President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, reports late Monday indicate.
According to The Wall Street Journal, while the nomination isn’t final and Trump “remains fond of others lobbying for the secretary of state role,” sources close to the decision-making process say “Trump feels good about going with him.”
Rubio was widely reported to be second choice for Trump’s running mate behind J.D. Vance.
He also ran against Trump for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination; he dropped out after a poor showing in several mid-March primaries, including losing big to Trump in his home state.
If the Florida senator is tapped for the position, the nomination could spark the first controversy in the nascent Trump 47 administration.
As the Journal noted, with Rubio at the helm of the State Department, it would mark “a more establishment figure into the highest echelons of the Trump administration.”
“A hawk on China, Iran and Cuba, Rubio joined most of Washington in supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion,” the Journal noted. “But in recent months he started changing his message, advocating for the conflict to end as soon as possible, last week stating the U.S. was ‘funding a stalemate war’ and that it would take ‘100 years’ to rebuild Ukraine.”
Rubio is also a strong supporter of Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, going viral for this clip in which he declared he wanted “them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on” and calling the terrorist group “vicious animals.”
Marco Rubio as the next Secretary of State.
“I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals who did vicious crimes. And I hope you guys post that.” pic.twitter.com/7AtcMwBHmn
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) November 12, 2024
Would you like to see Marco Rubio as Secretary of State?
Yes: 83% (5 Votes)
No: 17% (1 Votes)
Rubio is also a staunch opponent of what he’s characterized as China’s predatory export policies.
He is especially concerned with regards to high-tech goods and electric vehicles.
Rubio’s also called the Chinese Communist Party’s trade policies “far from accidental” and a “plan to dominate global trade in vital industrial inputs and high-value goods.”
“This threatens countless non-Chinese companies — and the working families who rely on them — in countries across the world … It also threatens the national security of the United States,” he wrote in an Op-Ed for the New York Post in September.
He maintains that the United States must “revitalize our industrial capacity” if Washington is to “prevail” against Beijing.
If nominated and confirmed, Rubio would be the first Latino secretary of state.
His seat in the Senate would be filled by appointment from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis until the next general election.
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