After being passed on as Donald Trump's vice presidential candidate and losing the position to J.D. Vance, Florida Senator Marco Rubio is reportedly in the shortlist to become Trump's Secretary of State should he win the upcoming general elections in November. If he gets the position, Rubio would inherit a plethora of foreign policy challenges to deal with.
Rubio is in contention for the post along with other household names, including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty.
Florida Republicans have also floated Rubio as a top contender, with many officials telling the Miami Herald that he has both the experience and foreign policy chops to lead the U.S. State Department and arguing that his deep policy experience and his relationship with Trump makes him an outstanding candidate for the cabinet position.
Throughout his career, the Florida Senator has heavily spotlighted foreign policy issues in Latin America. In fact, under the Trump administration, his policies in the region were jokingly dubbed as "Make Marco Rubio Happy," suggesting a high level of influence in the White House, The New York Post reported.
In recent years, he has taken a hardline approach against Venezuela's authoritarian president Nicolas Maduro, leading the Senate push for improved trade ties in the Western Hemisphere via the extension of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act.
Most recently, Rubio has denounced Venezuela's controversial elections. Just minutes after the country's National Electoral Council (CNE) announced Maduro was reelected, Rubio released a statement on X that said the regime had just pulled off "the most predictable and ridiculous sham election in modern history." He has continued to speak against the process, as several countries have so far refused to recognize the elections until the government releases granular data.
In North America, Rubio has also been vocal about his support for detaining terrorists at Guantanamo Bay so they can be interrogated for intelligence purposes.
Rubio also seems to support NATO, an organization Trump has repeatedly denounced and voiced concerns over.
During a rally in February, Trump bashed NATO— as it is customary for him— and expressed his grievances at countries not contributing their fair share. Rubio would go on to dismiss concerns over these comments.
"He's not the first American president— in fact, virtually every American president at some point in some way has complained about other countries in NATO not doing enough," Rubio said on CNN.
"You know, Trump's just the first one to express it in these terms, but I have zero concern because he'd been president before, I know exactly what he has done and will do with the NATO alliance, but there has to be an alliance. It's not America's defense with a bunch of small junior partners," he continued.
In relation to major conflicts around the world, Rubio has also expressed his positions.
In regards to the war in Ukraine, he has argued against moving money away from quality-of-life initiatives on American military bases in favor of supporting Kyiv. He also voted against an aid bill that would have allocated $95 billion for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as he believed this would have left the southern border and the migrant crisis neglected.
"I have senior citizens, I have veterans, and they call my office and they call our offices and they say 'I have nowhere to live, housing is too expensive'... And the most we can often do is help get them on a waiting list for section eight housing. This is a problem that exists in America right now," he said in a speech, opposing the proposed bill.
"But if I want to help Israel, if I want to help Taiwan, if I want to help Ukraine, if I want to ban TikTok, I have to vote for spending billions of dollars to give to charity groups so they can fly people around the country here and put them up in hotel rooms, or so they can help resettlement in another country?"
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