White House Gave Rubio a Meme-Worthy Birthday Gift

Marco Rubio's now-infamous "Rubio realizing" face has been given the presidential treatment. For the secretary of state's 55th birthday in May, the White House gave him a gold-framed collage made up of 68 versions of the viral meme that's turned Rubio into everything from an ayatollah to a cardinal, and Axios got a peek Wednesday. At the center: the original Oval Office photo, taken during President Trump's contentious meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, signed by Trump in gold ink with the note, "You are great."

The panels riff on Rubio's stacked real-life résumé—secretary of state, acting national security adviser, and more—by imagining him as Robocop, an astronaut, Greenland's leader, and even a meme-weary official holding a "Please stop making memes about me" sign. Rubio has admitted he initially "hated that picture" but now calls the running joke "funny." "Dan Scavino made a nice board for me," Rubio said, per Fox News. "And even since he made that board, we had to update it."