Rubio vows to place US interests ‘above all else’ as Trump’s top diplomat
WASHINGTON — Senator Marco Rubio of Florida promises to implement that of newly elected President Donald Trump ‘America First’ vision as Secretary of Statewhile promising in his confirmation hearing Wednesday that the new administration will chart a new path by putting U.S. interests “above all else.”
“Putting our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to an opening statement obtained by The Associated Press. “It is the common sense realization that a foreign policy focused on our national interest is not some outdated relic.”
“The post-war world order is not only outdated; it is now a weapon used against us,” Rubio said.
It’s a remarkable opening salvo from Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants and who, if confirmed, would become the first-ever Latino act as the country’s top diplomat.
The confirmation hearing marks a new chapter in the political career of the 53-year-old Florida Republican, whose relationship with Trump has evolved over the past decade. While rivals once traded schoolyard insults as they campaigned for president in 2016, the two men became close allies as Trump campaigned for another term in the White House last year.
Rubio first came to Washington as part of the “tea party” wave in 2010 and once advocated allowing a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. But like other Republicans, Rubio’s views on immigration have shifted toward Trump’s tough stance, which he has promised aggressively pursue deportations once he takes office on Monday.
Unlike many of Trump’s cabinet selectionsRubio is expected to easily win confirmation, drawing support not only from Republicans but also from Democrats who endorse him as a “responsible” choice to represent the US abroad. Many expect him to be one of Trump’s first approved Cabinet picks.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who served alongside Rubio on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he is hopeful the Florida Republican will reject the isolationist approach of other Trump allies.
“I think Marco is a hawk, but he is also an internationalist, and I think the challenge for him will be to maintain the long, bipartisan tradition of America being indispensable in world affairs,” the Hawaiian lawmaker told AP. “And there are those in the Trump world who want us to run away and become the leaders of the free world. And I hope Marco’s instinct for American strength will win out.”
Rubio’s approach to foreign affairs is based on his years of service on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Panel. In his speeches and writings he warns more and more sternly increasing military and economic threats to the United States, especially from China, which he says has benefited from a “global world order” that he labels outdated.
China, Rubio will tell the committee, has “lied, cheated, hacked and stolen its way to global superpower status at our expense.”
If confirmed, Rubio will become the leader of US foreign policy – although his role will certainly remain subordinate to that of Trump, who loves the world stage and often uses the pulpit against US allies.
Even before taking office, Trump has stoked fear in foreign capitals by threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggesting he will pressure Canada to become the country’s 51st state.
By winning another term, Trump has won an “undeniable mandate from the voters,” Rubio will say.
‘They want a strong America. Involved in the world. But guided by a clear purpose: to promote peace abroad and security and prosperity here at home.”
A decision by the Biden administration to withdraw Cuba’s nomination as a state sponsor of terrorism With just days left in office, the move is likely to irritate Rubio, who has long supported tough sanctions on the communist-run island.
Rubio’s office did not respond to multiple questions Tuesday about the senator’s response to the measure, which many believe will almost certainly be reversed by the Trump administration.
Secretaries of State have played a key role in formulating the nation’s foreign policy since its founding, beginning with the first, Thomas Jefferson, who held the top cabinet position under President George Washington.
Since then, Jefferson, as well as his nineteenth-century successors James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, and James Buchanan, have all been elected president.
More recent secretaries of state have been less successful in their political ambitions, including John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election to President George W. Bush before becoming the top diplomat, and Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump.
The most successful secretaries of state are known for their close ties to the presidents they serve, most notably James Baker under George HW Bush, Condoleezza Rice under George W. Bush and, to some extent, Clinton under Barack Obama.
Like Clinton, Rubio was once a political rival of the president-elect who nominated them. However, the relationship between Clinton and Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries was not nearly as hostile as that between Trump and Rubio during the 2016 Republican primaries, which was marked by name-calling and personal insults.
Trump had an acrimonious relationship with his first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. Trump fired him from office via a social media post less than two years into his term.
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Associated Press writer Matt Brown contributed to this report.