Rubio Seeks Cease-Fire in Ukraine After Reaching His Own With Musk

Before he embarked on a round of high-stakes negotiations in Saudi Arabia and Canada this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged in some personal diplomacy aimed at shoring up his standing within the Trump administration.

Mr. Rubio flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks set to begin on Tuesday aimed at prodding Ukraine into a settlement with its invader, Russia. He plans to go from there to Canada for a meeting of top diplomats from the Group of 7 allied nations.

His foreign travel comes after Mr. Rubio asserted himself in a tense confrontation with Elon Musk during a White House cabinet meeting last week and then dined with Mr. Musk and President Trump on Saturday night.

The meal, at Mr. Trump’s Mar a Lago resort, amounted to a cease-fire between Mr. Trump’s chief diplomat and the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX mogul, one that extended into friendly social media exchanges between the men over the following days.

To a world scrutinizing Mr. Trump’s personality-driven administration for clues about who has the president’s confidence, and who does not, the events suggested that Mr. Rubio’s standing with Mr. Trump may be stronger than many foreign diplomats and U.S. officials had assumed.

It was a welcome change in narrative for Mr. Rubio, who has faced doubts about his standing from the start. Mr. Trump had ridiculed him as “Little Marco” when the men were 2016 presidential campaign opponents and then stocked his new administration with a slew of special diplomatic envoys whose assignments — the Middle East, Russia, Ukraine and the nebulous “special missions” — left some asking what remained for Mr. Rubio.