Trump chose Marco Rubio for the post of the US Secretary of State

Author:
Oleksandra Opanasenko
Date:

The US President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.

Trump himself declared this.

Trump said Marco Rubio is a "highly respected leader and a very powerful voice for freedom," so he will be "a true friend to our allies and a fearless warrior who will never back down from our enemies."

Rubioʼs position on Ukraine

In recent interviews, Rubio said that Ukraine needs to sit down at the negotiating table with the Russian Federation, and not focus on the return of all Ukrainian territories occupied by it.

"Iʼm not on the side of Russia, but unfortunately the reality is that the war in Ukraine will end through negotiations," Rubio told NBC in September of this year.

At the end of 2023, the House of Representatives, where the Republicans had a majority, blocked a package of military aid to Ukraine. Rubio was one of 15 Republican senators who voted against military aid. The decision was made only in April 2024 — such a delay had a negative impact on the situation in Ukraine, particularly on the front, because US military aid ran out at the end of 2023.

The New York Times writes that "despite tough statements about Russia in the past, Rubio is most likely to agree with Trumpʼs expected plans to pressure Ukraine to find a way to settle relations with Russia while staying out of NATO".

The publication notes that Rubio supported Trumpʼs position regarding Russiaʼs war against Ukraine — he declared that "the conflict has reached a dead end" and "it must be brought to an end."

At the same time, when an activist asked Rubio late last year what he thought about the numerous deaths of Palestinian civilians, Rubio replied that "Hamas is 100% to blame".

Rubioʼs appointment role for the US

By effectively winning the presidential election, Trump partly won over the large number of Hispanics who overwhelmingly voted for Democrats.

By selecting Rubio, a Latino, as Secretary of State, Trump can let Latinos know that they have a place at the highest levels of his administration. And Rubio will be the first Latin American in this position.

As secretary of state, he is likely to place far more emphasis on Latin America than any of his predecessors, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, a former National Security Council assistant for Latin American affairs in the first Trump administration.

It is known that Rubio supported a rather strict foreign policy towards the USʼs geopolitical rivals, in particular Iran, Cuba and, especially, China. For example, in 2019, Rubio called on the Treasury Department to launch a national security review of the popular Chinese app Musical.ly. Rubio also advocated banning the sale of Chinese equipment to Huawei.

In addition, Rubio co-chaired the bipartisan Congressional Executive Committee on China, which was tasked with developing aggressive policies, particularly to address human rights abuses there. In 2020, Rubio authored a bill that would have prevented the import of Chinese goods made with the use of forced labor from Chinaʼs ethnic Uyghur minority. President Biden signed it the following year.

During the first presidential term of Donald Trump, Rubio was one of the initiators of the bill, which complicates the procedure for the US to withdraw from NATO membership. This was in response to President Trumpʼs skepticism about NATO, which criticized the alliance for failing to meet agreed military spending targets. At the time, Trump warned that he would not only refuse to protect countries that are "delayed" on funding, but would also encourage Russia to "do whatever it wants" with them.

In recent years, Rubio has somewhat changed his views to be more in line with Trumpʼs position, Western media reported.

Who does Trump choose for his team

Trump is gradually assembling his team in the White House. On November 11, he announced that he had chosen Elise Stefanik, a representative of the Republican Party, for the position of the US ambassador to the United Nations.

On November 12, Trump officially appointed Republican Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.

Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk and millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for president in the Republican primary, will lead the new US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

For the position of the head of the Pentagon, Trump offers Pete Hegseth, a presenter of Fox News and a veteran of the US army who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Republican plans to appoint the governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

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