 President-elect Donald Trump has picked pro-Israel Florida senator Marco Rubio to serve as Secretary of State, according to Reuters.
From Reuters, "Trump taps US Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state, sources say":
Donald Trump selected U.S. Senator Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state, sources said on Monday, putting the Florida-born politician on track to be the first Latino to serve as America's top diplomat once the Republican president-elect takes office in January.
Rubio was arguably the most hawkish option on Trump's shortlist for secretary of state, and he has in years past advocated for a muscular foreign policy with respect to America's geopolitical foes, including China, Iran and Cuba.
Over the last several years he has softened some of his stances to align more closely with Trump's views. The president-elect accuses past U.S. presidents of leading America into costly and futile wars and has pushed for a more restrained foreign policy. From The Jewish Daily Forward, "What Secretary of State Marco Rubio would mean for American Jews and Israel":
[...] Rubio's vocal support for Israel remains consistent. As vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he visited Israel in April, and in November 2023 co-hosted a bipartisan screening for members of Congress of the film documenting atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7. Rubio likened the Israel Defense Forces' ground operation in Rafah, opposed by the Biden administration, to the Allies' pursuit of Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust.
[...] Born in Miami to Cuban parents who baptized him as a Catholic, Rubio spent three years of his youth as a Mormon. He has maintained a close relationship with the Jewish community in Florida, estimated at 5% of the state's electorate.
Norman Braman, an auto dealership magnate and past president of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, was Rubio's political patron and the single-largest backer of his presidential campaign in 2016. In 2015, Democrats in Florida criticized Rubio for holding a fundraising event on Yom Kippur at the Texas home of Harlan Crow, a conservative philanthropist whose art collection includes works by Adolf Hitler, a signed copy of Mein Kampf and a "cabinet full of place settings and linens used by the Nazi leader."
Rubio is a longtime supporter of Orthodox and religious causes. But he also angered Orthodox leaders in 2022 for introducing a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent across the nation. (The bill would have made it more difficult to attend morning prayers and get to work on time.) The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent but it was stalled in the House.
Rubio excused Trump after he repeatedly accused American Jews of disloyalty to Israel and suggested they hate their religion by voting for Democrats. "Being your religion and being pro-Israel can be two separate things," Rubio said on CBS News Face the Nation in March. He accused President Joe Biden of trying to appeal to "antisemites" in the Democratic party by critiquing Israel's war in Gaza.
The Florida senator said he supports Trump's plan to deport foreign students who engaged in fomenting the pro-Palestinian campus protests. In April, he called for punishing supporters of the Israel boycott movement in efforts to counter growing antisemitism.
Last year, after Oct. 7, as criticism mounted over TikTok's role in amplifying antisemitic and anti-Israel content on its social media platform, Rubio wrote on X, "TikTok is a tool China uses to spread propaganda to Americans, now it's being used to downplay Hamas terrorism." He took a leading role in a congressional effort to ban TikTok in 2022. This is a sidegrade at best from Antony Blinken and a clear downgrade from Rex Tillerson, who Trump picked to be Secretary of State during his first term.
Rubio's rhetoric has improved over the years as the base has moved right but on policy he's still Israel First.
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