How does a modern male politician stay in President Trump’s inner circle? By trading in dignity for some ill-fitting dress shoes, it seems.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, President Donald Trump has a penchant for doling out $145 Florsheim Oxfords to cabinet members and closest allies. (The president likes to pair his own with bespoke Brioni suits.) Apparently, at a meeting in December, Trump told Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance that they “have shitty shoes.” He then consulted a catalog, asked for their sizes—Rubio’s is 11.5, Vance’s is 13, as the latter will tell anyone casually—and allegedly remarked: “You can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.”
Confirming the story, Vance said that they’d each gone on to receive four pairs of shoes. But as several photographs have since shown, Rubio’s are at least two sizes too big for him.
One photo from January shows Rubio hugging Chuck Schumer. Leaning forward to begin their embrace, Rubio must be right up to the toebox, leaving a wedge of air at his heel. Another picture, from the World Economic Forum in Davos the same month, shows Rubio, again in his oversized Florsheims, flanked by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Callista Gingrich (the ladies in black ballet flats and low heels, respectively), as well as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (flaunting his own Florsheims) and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer (peculiarly, in a pair of Dr. Martens). When meeting the visiting Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun at The State Department in February, the gap at the back of Rubio’s heel seemed even more cavernous.
According to sources inside the White House, meetings will often devolve into discussions about footwear, with Trump guessing people’s shoe sizes out loud and his consiglieri even trying shoes on inside the Oval Office. As one female White House official has reported: “All the boys have them.”
“It’s hysterical because everybody’s afraid not to wear them,” said another.
Cabinet members including Howard Lutnick and Pete Hegseth are also among the Oxfords-obsessed, as are broadcasters Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, and the Republican senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump stays loyal to the silhouettes and brands he loves, from voluminous suit jackets with shoulders padded high by Brioni (which also supplied his wardrobe for The Apprentice) to ultra-long ties from Brioni and Hermès. For a short time, the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. even housed a Brioni boutique, before it quietly vacated the space in 2022.
In turn, the boys’ club that surrounds him—Trump’s being one of the least diverse administrations in decades—is suited and booted on the president’s terms. (As the Journal also reported, one official lamented having to swap out his Louis Vuitton shoes for the Florsheims.)
So what gives with Marco Rubio’s clown shoes? Is there some sartorial power play going on here? Is this revenge for Rubio’s infamous swipe about Trump’s “small hands” in 2016? Or did Rubio exaggerate his shoe size in the Oval Office? Anecdotally, there’s an issue on retail floors with men over-egging their sizing; they’d rather slip and slide than admit to that half-size down. (And all this, despite the fact that many studies have now shown there is no real correlation between a man’s shoe size and his penis length.)
Or did Rubio simply miscalculate his shoe size for this particular brand? “If you’re between two sizes, choose the larger one,” the Florsheim website warns. “Keep in mind, athletic shoes usually run half a size larger than dress or casual shoes—so if you’re a size 10 in athletic shoes, you’ll likely be a 9.5 in dress or casual shoes.”
Whatever the case, there is a real anxiety around size and stature within the Trump administration, and an ongoing issue with vanity and image over everything—looking to be the toughest, most powerful, and, apparently, most flipper-footed. For now, Marco Rubio et al are very, very good at playing goody two shoes.
