President-elect Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he was nominating Marco Rubio, the extremely hawkish senator from Florida, to be secretary of state in the incoming administration.
Trump’s statement came two days after The New York Times reported Rubio was expected to get the job. POLITICO reported that Rubio’s nomination and the appointment of Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) as Trump’s National Security Advisor relieved Ukraine supporters in the US who were worried the incoming administration would end the proxy war.
Rubio has been in the Senate since 2010 and has been about as hawkish as possible. In 2015, he was the preferred Republican presidential candidate of the neoconservatives, as he supported wreckless escalations overseas, such as the enforcement of a no-fly-zone over Syria, which risked war with Russia.
During the previous Trump administration, Rubio was very influential in policies in Latin America, including the failed US-backed coup against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in 2019. That year, Rubio tweeted a picture that showed former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi as he was being brutally killed, suggesting Maduro could face a similar fate.
More recently, Rubio has been an outspoken supporter of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and has called for the US to take a harder line on Iran. After Iran’s most recent missile attack on Israel, which came in response to a string of Israeli escalations, Rubio said, “I urge the reimposition of a maximum pressure campaign against Iran and fully support Israel’s right to respond disproportionately to stop this threat. The United States will continue to stand with Israel.”
Last year, Rubio introduced a bill in Congress to prevent any future president from leaving NATO, which President Biden signed into law.
Rubio has also built a reputation of being one of the most hardline China hawks in Congress. In 2020, China placed sanctions on Rubio in response to a series of US sanctions against officials in Hong Kong. The sanctions may bar Rubio from entering China and could complicate his role as the US’s top diplomat. In 2023, China appointed a defense minister who was under US sanctions, and the US refused to lift them.
