WASHINGTON (AP) — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is promising to implement President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” imaginative and prescient as secretary of state, vowing in his affirmation listening to Wednesday that the incoming administration will forge a brand new path by inserting American pursuits “above all else.”
“Placing our core national interests above all else is not isolationism,” Rubio will inform the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, in keeping with a gap assertion obtained by The Related Press. “It is the commonsense realization that a foreign policy centered on our national interest is not some outdated relic.”
“The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us,” Rubio says.
It’s a outstanding opening salvo from Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants, and who, if confirmed, would turn out to be the primary Latino ever to function the nation’s high diplomat.
The affirmation listening to begins a brand new chapter within the political profession of the 53-year-old Florida Republican, whose relationship with Trump has advanced over the past decade. As soon as rivals buying and selling schoolyard insults as they campaigned for president in 2016, the 2 males grew to become shut allies as Trump campaigned for an additional White Home time period final 12 months.
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Rubio first got here to Washington as a part of the “tea party” wave in 2010 and as soon as advocated for permitting a path to citizenship for immigrants within the nation illegally. However like different Republicans, Rubio’s views on immigration have shifted towards the hardline stance of Trump, who has pledged to aggressively pursue deportations as soon as he takes workplace on Monday.
In contrast to lots of Trump’s Cupboard choices, Rubio is anticipated to simply win affirmation, notching assist not solely from Republicans but additionally Democrats who endorse him as a “responsible” decide to characterize the U.S. overseas. Many count on he can be among the many first of Trump’s Cupboard picks accepted.
Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, who served alongside Rubio on the Overseas Relations Committee, stated he has excessive hopes that the Florida Republican will reject the isolationist method of different Trump allies.
“I think Marco is a hawk, but he’s 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 Hawaii lawmaker informed AP. “And there are people in the Trump world who want us to run away from being the leaders of the free world. And I’m hoping that Marco’s instincts towards American strength will win the day.”
Rubio’s method to overseas affairs is grounded in his years of service on the Overseas Relations committee and the Senate Intelligence panel. In his speeches and writings, he’s delivered more and more stern warnings about rising army and financial threats to the US, notably from China, which he says has benefited from a “global world order” that he characterizes as out of date.
China, Rubio will inform the committee, has “lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense.”
If confirmed, Rubio will turn out to be the chief of U.S. overseas coverage — although his function will certainly stay secondary to Trump, who relishes the worldwide stage and regularly makes use of the bully pulpit in opposition to America’s allies.
Even earlier than taking workplace, Trump has stirred angst in overseas capitals by threatening to grab the Panama Canal and Greenland and suggesting he’ll stress Canada to turn out to be the nation’s 51st state.
By profitable one other time period, Trump has gained an “unmistakable mandate from the voters,” Rubio will say.
“They want a strong America. Engaged in the world. But guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”
A Biden administration determination to rescind Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism with simply days left in workplace is more likely to irk Rubio, who has lengthy supported powerful sanctions on the communist-run island.
Rubio’s workplace didn’t reply to a number of queries Tuesday concerning the senator’s response to the transfer, which many consider will virtually definitely be reversed by the Trump administration.
Secretaries of state have performed a key function in formulating the overseas coverage of the nation since its founding, beginning with the primary one, Thomas Jefferson, who served within the high Cupboard place underneath President George Washington.
Since then, Jefferson, in addition to his nineteenth century successors James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan, have all gone on to be elected president.
Newer secretaries of state have been much less profitable of their political ambitions, together with John Kerry, who misplaced the 2004 presidential election to President George W. Bush earlier than changing into the highest diplomat, and Hillary Clinton, who misplaced the 2016 election to Trump.
Probably the most profitable secretaries of state have been recognized for his or her closeness to the presidents whom they serve, notably James Baker underneath George H.W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice underneath George W. Bush and, to some extent, Clinton underneath Barack Obama.
Like Clinton, Rubio was as soon as a political rival to the president-elect who nominated them. Nevertheless, the Clinton-Obama relationship throughout the 2008 Democratic primaries was not almost as hostile as that between Trump and Rubio within the 2016 GOP primaries, which was marked by name-calling and private insults.
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Trump had an acrimonious relationship along with his first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Trump fired him from the place through a social media submit lower than two years into his time period.
Related Press author Matt Brown contributed to this report.
