President-elect Donald Trump is expected to select Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be his Secretary of State, according to reporting from the New York Times, which cited three sources familiar with Trump’s thinking.
If true, Trump’s decision to pick Rubio for the high post of Secretary of State sends a message of stability, and business as usual to partners and adversaries around the world. Rubio is not a member of the isolationist wing of the GOP, which has been on the rise in recent years, rather, he fits more with the establishment wing of Republican foreign policy thinking. However, Rubio did vote against the Biden administration’s sweeping foreign policy package earlier this year that aimed to send a combined $95 billion to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
Rubio, a former Trump rival from the 2016 Republican primary, is a China and Russia hawk and has vast experience in the fields of foreign policy from his time in the U.S. Senate in the foreign affairs and intelligence committees.