President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to serve as secretary of state, according to a source familiar with the selection. If confirmed, Rubio would become the first Latino to ever serve as the nation’s top diplomat.
The selection officially brings Rubio into Trump’s fold and offers a new chapter in the evolving relationship between the former rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. In the years since, Rubio has become a close adviser to Trump on foreign relations, and was even a top contender for vice president up until the day Trump announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.
The nomination is a signal that when it comes to international diplomacy, the incoming Trump administration will be shaped by Rubio’s traditional hawkishness — an approach that has made him one of the Senate’s leading voices on foreign policy. But the two have disagreed in the past over the extent to which the U.S. should exercise aggressive foreign policy measures.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, was first elected senator for Florida in 2010 after serving in the state house — including as speaker — for more than a decade. During his time in the Senate, Rubio became a key voice in debates over U.S. foreign policy. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio advocated for Libyan intervention in 2011, and criticized then-President Trump in 2019 for proposing to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan.
Upon Trump’s win, Rubio said last Wednesday that the U.S. will see “pragmatic foreign policy” with Trump in the White House.
“We’re entering into an era of pragmatic foreign policy in which the world is rapidly changing,” Rubio said in an interview with CNN. “Adversaries are uniting — North Korea, Iran, China, Russia [are] increasingly coordinating — it’s going to require us to be very pragmatic and wise and how we invest overseas and what we do.
Rubio’s expected nomination comes as the Trump administration will have to contend with ongoing wars between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas, in addition to ongoing tensions with China and Iran.
Despite holding more traditionally interventionist views on foreign policy more broadly, Rubio was among a block of senators who voted against military aid for Ukraine, which ultimately passed in April.
“What we are funding here is a stalemate that needs to be brought to a conclusion,” Rubio said in opposition to military funding and in advocating for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump and Rubio’s relationship has not always been harmonious. The two poked jabs at each other while campaigning against each other in 2016. Trump liked to call Rubio “Little Marco,” and things got topsy-turvy when Rubio made insinuations about Trump, saying, “Have you seen his hands? … And you know what they say about men with small hands?” To which Trump responded, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”
Rubio said that voters should not back Trump in 2016, saying, “Friends do not let friends vote for a con artist.” But he ultimately supported Trump that year, and since then, Rubio’s support has only grown stronger as he endorsed the president-elect both in 2020 and 2024. Rubio even helped Trump prepare for his debate against President Biden in 2020.