Donald Trump is Rumored to Nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio As Secretary of State

Rubio is a neocon hack through and through.

President-Elect Donald Trump appears ready to select Florida Senator Marco Rubio to serve as Secretary of State of the United States. Although Trump could still walk back his nomination of Rubio, according to a report by the New York Times. However, Trump has “appeared to have settled” on Rubio. 

“Nothing has been confirmed,” a source close to the New York Post noted. 

Rubio has served in the US Senate since 2011. He currently serves as the vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee and is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Initially, Rubio was rumored to be a potential finalist as Trump’s running mate back in July. Rubio has been one of the most hawkish Senators in the Senate. 

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Rubio was receptive towards the idea of sending long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS)  to Ukraine. He told CNN around that time, “I think we should send them anything they need to reclaim their territory, to the extent that we have it available, and it is reasonable.”

“I think the concern some would say is that the longer-range missiles could target deep inside of Russia and trigger a broader conflict. I’m not sure I’m as troubled by that,” Rubio continued.

Though Rubio warned that China is an “an even more powerful adversary” than Russia, calling on the US to not “devote the entirety of our attention to a single geopolitical challenge” a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Now it looks like Rubio is willing to negotiate with Russia on an agreement to end the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. “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,” the senator declared during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in October. “And I want, and we want, and, I believe Donald Trump wants, for Ukraine to have more leverage in that negotiation.”

It remains to be seen what kind of negotiated settlement the Trump administration could hammer out with the Russians. However, Russia will likely insist not only on NATO membership for Ukraine to be taken off the table but also demand the freezing of military aid to Ukraine and even the rollback of US missile systems in NATO members across Eastern Europe — all major Russian security sticking points vis-a-vis NATO. 

Rubio seems to be more focused on confronting China and Iran as opposed to Russia. The Florida Senator has called on the US to  “revitalize our industrial capacity” in order to beat China in great power competition. 

As for Iran, Rubio wants to resurrect the failed “maximum pressure campaign” against the Islamic Republic. This approach was used by the Trump administration after it withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Instead, the first Trump administration tried to impose sanctions on Iran in an effort to degrade its influence in the Middle East and carry out regime change against it. Iran ended up surviving this punitive sanctions campaign and it is now currently being backed by China and Russia, thereby rendering punitive against the Islamic Republic virtually futile. 

However, the October 1 missile attack carried out by Iran against Israel prompted Rubio to take a harder line. 

“Iran’s brutal missile attack on Israeli civilians reinforces what we have always known: the terrorist Iranian regime seeks to dominate the Middle East through death, chaos, and ultimately the complete destruction of Israel,” he stated after the attacks. “This regime can no longer be appeased.”

Rubio is a neoconservative hack through and through. Trump needs a real America First patron as Secretary of State if he wants his agenda to be fully consummated. The main priorities the US should be focused on is a robust economic nationalist agenda coupled with a full-blown moratorium on immigration — illegal and legal — and a militarized southern border. 

Anything that falls short of that is just consigning the US to institutional decline.