Trump officially taps Marco Rubio for secretary of state in new US administration
Ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, who met Syria’s Assad after chemical weapons attack and called Trump’s killing of Iran’s Soleimani ‘illegal,’ is picked as national intel director
US President-elect Donald Trump officially named Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state on Wednesday, setting up a one-time critic who evolved into one of the president-elect’s fiercest defenders to become the nation’s top diplomat.
Rubio’s selection came on the same day Trump announced Florida Representative Matt Gaetz as attorney general, and former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence as he rapidly pushes ahead with filling out his administration.
In a statement, Trump said Rubio “will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries.”
The conservative lawmaker is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and a staunch supporter of Israel. In 2016, Rubio slammed then-candidate Trump for pledging neutrality on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
His relations with Trump warmed during the latter’s presidency, however, and he was a finalist to be Trump’s running mate this summer.
On Capitol Hill, Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He has pushed for taking a harder line against China and has targeted social media app TikTok because its parent company is Chinese. He and other lawmakers contend that Beijing could demand access to the data of users whenever it wants.
He has also accused US President Joe Biden of insufficient support for Israel as it wages war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted; Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones at Israel the next day.
In April, after Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel, Rubio said the Biden administration was working to prevent an Israeli response because it was “still catering to its anti-Israel, antisemitic base.”
In a November 2023 confrontation with activists from the far-left Code Pink group, Rubio rejected the idea of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying, “On the contrary, I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals, who committed horrifying crimes.”
Asked about innocent civilians being killed in the enclave, Rubio responded: “I care. I think it’s horrifying, I think it’s terrible, and I think Hamas is 100 percent to blame.”
America’s incoming Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, when asked about a ceasefire in Gaza, responded:
‘No, I will not. On the contrary, I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on. These people are vicious animals who committed horrifying crimes.’ pic.twitter.com/mku7VX8nlI
— Osher Feldman (@OsherFeldman) November 12, 2024
Trump announced Rubio’s nomination while flying back back to Florida from Washington, after meeting with President Joe Biden.
The selection is the culmination of a long, complicated history between the two men. During their tense competition for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, Rubio was especially blunt in his criticism of Trump, calling him a “con artist” and “the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency.”
He tried to match Trump’s often-crude attacks by joking about the size of Trump’s hands in a reference to his manhood. Trump responded by branding Rubio as “little Marco,” a nickname that stuck with the senator for years. But like many Republicans who sought to maintain their relevance in the Trump era, Rubio shifted his rhetoric.
As speculation intensified that Trump might pick him as his running mate, Rubio sought to play down the tension from 2016, suggesting the heated tone simply reflected the intensity of a campaign.
“That is like asking a boxer why they punched somebody in the face in the third round,” Rubio told CNN when asked about his previous comments. “It’s because they were boxing.”
Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as part of the tea party wave of Republicans who swept into Washington. He quickly gained a reputation as someone who could embody a more diverse, welcoming Republican Party. He was a key member of a group that worked on a 2013 immigration bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally.
But that legislation stalled in the House, where more conservative Republicans were in control, signaling the sharp turn to the right that the party — and Rubio — would soon embrace. Now, Rubio says he supports Trump’s plan to deploy the US military to deport those in the country illegally.
“We are going to have to do something, unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic,” Rubio said in a May interview with NBC.
He also echoes many of Trump’s attacks on his opponents as well as his false or unproven theories about voter fraud. After Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in what New York prosecutors charged was a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election, Rubio wrote a column for Newsweek saying Trump had “been held hostage” in court for “a sham political show trial like the ones Communists used against their political opponents in Cuba and the Soviet Union.”
Trump additionally announced on Wednesday his pick of Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic member of Congress and presidential candidate, to serve as director of national intelligence.
Gabbard, who campaigned across the country with Trump, has long taken positions outside the Washington establishment, which she has accused of starting wars for its own benefit. Before the election, she had described Rubio as part of the “neocon warmongering establishment.”
Gabbard publicly doubted the intelligence community which she is now named to head after it concluded that Syrian strongman Bashar Assad carried out a chemical attack that killed dozens.
Gabbard went to Syria to meet Assad, saying she was seeking peace. She also publicly criticized Trump in his first term for ordering a strike in Baghdad that killed top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, saying Trump carried out an “illegal and unconstitutional act of war.”
Gabbard, 43, who was deployed as a soldier to Iraq, ran as a Democrat for the presidential nomination in 2020 and held liberal positions on issues such as climate change and marijuana regulations.
Hillary Clinton at the time called her a “Russian asset.” Gabbard voiced outrage, with Clinton’s office later explaining that the former candidate meant that Moscow was boosting Gabbard to siphon votes from more traditional Democrats.
Trump said in a statement nominating her: “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community, championing our Constitutional Rights, and securing Peace through Strength.”
He also announced the pick of Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general, putting a loyalist in the role of the nation’s top prosecutor.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump said in a statement.
In selecting the congressman, Trump passed over some of the more established attorneys whose names had been mentioned as being contenders for the job.
He also selected someone to lead the Justice Department who was previously investigated by it, on suspicion of sex trafficking. The investigation ended in 2023 without charges.
Gaetz, a bombastic 42-year-old lawmaker who was sent to Washington when Trump won his first White House victory, is also under a separate investigation by the House Ethics Committee, over accusations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and dispensing special favors to people with whom he had a relationship.
He led the charge to oust former house speaker Kevin McCarthy, who declined to shut down the House investigation, in October 2023.
Trump also announced that longtime aide Dan Scavino will serve as a deputy without giving a specific portfolio, campaign political director James Blair as deputy for legislative, political and public affairs, and Taylor Budowich as deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel. All will have the rank of assistant to the president.
Trump also formally announced Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, will be deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. That had previously been confirmed by Vice President-elect JD Vance on Monday.
Miller is one of Trump’s longest-serving aides, dating back to his first campaign for the White House. He was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term and has been a central figure in many of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump’s move to separate thousands of immigrant families as a deterrence program in 2018.
