Trump Expected to Choose Marco Rubio as Next Secretary of State

2 days ago

BNN

(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Marco Rubio as secretary of state, a person familiar with the matter said, granting a top job in his second administration to a one-time rival who later became one of his most ardent supporters in the Senate.

Rubio campaigned extensively for Trump and was on the short list to be his running mate. Florida’s senior senator helped the campaign reach out to Latino communities, and spoke at a rally Pennsylvania on the final day of the campaign to introduce Trump in Spanish. The New York Times reported the news earlier Monday.

Rubio has taken an aggressive stance on China’s emergence as an economic power and has supported Israel’s war in Gaza and its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon, while also being a strong supporter of NATO. He served on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.

Rubio has defended Trump’s position to bring a swift end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for talks that could result in Kyiv giving up territory occupied by Russian forces.

“I’m not on Russia’s side — but unfortunately the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement,” Rubio said on NBC’s Meet the Press in September. “And I want, and we want, and, I believe Donald Trump wants, for Ukraine to have more leverage in that negotiation.”

Like others among Trump’s foreign-policy advisers, he has described China as the real threat. In a report released in September, he said the US must wake up to the seriousness of the challenge China presents.

“Communist China is the most powerful adversary the United States has faced in living memory,” he wrote in the opening line of the report.

The selection of the Florida senator comes as Trump’s foreign policy team is starting to take shape. Earlier Monday, Trump picked Florida Congressman Mike Waltz as his national security advisor, a person familiar with the matter said, elevating the former Army Green Beret and combat veteran who has advocated focusing US efforts on confronting China.

The State Department, where political appointees lead thousands of career foreign- and civil-service members, will be core to Trump projecting his “peace through strength” mantra.

Trump’s first administration included two secretaries of State: Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive who ruffled feathers with his effort to streamline the bureaucracy, was fired in March 2018. His successor, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, promised to restore “swagger” to the department.

Morale suffered among career diplomats throughout the first term, with a wave of departures and the office of the inspector general examining allegations of political retaliation and misuse of government resources.

Trump also pulled Washington back from many international agreements hammered out by his predecessors, including the Paris climate agreement, a nuclear weapons treaty with Russia, the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and the Asia-focused Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The Trump administration also pushed NATO allies to spend more on defense, arguing that the US was shouldering too much of the burden of protecting Europe.

On the campaign trail, the president-elect pledged to “shatter the deep state,” in part by reviving his 2020 executive order that removed civil-service employment protections. Trump also has promised mass firings at various federal departments and agencies, with particular focus on the national-security apparatus.

Rubio’s nomination as top US diplomat would cap off his evolving relationship with Trump. The two faced off in the 2016 Republican primary for president, and Trump mocked Rubio on the debate stage by nicknaming him “Little Marco.” Rubio responded by pointing out the size of his opponent’s hands.

Rubio responded by calling Trump “the most vulgar” person to ever aspire to be president. Yet once Trump entered the White House, he worked hard to repair the relationship.

He has also known Trump’s incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles for years, both having been ensconced in Republican politics in Florida.

Rubio, who has served in the Senate since 2011, is expected to receive a quick and easy confirmation from the chamber. That would create a vacancy, allowing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to appoint someone to fill the empty seat.

(Updates throughout. A previous version of this article corrected Rubio’s response to Trump insult, in ninth paragraph.)