Trump Shows How Controlling He Can Be With His Inner Circle as Rubio and Vance Play Along — One Kick Proves They’ll Do Whatever
Donald Trump has a habit of delivering barbed “jokes” straight to the faces of aides and cabinet members — comments that land less like humor and more like thinly veiled insults.
The president often appears alongside Trump, 79, Vice President JD Vance, 41, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, 54, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for briefings in the Oval Office, where Trump has shown time and time again that he’s willing to lob sharp “jokes” straight at aides, even with reporters in the room or cameras rolling.
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He joined several reporters from The New York Times who clocked the background activity immediately, with the side interactions drawing as much attention as the interview itself.
“Rubio and Vance said they each received four pairs of shoes from the president,” Tyler Pager wrote, adding that the former U.S. senators each received a pair of tuxedos as gifts from Trump.
“At one point, the pair showed off their shoes, which they said were purchased by the president. Vance lifted his leg in the air to show the president the pair he was wearing,” Katie Rogers recalled.
Rogers, who serves as the paper’s White House correspondent, also claimed the president referred to some of his subordinates, including Vance and Rubio, as “kids.”
The revelation about Trump’s administration and their behind-the-scenes dynamics ignited mockery online, as critics of the former “The Apprentice” reality television show star clowned him.
“I’m guessing he told them their previous shoes looked cheap or some crap. Kids do be outgrowing their shoes, though,” one person on X joked in reaction to the news of Trump purchasing footwear for Rubio and Vance.
A second person asked, “Did they try them on [at] the shop and run to test them like little kids?” A more sarcastic tongue-in-cheek reply read, “You should have seen it. They were jumping to see if the new shoes made them jump higher and run faster. It was cute.”
Some people even made reference to the longstanding, unproven rumor that Vance alters his shoes to make himself appear taller in public.
“Lol, do those shoes have lifts too?” asked one online jokester. Another poster wondered, “Is this not odd, creepy and disturbing?”
Even before the internet began ridiculing Vance for changing his footwear at the demands of his ego-driven boss, the VP actually admitted that Trump bad-mouthed his shoes.
‘A week or so ago, I walked into the Oval Office, and Marco and I were sitting there talking with the president about something, and he said, ‘Stop!’ He looked at our shoes and says, ‘You guys have terrible shoes,’” Vance stated during a December 2025 speech in Pennsylvania.
He continued, “So he goes and gets the shoe catalog, and remember it’s the Christmas season, so the president’s got some holiday cheer. He gets his favorite shoes and orders like four pairs of shoes for me and four pairs of shoes for Marco.”
As far as Trump referring to his confidants as kids, it is unclear whether that was the actions of a nearly 79-year-old grandfather’s typical behavior with younger associates or, more malignly, a manifestation of Trump’s narcissistic tendencies to see himself as a patriarch.
Certain sectors of the MAGA movement have embraced viewing Trump as a father stand-in, which his team has played into with imagery showing the commander in chief as a surrogate guardian.
After Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Canadian recording artist and American comedian Roseanne Barr collaborated to create a rap song called “Daddy’s Home” dedicated to the Republican politician.
Another similarly titled track was used by the White House in June 2025 when a now-deleted video of Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague was soundtracked by Usher’s “Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home)” single despite the R&B singer endorsing Kamala Harris in 2024.
In December 2025, the official White House Instagram account shared an animated version of Trump giving his signature thumbs up while wearing a Santa Claus hat. The holiday-themed illustration was highlighted by the words “DADDY’S HOME!” written over the picture, once again reinforcing the authority figure branding.
