Nicolai Haugsted
Marco Rubio joked keto could make him want to bomb a country – critics aren’t laughing.
Marco Rubio has drawn criticism over an offhand remark about American military action after a conversation about his experience with dieting veered into foreign policy.
The U.S. secretary of state made the comments during an appearance on Katie Miller’s podcast, where he recalled trying the keto diet several years ago. Rubio described the initial withdrawal from carbohydrates and sugar as so unpleasant that he jokingly compared his mood at the time with ordering an attack on another country.
A clip from the conversation subsequently circulated widely on social media, where critics questioned whether joking about bombing a foreign nation was appropriate for America’s top diplomat.
Keto experience prompted unusual comparison
Rubio told Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, that he experimented with the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet roughly four or five years ago.
“I did at one time, maybe four or five years ago, I tried this thing called keto, you’ve heard of this keto, and you just eat all this protein, and so you go through this massive withdrawal from sugar and carbohydrates for the first 72 hours. It was a near psychotic event for me,” Rubio said.
Laughter followed before the secretary of state imagined how that experience might translate to his current position in the Trump administration.
“It’s true. Like if I did this in this job, I would be, Mr. President, we must bomb, you know, you know, Paraguay, and it’s like, ‘Why?’ ‘I don’t know. I’m just really mad. I haven’t had any sugar,’” Rubio said.
Paraguay appeared to serve simply as the country chosen for Rubio’s hypothetical example. Nothing in the interview suggested that he was discussing an actual U.S. military proposal involving the South American nation.
Clip triggers criticism
Rubio continued by making clear that his story was not intended as an argument against the keto diet.
“So, the point is that you can’t. It really is not as… I’m not against this diet. I’m not asking that we ban it. I encourage people to try it. I’m just saying it’s not for everyone. That’s what I’m saying,” he said.
Social-media reaction instead concentrated heavily on the bombing reference.
“Very funny joking about bombing another Country because he didn’t have enough sugar. Wow,” one user wrote.
Another critic responded: “Oh cool so USA just bombs people when their blood sugar is low? You fuckers are absolutely sick.”
Others focused on Rubio’s decision to use Paraguay specifically. “I enjoy that he paused long enough to consider which country he could make that joke about without it being an incident,” another user wrote.
