been a Trump stooge since she was Florida attorney general,” said Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican consultant in Tallahassee who became a registered Democrat in opposition to Trump. “She’s no surprise at all. She is a Trump-Kool Aid drinker, and she’s made a lot of money doing it.”

It was Rubio, he added, who was the most disappointing of Trump’s Cabinet members. The Miami native served as state House speaker before representing Florida in the U.S. Senate for 14 years.

“He had such good potential,” Stipanovich said. “He’s a bright man, he’s a capable man. There was a time at which he appeared to have principles. But he, like so many others, has succumbed to the gravitational pull of Donald Trump.”

Rubio was seen as a well-qualified appointment amid more ideological, and less-traditional, Cabinet picks such as Pete Hegseth at Defense and Sean Duffy at Transportation.

But, Jarvis said, “he only looked good in comparison.”

After being unanimously confirmed — the only Trump pick to get every Democratic vote in the Senate — Rubio almost immediately was put in charge of the dismantling of the USAID foreign aid agency, which he once called “critical to our national security.” He also echoed Trump’s rhetoric about Canada becoming the “51st state” while on a trip to Canada.

Rubio has been at the forefront of the controversial detentions of students.

In the case of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was detained for weeks before a judge ordered her temporary release, the administration never offered any evidence beyond a single op-ed she wrote in a student newspaper.

Rubio said he would be “revoking the visas and/or green cards” of hundreds of other international students he determines to be “Hamas supporters in America” based on their social media or protest history.

Rubio was also the key player in the agreements with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele to send Venezuelan migrants to the country’s jails for alleged gang membership, often without due process.

He told a journalist last month he would “never tell” if he had gotten in touch with El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia, a migrant the government admitted was wrongly swept up in a raid of alleged gang members. “And you know who else I’d never tell?” Rubio asked. “A judge.”

Rubio, however, has received wider-ranging credit for working to negotiate a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, and for easing some tensions with his European counterparts over negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine.

As to why Rubio has become such a Trump loyalist, Stipanovich said he thinks it is to prepare for a future run for president.

“I’m not sure that there’s a single principle held by any member of the Trump Cabinet,” he said. “If there is, I don’t know what it is. And it’s certainly not held by Pam Bondi or Marco Rubio.”

_____

©2025 Orlando Sentinel. Visit orlandosentinel.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.