US President Donald Trump, during his inaugural address to a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday (March 4) took a friendly jibe at his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, joking, "Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong".

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Trump praises Marco Rubio

Taking a moment out to praise Rubio during his nearly two hour long speech, Trump said, "Marco's been amazing, and he’s going to do a great job".

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"Think of it, he got 100 votes. You know he was approved with actually 99, but the 100th was this gentleman, and I feel very certain, so let’s assume he got a hundred votes, and I’m either very happy about it or very concerned about it," he added referring to the unanimous vote in the Senate to confirm the then-senator as Secretary of State.

"He's a great gentleman. He's respected by everybody, and we appreciate you voting for Marco. He's going to do a fantastic job," said Trump.

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Earlier, wishing him luck, Trump said, "We have Marco Rubio in charge. Good luck Marco. Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong."

Was Trump placating Rubio?

Trump's praise for Rubio comes after the US Secretary of State was reportedly miffed about his lack of foreign policy influence in the Trump 2.0 administration.

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According to a Vanity Fair report citing four Republicans close to Rubio, the US Secretary of State was caught off guard when Trump chose nine foreign policy envoys. As per the report, Rubio also disagreed with Trump's decision to revoke former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's government security detail.

And one never knows, Trump's mention of being 'very concerned' could be that, since Rubio has such bipartisan support, he could switch parties in future.

(With inputs from agencies)