Donald Trump is expected to tap U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, sources said on Monday, putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as America’s top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January.
Rubio was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump’s shortlist for secretary of state, and he has in past years advocated for a muscular foreign policy with respect to America’s geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba.
Over the last several years he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Trump’s views. The president-elect accuses past U.S. presidents of leading America into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a more restrained foreign policy.
While the famously mercurial Trump could always change his mind at the last minute, he appeared to have settled on his pick as of Monday, according to the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Representatives for Trump and Rubio did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The new administration will confront a world more volatile and dangerous than it was when Trump took office in 2017, with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East and China aligning itself more closely with U.S. foes Russia and Iran.
The Ukraine crisis will be high on Rubio’s agenda.
Marco Rubio, 53, has said in recent interviews that Ukraine needs to seek a negotiated settlement with Russia rather than focus on regaining all territory that Russia has taken in the last decade. He was also one of 15 Republican senators to vote against a $95 billion military aid package for Ukraine, passed in April.
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While Rubio was far from the most isolationist option, his likely selection nonetheless underlines a broad shift in Republican foreign policy views under Trump.
Once the party of hawks who advocated military intervention and a muscular foreign policy, most of Trump’s allies now preach restraint, particularly in Europe, where many Republicans complain U.S. allies are not paying their fair share on defense.
“I’m not on Russia’s side — but unfortunately the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement,” Rubio told NBC in September.
Rubio’s selection holds domestic as well as international significance.
Donald Trump beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election in part by winning over large numbers of Latinos, who had voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in previous election cycles but have become an increasingly diverse demographic in a political sense, with more and more Latinos voting Republican.
By selecting Rubio for a key policy role, Trump may help consolidate electoral gains among Latinos and make clear that they have a place at the highest levels of his administration.
If confirmed, Rubio will likely place a much greater importance on Latin America than any previous secretary of state, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, a Rubio ally, former president of the Inter-American Development Bank and a former National Security Council aide on Latin America in the first Donald Trump administration.
“This is the time Latin America will most be on the map in the history of any U.S. presidency. It’s historic. There’s no other way to say it,” said Claver-Carone.
