Secretary of State Marco Rubio's approval rating ticked up in a late December Daily Mail poll, making him President Donald Trump's most popular Cabinet member. 

Overall, the former Florida senator had a net rating of +6, with 39 percent saying the approve of the job Rubio is doing compared to 33 percent who disapprove. 

The Daily Mail poll, conducted by J.L. Partners, found that Attorney General Pam Bondi was the least popular Cabinet member, but even her numbers were barely underwater, coming in at a net negative-one rating.

Rubio's net approval number was the highest it's been all year, as he previously only got up to a plus-3 in late April. 

In the run-up to the poll being conducted on December 20 and 21, Rubio was quoted as saying he'd get out of Vice President JD Vance's way if the VP decided to run for the White House in 2028, decreasing the chances of a high-profile MAGA showdown.

'If JD Vance runs for president, he's going to be our nominee,' Rubio told Vanity Fair. 'And I'll be one of the first people to support him.'  

Trump hasn't officially backed Vance for the 2028 Republican nomination, though he has floated Vance and Rubio being a dynamic duo. 

After polling had concluded, Rubio was portrayed as the more experienced hand in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, with NBC News reporting on December 22 that there had been some clashes between Rubio and Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right) has become President Donald Trump's (left) most popular Cabinet member, including to the Daily Mail's late December poll 

The report also details some security lapses on Witkoff's end, as the special envoy has been flying around to negotiate peace deals on Trump's behalf using his personal plane. 

The State Department's official line was that the two men had a 'close working relationship' and were 'personal friends,' but sources told the network that Witkoff had done things like schedule a meeting with the president of France without initially inviting Rubio. 

It's an almost unheard-of scenario that a businessman with no foreign policy experience would get a one-on-one meeting with a head of state over the U.S.'s top diplomat. 

In the end, Rubio was included in the meeting and the State Department's spokesperson told NBC that 'any insinuation that Special Envoy Witkoff was blocking the Secretary of attending a meeting in Paris is absurd.'