Trump expected to name China & Iran hawk Marco Rubio as Secretary of State: Report

US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio as the Secretary of State in his administration, according to The New York Times.

Rubio has represented Florida in Senate since 2011. He is known to be a hawk on China and Iran, which are expected to be priority areas for Trump’s incoming second administration.

At one point, Rubio was also seen as a strong candidate to be Trump’s running mate before JD Vance was picked for the role.

Even though The Times cited three persons familiar with the matter to report that Rubio is set to be the incoming Secretary of State, it said that the final decision of course rests with Trump and he may change his mind anytime.

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Rubio would be the third national security and foreign policy pick after Trump named New York’s Republican Representative Elise Stefanik to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) and reportedly picked Mike Waltz to be National Security Advisor (NSA).

While Rubio was initially at odds with Republicans who have rejected a globalist and interventionist foreign policy in the Trump era who has shown isolationist tendencies, he has come to echo Trump on issues such as Russia’s war on Ukraine, saying that the war has reached a stalemate and “needs to be brought to a conclusion”.

In the 2016 elections, Trump had derided Rubio as ‘Little Marco’ but Rubio has since got into Trump’s good books and is now expected to his top diplomat in the upcoming second term.

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