Marco Rubio Slides Private Note to Donald Trump During Televised Press Conference. Trump Looks Down and Reads It Aloud

Marco Rubio Slides Private Note to Donald Trump During Televised Press Conference. Trump Looks Down and Reads It Aloud

"What are you saying here, Marco?" the president asked the bashful secretary of state after reading his letter in front of reporters

Greta Bjornson

Fri, January 9, 2026 at 11:04 PM UTC

3 min read

SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty President Donald Trump (L) receives a note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Jan. 9, 2026 press conference — SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty
President Donald Trump (L) receives a note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Jan. 9, 2026 press conference

NEED TO KNOW

President Donald Trump read aloud a private note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a Jan. 9 press conference at the White House
Trump, who was meeting with oil and gas executives, read Rubio's instruction to "go back to Chevron" in front of the whole room
However, the president didn't seem to fully comprehend Rubio's instruction

President Donald Trump appeared to embarrass Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a press conference when he read aloud a private note from him on live television.

Trump, 79, was taking part in a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House on Friday, Jan. 9, when the incident occurred.

The president was seated between Vice President JD Vance and Rubio, 54, during the press conference. After Trump called on Ryan Lance of ConocoPhillips to speak, Rubio could be seen passing a handwritten note to Trump while Vance, 41, seemed to look on with confusion.

"Marco just gave me a note," Trump told the room of executives. Rubio capped his pen and glanced down, but as the president began reading the note aloud, he immediately looked at him.

"Go back to Chevron," Trump read from Rubio's note. "They want to discuss something. Go back to Chevron."

As he spoke, Vance was clearly amused, laughing on one side of the president as Rubio smiled in apparent discomfort on the other.

"Go ahead, I'm going back to Chevron," Trump said as he placed the note back down on the table.

He then patted Rubio on the back as he told him, "Thank you, Marco."

"Was there a question, Mr. President?" a voice off camera could be heard asking Trump, who then picked up the paper again as he said, "Yes, go ahead," before asking, "Marco, what was the, what are you saying here?"

Secretary of energy Chris Wright then took over, asking Mark Nelson of Chevron to share updates from the company. As Nelson spoke, Rubio took the note back and folded it up before tucking it away.

SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty  President Donald Trump pats Secretary of State Marco on the back after reading aloud a private note from Rubio during a Jan. 9, 2026 press conference — SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty
President Donald Trump pats Secretary of State Marco on the back after reading aloud a private note from Rubio during a Jan. 9, 2026 press conference

Rubio also made headlines in the fall for another note written to Trump, which he gave the president during an Oct. 8, 2025 meeting with conservative influencers and the press.

The contents of the note, which were captured by photographers in the room, told Trump he needed to approve a statement on social media about a tentative peace agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Rubio signaled for Trump's attention during the meeting before sharing the private update with the president concerning the need for him to "approve" a social media post, suggesting Trump hadn't written the post himself.

A photo captured by The Associated Press revealed the message, which read: “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.” Trump quickly told meeting attendees that he had good news.

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“I was just given a note by the secretary of state saying that we’re very close to a deal on the Middle East, and they’re gonna need me pretty quickly,” he said. “So we’ll take a couple of more questions.”

AP reported at the time that Trump continued the meeting for 10 more minutes before telling the group he had to "try and solve some problems in the Middle East."

"Although I’m very well represented by our secretary of state. He could probably do an even better job than me, but who knows,” he continued. “We don’t want to take any chances. So we’re going to go and do that."

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