Behind the scenes goes public: Trump reads Marco Rubio’s note during oil executives’ meeting — what was written in it?

US President Donald Trump turned a routine White House press conference into an unscripted comedy beat on Friday when he read out a private handwritten note from Secretary of State Marco Rubio — live on television.

Seated between Vice President JD Vance and Rubio during a meeting with oil and gas executives, Trump casually announced he’d received a message, then proceeded to share it with the room, much to Rubio’s visible discomfort and Vance’s amusement.


"Marco just gave me a note," Trump told the executives before reading it aloud.

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

As Trump spoke, Vance laughed, while Rubio smiled in apparent discomfort.

"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 and told him, "Thank you, Marco."

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

Secretary of energy Chris Wright then took over and asked Mark Nelson of Chevron to share updates from the company. As Nelson spoke, Rubio took the note back, folded it and tucked it away, People reported.

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

Photographers captured the contents of the note, which said Trump needed to approve a social media statement about a tentative peace agreement between Israel and Hamas. Rubio signalled for Trump's attention before sharing the update, suggesting Trump had not written the post himself.

A photo captured by The Associated Press showed the message: “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.” Trump then told attendees he had good news.

“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 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. “Wedon’t want to take any chances. So we’re going to go and do that."