Key points
- Rubio is first fluent Spanish speaker to assume office
- Rubio is son of Cuban immigrants
- Trump takes oath on Monday
WASHINGTON: The United States (US) Senate has unanimously approved Marco Rubio as secretary of state today, putting the fellow senator on the front line of President Donald Trump’s diplomacy.
Rubio, who is the first Hispanic and first fluent Spanish speaker to assume the position of top US diplomat, is Trump’s first cabinet nominee to be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate, only hours after the inauguration.
Unusually in a highly partisan era, Rubio was confirmed 99-0, with several senators from the rival Democratic Party describing Rubio as a friend. One Senate seat was made vacant by the inauguration of Vice President JD Vance.
“Given the uncertainty around the globe right now, it is in America’s interest not to skip a beat and to fill this role immediately,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“While we may not always agree, I believe he has the skills, knowledge, and qualifications to be secretary of state,” she said on the Senate floor.
Given the uncertainty around the globe right now, it is in America’s interest not to skip a beat and to fill this role immediately.” – Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Shaheen and the Republican chairman of the committee, Jim Risch, agreed to fast-track Rubio’s nomination, which was cleared by the panel barely an hour before heading to the floor.
“We need a principled, action-oriented chief diplomat like Marco Rubio to take them on.”
Executing “erratic” policy
Rubio will immediately have the task of executing the potentially erratic foreign policy of Trump, who in an inauguration speech Monday renewed threats to seize the Panama Canal but also pledged to be a “peacemaker.”
Trump challenged the two secretaries of state in his first term with a foreign policy that swung rapidly, with Trump in one case shifting from threatening destruction of North Korea to declaring that he “fell in love” with strongman leader Kim Jong Un.
Rubio, the working-class son of Cuban immigrants who bitterly opposed Fidel Castro’s communist revolution, is known for his hawkish stance toward Latin American authoritarian states and China.
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