Washington:
The New York Times reported Monday night that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state. The newspaper cited three people familiar with the matter and said that while the decision was not final, it appears that President Trump has settled on Mr. Rubio, a supporter who passed on him as his running mate.
Rubio, along with Rick Grenell, the acerbic former ambassador to Germany, has been consistently named as one of the top candidates to lead U.S. diplomacy over the past week.
“I’ve always been interested in serving this country,” Rubio said last week when asked if he was destined for a cabinet job.
If a hawkish lawmaker of Cuban descent is nominated, it would be a surprising turnaround in relations with Trump.
During his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Mr. Rubio called Mr. Trump a “fraud” and “the most sleazy person who ever ran for president.”
Born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, he graduated from the University of Florida in 1993 with a degree in political science.
He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, backed by the Tea Party, a far-right wing of the Republican Party that rallied after the election of President Barack Obama.
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