Photos of Secretary of State Marco Rubio wearing what appear to be comically oversized dress shoes are going viral.
As Rubio leaned over to say something to a man at the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday, a photographer caught an unfortunate angle on his Florsheim shoe.
The rumor, fueled by a recent report that President Donald Trump enjoys publicly guessing aides' shoe sizes before ordering them his preferred brand, has led commentators to joke that the ill-fitting shoes look less like a fashion choice and more like a loyalty test.
If the shoe doesn't fit, wear it anyway
Images of the ill-fitting footwear started spreading online in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Close-ups show the back of one shoe coming far off Rubio's heel in a way that you only tend to see on kids wearing big siblings' hand-me-downs.
The popular X user commonly known as "the menswear guy" had to weigh in, but only reposted the photos with a simple "hmm."
The people definitely had questions. Folks in high positions within the U.S. government typically spend a good deal of time and money making sure they look like big boys. Spending as little as $145—the price point of some Florsheims—on dress shoes is something an average person would do, not the American Secretary of State.
Some found answers in a Wall Street Journal report from Monday. According to anonymous White House insiders, Trump has made a habit of publicly guessing the shoe sizes of his cabinet members and then ordering the Florsheims on the spot.
At this point, all the big boys are wearing Trump's favorite brand, and allegedly not by choice.
"It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them," said one White House official.
Some think this may be more than a weird old man quirk. Former Trump appointee to the Department of Homeland Security Miles Taylor made comparisons to notorious dictators.
"This is such a classic dictator trope—forcing subordinates to copy your style—that I thought it couldn’t possibly be real," he wrote on X, "Think Mao Zedong and the 'Mao Suit,' or Saddam Hussein and 'The Mustache,' or Joseph Stalin and the 'Generalissimo' outfit."
"He’s testing the loyalty of his lieutenants by whether they’ll lace up in the same black shoes he wears."
"Literally unstable footing"
Humiliation rituals to test loyalties within dictatorships and high-control groups are common, and the humiliation is in full swing for Rubio. He's already got the boyish face and a reputation among the left for doing anything Trump tells him to do. This isn't helping.
The clown shoes jokes write themselves.
"Who buys shoes for other people? Mostly parents for their children," said BBC correspondent Euan MacDonald.
"Rubio even has such a lack of dignity and self respect before Trump that he’s willing to humiliate himself by shuffling around in shoes that are too big for him."
"Marco lets Daddy Trump pick out his shoes," wrote @ProjectLincoln.
"Humiliation ritual in which Trump puts his closest advisors on literally unstable footing," said @leahmcelrath.
"I bet those shoes sound more like $9 Old Navy summer sale flip flops as opposed to the Florsheim dress shoes they were intended to be," predicted @MsAnnaBaxter.
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