--- title: Marco Rubio Attacks Donald Trump By Name at Rally description: The Florida senator finally turns up the heat on the frontrunner canonical: https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-25T12:30:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:22:27.121Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marco Rubio Attacks Donald Trump By Name at Rally og:description: The Florida senator finally turns up the heat on the frontrunner og:url: https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffbdbf9bbb76e5f/69887f1df887dcb484e94c84/marco-rubio-donald-trump-showdown.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Marco Rubio Holds Pre-Debate Rally In Houston og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marco Rubio Attacks Donald Trump By Name at Rally twitter:description: The Florida senator finally turns up the heat on the frontrunner twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffbdbf9bbb76e5f/69887f1df887dcb484e94c84/marco-rubio-donald-trump-showdown.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Marco Rubio Finally Attacks Trump By Name by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 25, 2016 12:30 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio speaks during a campaign rally at the Marriott South at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, Feb. 24, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio speaks during a campaign rally at the Marriott South at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, Feb. 24, 2016.Joe Raedle—Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 25, 2016 12:30 PM UTC In an abrupt [about-face in strategy](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/shift-marco-rubio-attacks-donald-trump-name-ahead-debate-n525341), Marco Rubio on Wednesday night attacked Donald Trump on policy by name from the stump, [drawing the battle lines](http://time.com/4230958/marco-rubio-donald-trump/) for a certain showdown with the GOP front-runner on the eve of Thursday’s debate. At an energetic rally in Houston, Rubio targeted Trump on Obamacare and Israel, charging Trump “thinks parts of Obamacare are pretty good” and that he’s refused to come to Israel’s defense. “The front-runner in this race, Donald Trump, has said he’s not going to take sides on Israel versus the Palestinians because he wants to be an honest broker,” Rubio said… [Read more from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/shift-marco-rubio-attacks-donald-trump-name-ahead-debate-n525341) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/"},"headline":"Marco Rubio Finally Attacks Trump By Name","datePublished":"2016-02-25T12:30:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:22:27.121Z","description":"The Florida senator finally turns up the heat on the frontrunner","url":"https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/","keywords":["Sen. Marco Rubio"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffbdbf9bbb76e5f/69887f1df887dcb484e94c84/marco-rubio-donald-trump-showdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ffbdbf9bbb76e5f/69887f1df887dcb484e94c84/marco-rubio-donald-trump-showdown.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Marco Rubio Holds Pre-Debate Rally In Houston","caption":"Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio speaks during a campaign rally at the Marriott South at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas, Feb. 24, 2016.","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4237038/marco-rubio-donald-trump-attack/","name":"Marco Rubio Finally Attacks Trump By Name"}}]}] ```