The selection signals a tough approach by the incoming Trump administration toward international diplomacy.
President-elect Donald Trump has picked Florida’s three-term senator, Marco Rubio, to be his nominee for secretary of state, setting the tone for a more hawkish administration on U.S. foreign policy.
“Marco is a Highly Respected Leader, and a very powerful Voice for Freedom,” Trump said in a Nov. 13 statement.
“He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries. I look forward to working with Marco to Make America, and the World, Safe and Great Again!”
The selection, pending Senate confirmation, will make Rubio the first Latino to serve as the nation’s top diplomat.
Upon Trump’s victory, Rubio said on Nov. 6 that the United States would pursue a more “pragmatic foreign policy,” pointing to the growing axis between North Korea, Iran, China, and Russia.
Rubio will be taking up the position as the United States confronts a far more precarious world than the first Trump term, with war between Russia and Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, and communist China’s military belligerence in the South China Sea.
A Focus on China
Trump and Rubio came head to head in the 2016 GOP presidential primary and repeatedly traded insults. But after Trump assumed office in 2017, the two have worked together on foreign policy issues, particularly the strategy toward Latin America. Rubio was one of Trump’s vice presidential finalists until July 15, when he announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.
As the vice-ranking member of the Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Rubio has been pressing for a harder line toward human rights violators such as China.
His lawmaking draws on a tough-on-China approach, placing countering the Chinese regime as a top priority while noting Beijing’s ambition to topple the United States and dominate the world through trade theft and coercion.
By Eva Fu
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