Trump names secretary of state

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Florida Senator Marco Rubio to serve as his secretary of state. Rubio, a China hawk, has long been considered a favorite for the position.

Trump announced his decision in a statement on Wednesday, describing Rubio as “a strong advocate for our nation, a true friend to our allies, and a fearless warrior who will never back down to our adversaries.” In a post on social media, Rubio said that he was “honored by the trust President Trump has placed in me,” and that he will “work every day to carry out his foreign policy agenda.”

Rubio and Trump clashed bitterly in the runup to the 2016 election, when the Florida senator unsuccessfully tried to win the Republican nomination for the presidency. While he has since become a loyal ally of Trump, his foreign policy views are typically more neoconservative than Trump’s “America First” brand of isolationism. 

Rubio supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Trump branded a “big, fat mistake.” He also backed US intervention in Libya, military aid to anti-government jihadists in Syria, and harsher sanctions on Iran. Back in 2018, Rubio refused to rule out support for US intervention in Venezuela.

While Rubio was an early proponent of military aid to Ukraine, he has since shifted his views on the conflict to align with Trump’s. He voted against a $95 billion foreign aid bill in April which included around $60 billion for Kiev, and declared last week that the conflict had reached a “stalemate” and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.”

In September, he said that while he was “not on Russia’s side,” the “reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement.”

Rubio and Trump both tout hardline policies toward China. Trump has threatened to expand tariffs on Chinese goods, while Rubio has called on the White House to ban all component sales to Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and pledge military support to Taiwan. China’s economic and military rise, he declared in 2022, is “without a doubt the singular geopolitical issue of the 21st century.”

Rubio is not the only Florida Republican nominated for a top position on Wednesday. Shortly after announcing that Rubio would serve as his top diplomat, Trump nominated Representative Matt Gaetz for the position of attorney general. Gaetz, a hardline conservative, has repeatedly accused current Attorney General Merrick Garland of “weaponizing” the justice system against Trump, and described the president-elect’s supporters jailed for participating in the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill as “political prisoners.”