{"id":34623,"date":"2024-11-12T02:18:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T08:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34623"},"modified":"2024-11-12T02:18:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T08:18:29","slug":"trump-expected-to-choose-sen-marco-rubio-for-secretary-of-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34623","title":{"rendered":"Trump expected to choose Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President-elect Donald Trump<\/a> is expected to nominate Sen. Marco Rubio<\/a> of Florida for secretary of state in his administration in the coming days, according to three sources familiar with the selection process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump could still change his mind, the sources cautioned, noting that the decision wouldn’t be finalized until he makes a formal announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York Times first reported<\/a> Trump’s plans to select Rubio to be the country’s top diplomat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign policy is one of the few areas in which there is a deep philosophical disagreement among Trump’s base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A main pitch from Trump during the campaign was that he would implement \u201cAmerica First\u201d policies, a doctrine that emphasizes less foreign aid, trying to curtail U.S. involvement in current foreign conflicts and avoiding future ones. But there remains a different strain of foreign policy thinking among even prominent Trump supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though Rubio is an avowed Trump supporter, the perception is that he was one of the “less MAGA” options, a Trump ally told NBC News. It\u2019s a position that requires appealing enough to Trump\u2019s more isolationist political base but also carrying water for the less disruptive brand of foreign policy that those Trump backers generally oppose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, was seen as a potential pick able to thread the needle of appealing enough to Trump\u2019s political base while not needlessly eroding relationships with foreign allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump ally said Rubio was someone \u201cTrump\u2019s base could trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Marco is a little more hawkish than the incoming president and vice president, he\u2019s actually not as far away from them as many people might assume at first blush,\u201d another Trump ally said. \u201cHe\u2019s become far more aligned with the president on issues regarding tariffs. He has a similar stand on the China issue, and he even voted against the last round of Ukraine funding.\u201dA current senior administration official told NBC News that Rubio would be a \u201cserious\u201d and \u201cqualified\u201d choice. The person said picking Rubio would be a relief given reporting that Ric Grenell, the highly controversial ambassador to Germany during Trump\u2019s first term, was also in the mix. Multiple career diplomats said they were concerned about the State Department\u2019s becoming politicized if Grenell were nominated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the last Trump administration, the number of diplomats in senior ranks at the State Department plummeted, at first through voluntary departures soon after his election and later through attrition as the authority of their positions was redirected to political appointees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump had considered Rubio as a running mate before he ultimately chose Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Rubio becomes secretary of state, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would get to choose a replacement. That pick would serve until at least 2026, when an election would be held for the seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has made a series of other staffing announcements in recent days. On Monday, he announced plans to nominate former Rep. Lee Zeldin<\/a>, R-N.Y., as the Environmental Protection Agency’s top administrator and to appoint Rep. Mike Waltz<\/a>, R-Fla., as his national security adviser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, he said Susie Wiles<\/a>, his campaign manager, would be White House chief of staff. On Sunday, he named immigration hard-liner Tom Homan<\/a> as his \u201cborder czar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for secretary of state in his administration in the coming days, according to three sources familiar with the selection process. Trump could still change his mind, the sources cautioned, noting that the decision wouldn’t be finalized until he makes a formal announcement. The New York Times first reported Trump’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3480,1613,1437,31173,31172],"class_list":["post-34623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-election","tag-florida","tag-government-secretary-of-state","tag-marco-rubio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34625,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34623\/revisions\/34625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}