President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly planning to select Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) as secretary of state, which would make the Cuban-American senator the country’s top diplomat. He will be the first Latino to hold the office.
Rubio’s expected appointment was first reported by The New York Times on Monday.
The paper noted that Trump, 78, could still change his mind about his nomination to head the State Department, but that he “seems to have settled” on Rubio.
“Nothing has been confirmed,” a person familiar with the situation told the Post.
Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, has represented Florida in the U.S. Senate since 2011. He is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He was reportedly one of President Trump’s finalists for vice presidential nomination until the president-elect nominated Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) at the start of the Republican National Convention in July. It has been reported.
The 53-year-old Florida Republican has long warned about the threats posed to the country by foreign adversaries, including China and Iran.
A month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Rubio warned that the People’s Republic of China was an “even more powerful enemy” than Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, urging the country to “give us a single geopolitical challenge.” He urged them not to “concentrate their full attention.”
Rubio, like Congressman Mike Walz (R-Fla.), whom President Trump nominated as national security adviser, said the United States needs to “revitalize its industrial capabilities” to “win” against the Chinese Communist Party. It is claimed that there is.
He also said that China’s flooding of the market with high-tech products such as electric cars is “no coincidence” and is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “plan to dominate global trade in critical industrial inputs and big-ticket goods.” warned that.
“This threatens countless non-Chinese businesses and the working families who depend on them around the world…and threatens America’s national security,” Rubio wrote in a Post op-ed in September. .
Regarding Iran, Rubio called for reimposing a “maximum pressure campaign” against the Iranian regime following the Oct. 1 missile attack on Israel.
“Iran’s brutal missile attack on Israeli civilians confirms what we have always known: The terrorist Iranian regime is committed to creating death, chaos, and ultimately the complete destruction of Israel,” he said at the time. “They are trying to control the Middle East through this.” “This regime can no longer be appeased.”
After running against President Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Rubio made several stops on the 2024 campaign trail and signaled support for the president-elect’s plan to pursue peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“I’m not on Russia’s side, but unfortunately the reality is that we need a negotiated solution to end the war in Ukraine,” the senator said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last month. he said. “And I want, and I believe we want, and Donald Trump wants, for Ukraine to have more leverage in those negotiations.”
Rick Grenell, a former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence during President Trump’s first term, was also in discussion for the secretary of state post.
The newspaper has reached out to Rubio’s office and Trump’s transition team for comment.
