President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Florida’s U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state on Wednesday will elevate the Miami native and son of Cuban exiles to the post of America’s chief diplomat.
It’s a fitting and clever choice — one that Rubio, 53, meticulously carved out by aligning himself with Trump after they famously clashed on the 2016 presidential debate stage, with Trump nicknaming him “Little Marco.” Trump even considered Rubio as his running mate this time around but ultimately opted for Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
The question is whether Rubio’s more traditional GOP views will be a moderating force to Trump’s isolationist impulses and his coziness with right-wing autocrats, or if he will follow Trump’s lead and help withdraw the U.S. from much of the world stage.
If the high turnover of top officials in Trump’s first term was any indication, Rubio could have to tread carefully to keep his job, and Trump has signaled that he’ll be looking for Cabinet members who are loyal to him and less interested in maintaining American democratic institutions.
Rubio has built deep expertise on foreign affairs during his Senate career — he’s a top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Intelligence Committee. Rubio also played a central role in the first Trump administration by shaping the former president’s policies in Latin America.
Rubio was a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s concessions to Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime, which did not prevent Maduro from reportedly stealing July’s presidential election.
Cuba might not be at the top of the list of America’s international priorities, but, given his roots in the Miami exile community, expect Rubio to apply more pressure on the regime that has survived multiple U.S. administrations and continues to crack down on protests and oppress its people.
With Trump back in office, Rubio’s role will likely involve trying to assure America’s allies, especially in Europe, that the country will not abandon them. The choice of Rubio for secretary of state has already eased concern by top diplomats who feared Trump would pick Ric Grenell, a favorite of the far-right and a former U.S. ambassador to Germany who would have an antagonistic attitude toward the State Department, Politico reported.
Rubio, in contrast, spearheaded a bipartisan bill to make it harder for a president to pull out of the NATO military alliance, something Trump has threatened to do. Yet Rubio must understand that his support for NATO isn’t likely to resonate in a party that Trump has remade in his “America First” mold.
If he gets the job, Rubio will have to play nice with MAGA officials who believe Ukraine should be left on its own to fight Russia and that NATO is a waste of time. Rubio himself has softened his tone on U.S. intervention overseas over the years.
As secretary of state, Rubio will be faced with an unstable world. There’s a war in the Middle East caused by last year’s terrorist attacks against Israel. Ukraine and Russia are still at war and U.S. allies are terrified of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s influence in Europe. Cuba and Venezuela have shown no signs of regime change despite different approaches by different presidents, including Trump. Haiti is in shambles.
China’s influence in the world and in Latin America, which Rubio has been talking about for years, continues to threaten U.S. interests and there’s fear the Chinese could try to invade Taiwan. There is also Iran’s nuclear threat and North Korea, to name a few of the challenges of this role.
Rubio has built a career in the Senate by focusing on some of these issues. If his planned nomination is approved by the U.S. Senate, he will be in a position to affect more change, and the pressure will be on him to deliver results, especially in Latin America. His community in South Florida will expect nothing less.