U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly tapped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state. If Rubio had been confirmed, it will make him the primary Latino to carry the nation’s senior cupboard place.
Rubio, who has been within the Senate for 14 years, mustn’t face any affirmation complications. Even briefly dropping his seat with a handpicked Republican substitute, the GOP ought to have a simple 52-vote majority within the higher chamber.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly tapped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state. If Rubio had been confirmed, it will make him the primary Latino to carry the nation’s senior cupboard place.
Rubio, who has been within the Senate for 14 years, mustn’t face any affirmation complications. Even briefly dropping his seat with a handpicked Republican substitute, the GOP ought to have a simple 52-vote majority within the higher chamber.
Rubio ticks almost all of the packing containers for a future Trump international coverage: He’s hawkish in opposition to all the standard suspects. He’s suspicious of, if not belligerent, towards China, hostile to Iran, not eager on Venezuela, rueful of the Cuba his dad and mom left, and detached towards Gaza and Ukraine. The one downside with Rubio, from Trump’s viewpoint, is that he may be too hawkish.
Trump campaigned on a pledge to finish wars. He did so messily in Afghanistan, and he has vowed to take action in Ukraine. He known as off a large-scale assault on Iran throughout his first time period and alternated between berating China and promoting it soybeans. The massive query is whether or not Trump’s imaginative and prescient of an “America First” international coverage has sufficient room for the small diplomatic wars—a recent recourse to sanctions on Iran, redoubled pressure on Venezuela, or an overhaul of U.S. policy toward Cuba—that Rubio’s worldview would embody, or whether or not Rubio must set his sights solely on China.
Rubio has sufficient ammunition. For years, he has been on the file warning about each the safety and financial challenges Beijing poses, with the latter nearer to Trump’s coronary heart. Like Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, with whom Rubio vied for the second spot on the ticket, Rubio has lengthy warned about China’s function in hollowing out the American manufacturing heartland and may very well be anticipated to take a agency line in any future U.S.-China talks over commerce and the economic system.
The one different query mark that may have hung over Rubio—the insults he and Trump readily traded eight years in the past—shouldn’t be a difficulty. Trump’s vp, Vance, in contrast his working mate to Adolf Hitler, and his inventory solely went greater.
Trump had two smart and succesful secretaries of state throughout his first time period, if not all the time embodied in the identical particular person on the similar time. If nominated and confirmed, Rubio may resolve which of these two packing containers, past the hawkish ones, he needs and is ready to examine.
