US Secretary of State Marco Rubio updated one of his social media profile pictures on Wednesday to one from a magazine article that has stirred controversy in the US, while Vice President JD Vance tried to make light of the photo.
Rubio announced via his personal account on US social media company X that he had changed his profile photo to one from the Vanity Fair piece, whose inside look at the Trump administration attracted both attention and attacks.
In the shot, Rubio is seen slightly hunched, turned to the side, and looking downward, as if dejected or discouraged.
During the Vanity Fair shoot, Vance reportedly told the photographer: "I'll give you $100 for every person you make look really s***ty compared to me. And $1,000 if it's Marco."
Commenting on Rubio's post, Vance later wrote: "I guess I owe that guy $1,000."
VANITY FAIR PIECE SEEN AS UNFLATTERING TO TRUMP TEAM
The Vanity Fair piece drew on a series of interviews with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with Democrats and many commentators saying it painted the president and his team in an unflattering light.
In the interview, Wiles described President Donald Trump-a famous non-drinker-as showing an "alcoholic personality," adding that he "governs with the mindset that "there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing."
Wiles also said that Vance has been "a conspiracy theorist for a decade"-an assertion that the vice president did not dispute, though he added: "But I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true."
Shortly after the article was published, Wiles blasted it as a "disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history."
"Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story," she wrote on X, saying this was done to "paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team."
Wiles did not, however, point to any factual inaccuracies in the piece.
