The New York Times, however, reported on a detail from one of those meetings that stood out. From the article:

Mr. Rubio began his travels on Wednesday by meeting with the Emirati leader, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, in Abu Dhabi. The two spoke about Iran and commerce between the United States and the Emirates, the State Department said in a summary. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Michael Boulos, a businessman with no official government position, sat beside Mr. Rubio at the meeting.

“He was just there to see me and catch up,” Mr. Rubio said. When asked whether Mr. Boulos was involved in policy discussions, the secretary said, “No, no.”

The secretary apparently wasn’t embarrassed by any of this: Rubio posted a photograph via social media showing him meeting with the United Arab Emirate’s president, with Donald Trump’s son-in-law seated just to Rubio’s right.

Link to tweet

.....Boulos, who’s married to Tiffany Trump, gained public attention last summer when the Times reported on the businessman and his family benefiting financially from his proximity to the Trump family. Though Boulos denied ever having done anything wrong, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee soon after launched an investigation into him. (Boulos holds no official role in the U.S. government, though he is a trustee of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation.)

Ten months later, Rubio apparently thought it would be a good idea to bring Boulos along to a meeting with the president of the UAE, seating him directly next to the secretary of state.

Marco Rubio on why Trump's son in law, Michael Boulos, who has no government role, was in his official meetings in Kuwait: "He was just here because his brother lives here and I'm a good friend of Michael's, so we had a chance to catch up"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-06-25T12:21:44.828Z

Asked about Boulos’ role, Rubio specifically told reporters, “He was just here because his brother lives here, and I’m a good friend of Michael’s, so we had a chance to catch up.”

That might sound benign, but the circumstances were, at a minimum, curious. No one would have blinked an eye about the secretary catching up with a good friend during an overseas trip, but Rubio didn’t just hang out with an old pal. He brought a private businessman and Trump relative to a foreign meeting while seated across from the president of a Middle Eastern country.