Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida and President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, meets with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. In photo) meeting, December 10, 2024. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide title
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WHO: Marco Rubio
Nominated as:Secretary of State
you may know him: Senate and 2016 Republican presidential primaries, when Trump called him "Little Marco," Rubio warned voters not to support Trump, saying "friends don't let friends vote for a liar."
More on Rubio:
What does this role do: The Secretary of State is fourth in line to the top positions of the President and Cabinet. The Secretary of State oversees U.S. foreign policy.
Watch Rubio's confirmation hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. ET:
Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio may face the easiest confirmation process among President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks. He is a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, so he is well known to the lawmakers who will question him at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
If confirmed, the 53-year-old Florida Republican would become the first Latino to serve as the nation's top diplomat. The Florida-born son of Cuban immigrants was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and is known for his tough stance on China, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.
His relationship with Trump has been rocky. In 2016, Rubio told voters they should not support Trump as a presidential candidate, saying "friends are not going to let friends vote for a liar." Although Rubio became a regular on the 2024 campaign trail, Trump will still He regarded him as "Little Marco".
He may face tough questions about why he voted against aid to Ukraine last year despite his previous stance on Russia's war in Ukraine. He may also face questions about how his interventionist foreign policy views conflict with Trump's positions.
China has imposed sanctions on Rubio that could make travel there difficult. Rubio has accused China of conducting a "grotesque genocidal campaign" against Uyghur Muslims and drafted legislation to ban imports from the Xinjiang region. That human rights advocacy has put him at odds with Trump ally Elon Musk, who moved to Xinjiang shortly after Rubio's Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act was signed into law in 2021. Opened a Tesla dealership.
The outgoing Biden administration has made building alliances in Asia to counter the rise of China a top priority. At the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken established the “China House,” an office that attracts U.S. government experts to focus on China issues. This may be an office Rubio wants to keep.
The secretary of state oversees U.S. foreign policy, but Trump has undermined some of the top U.S. diplomat's responsibilities by appointing numerous special envoys for Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon. He also appointed Richard Grenell, a longtime foreign policy adviser who once ran for secretary of state, as a "special assignment" envoy. "Rick will be working in some of the hottest places in the world, including Venezuela and North Korea," Trump said in announcing the appointment on his social media platform Truth Social.