Senate confirms Marco Rubio as US secretary of state in boost for Trump

The Senate has confirmed one of its members, Republican Marco Rubio of Florida, as the next US secretary of state on Monday, giving Donald Trump the first permanent member of his cabinet just hours after the new president was sworn in for the second time.

Rubio, 53, received overwhelming support from his former colleagues, with 99 senators backing his nomination. Rubio, who becomes the first Latino American to serve as secretary of state, was expected to be easily confirmed, as senators largely viewed him as one of the least controversial of Trump’s cabinet picks.

During his hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee last week, Rubio embraced Trump’s “America First” vision on foreign policy, describing the new president’s approach to the global stage as a “commonsense realization”.

“Prudence in the conduct of foreign policy is not an abandonment of our values,” Rubio said in his opening remarks at the hearing.

“It’s the commonsense understanding that while we remain the wealthiest and the most powerful nation on the Earth, our wealth has never been unlimited … Placing our core national interest above all else is not isolation.”

Rubio will step into the role of America’s chief diplomat as the nation navigates escalating tensions abroad on multiple fronts. The war in Ukraine, which Trump dubiously vowed to end within 24 hours of taking office, is about to enter its fourth year with no clear end in sight.

Appearing before the Senate foreign relations committee last week, Rubio suggested that both Russia and Ukraine would have to make “concessions” to bring about an end to the war.

“There is no way Russia takes all of Ukraine. The Ukrainians are too brave and fight too hard and the country is too big. That’s not going to happen,” Rubio said. But he added, “There’s no way Ukraine is also going to push these people all the way back to where they were on the eve of the invasion.”

Despite Trump’s disparagement of Nato, Rubio praised the organization as a “very important alliance” for the US. And Rubio’s historically hawkish views on foreign policy shined through as he discussed China, arguing that the US must make “dramatic” changes to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan.

“We need to wrap our head around the fact that unless something dramatic changes, like an equilibrium where they conclude that the costs of intervening in Taiwan are too high, we’re going to have to deal with this before the end of this decade,” Rubio said.

Although Rubio’s nomination was met with praise from many of his former Senate colleagues, his opening remarks at the confirmation hearing last week were repeatedly interrupted by leftwing protesters who attacked him as a “war hawk”.

Rubio’s elevation to secretary of state marks the latest twist in his complicated and previously contentious relationship with Trump, after the two men competed against each other in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. During that fractious primary battle, Trump mocked Rubio as “Little Marco”, while Rubio infamously taunted Trump over the size of his hands.

When Trump first took office in 2017, Rubio abandoned his earlier criticism of the new president and became a close adviser to the Trump White House on foreign policy. Underscoring the significantly altered relationship between the two former rivals, Rubio was in the running to become Trump’s running-mate before JD Vance ultimately won that slot.