Trump taps Cuban-American Marco Rubio to lead US State Department | Donald Trump News
Ending days of speculation, United States President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio to lead the State Department under the incoming administration.
The choice of his former political rival had been rumored for days and reflected the new administration’s commitment to a hawkish foreign policy.
A Cuban American known for his strong views on China and strong support for Israel, Rubio will be the first Hispanic American to become Washington’s top diplomat if confirmed in this role.
“Marco is a highly respected leader, and the most powerful voice for Freedom,” Trump wrote in a statement announcing his choice Wednesday. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our allies, and a brave Warrior who will never back down from our enemies.”
In a post on X, Rubio said he was honored by “the trust that President Trump has placed in me”.
“Under President Trump’s leadership we will bring peace through force and always put the interests of the American people and America above all else,” he added.
Leading the US State Department is a huge responsibility and I am honored by the trust that President Trump has placed in me. As Secretary of State, I will work every day to implement his foreign policy agenda. Under the leadership of President Trump we will bring peace…
– Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 13, 2024
Trump also tapped former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to serve as director of national intelligence, a powerful position that sits over the nation’s intelligence agencies and serves as the president’s top intelligence adviser.
“I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her great work to our intelligence community, fighting for our constitutional rights and ensuring peace through force,” Trump said in a statement.
Gabbard is a veteran who served more than two decades in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. But he lacks the intelligence experience typical of former bureaucrats. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 on a progressive platform and his opposition to US involvement in foreign military conflicts.
After leaving the Democratic Party, he focused on criticizing President Joe Biden and his administration and became very popular among conservatives, often appearing on TV and radio programs, where he was known to support isolationist policies and express his distaste for “resurrection”.
From ‘Little Marco’ to the Secretary of State
Since being elected to the Senate in 2010, Rubio has built a reputation for having hawkish views on America’s enemies such as China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. He also supported Israel’s war on Gaza, telling a peace activist last year that Hamas “should be 100 percent to blame” for the deaths of Palestinians in the area.
“I want them to destroy everything Hamas can find,” Rubio said during a confrontation with Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin in December.
“These people are vicious animals who have committed heinous crimes, and I hope you post that because that’s my position.”
Rubio currently serves on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Relations Committee.
His relationship with Trump has changed significantly since the two first faced each other in the 2016 presidential election, with Rubio appearing to have changed his views on issues such as the war in Ukraine and Trump’s immigration policies.
In 2016, Trump made fun of Rubio’s body, calling him “little Marco”. For his part, Rubio mocked his rival, calling him “Little Hands Trump”.
Compared to his soon-to-be boss, Rubio is a traditional interventionist when it comes to foreign policy, advocating a more muscular approach to foreign conflicts while Trump’s foreign policy focuses on avoiding military intervention in other countries.
This has, at times, prompted Rubio to publicly criticize Trump’s foreign policy, including in 2019 when he accused the then-president of “abandoning” the US military effort in Syria before it was “totally finished”.
Rubio leads a group of like-minded Cuban Americans in Congress who want to advance US foreign policy in Latin America in a progressive manner.
“The dictators of Havana, Caracas and Managua will not sleep today,” wrote one Cuban American Republican from Miami, Representative Carlos Gimenez, in the post X. “Their days are numbered. Their time is up.”
About Trump
However, in recent years, experts say, Rubio has softened his stance to align with Trump.
“Rubio is a flexible and effective politician who is committed to the rise of President Trump,” Paul Musgrave, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.
In the first months after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, for example, Rubio took to social media to passionately promote support for Ukraine to the American people. He called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “murderer” and questioned his mental health – a significant departure from Trump’s sometimes contemptuous approach to the Russian leader.
In recent debates, Rubio has suggested that Ukraine needs a “negotiation agreement” with Russia, and he was one of 15 Republican members to vote against the military aid package for Ukraine that passed in April.
But some Trump loyalists view Rubio with suspicion.
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi reported that there was “commotion” among some of the president-elect’s staunchest supporters of Rubio’s nomination.
“He seems very suspicious of the Trump base, but at the same time, he likes Donald Trump,” Rattansi said.
