US: Trump plans to pick Marco Rubio as US Secretary of State, says report
Washington DC: President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Sen Marco Rubio as his Secretary of state, The New York Times and other US news outlets have reported citing sources.
Rubio, the 53-yearold Republican Senator from Florida has been tapped for the position the US daily said on Monday (local time) citing three people familiar with Trump's thinking.
Following his win over Democratic candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump is moving to fill out his foreign policy and national security team ahead of his formal inauguration in January 2025.
Trump had considered choosing Rubio as his running mate earlier this year. Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has staked out a position as a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China and Iran in particular as per the New York Times.
CNN reported that Trump set his sights on Rubio after initially favouring former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell for the job.
Previously Rubio had said that he believed a Trump administration would broker "a negotiated settlement" to end the war in Ukraine. Rubio and Trump were bitter rivals in 2016 when they were both competing for the Republican party's presidential primaries. Rubio had then called Trump a "con artist" while the president-elect liked to call the former "Little Marco."
Born to Cuban immigrants in Miami, Rubio holds a political science degree from the University of Florida. He was elected to the US Senate as senator for Florida in 2010 after serving in the state house -- including as speaker -- for more than a decade.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio advocated for Libyan intervention in 2011, and criticized then-President Trump in 2019 for proposing to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan.
Following Trump's win, Rubio in an interview with CNN said that the US. will see "pragmatic foreign policy" with Trump in the White House.
"We're entering into an era of pragmatic foreign policy in which the world is rapidly changing," Rubio said in an interview with CNN. "Adversaries are uniting -- North Korea, Iran, China, Russia are increasingly coordinating -- it's going to require us to be very pragmatic and wise and how we invest overseas and what we do," he was cited as saying.
Also, Trump has asked Mike Waltz, Republican senator from Florida, to serve as his national security adviser, according to CNN and Fox News among other outlets.
Further, as per Politico Trump has also announced his pick of Lee Zeldin, Republican Senator from New York as the chief of the the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
A statement said that Trump ally Zeldin, "will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American business while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards."
Yesterday, the president-elect announced his White House chief of staff and border czar.
Attorney general, CIA director, White House counsel and secretaries of defence, state and homeland security are top priorities for Trump, according to The New York Times,
Trump on Monday nominated Republican representative Elise Stefanik to serve as the next US Ambassador to the United Nations, according to a report by CNN.
Trump also praised Stefanik as "an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter" in a statement.
Earlier in the day yesterday, Trump named Tom Homan, who was the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his last administration as in charge of the nation's borders.
"I am pleased to announce that the former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation's Borders ("The Border Czar"), including, but not limited to, the Southern Border, the Northern Border, all Maritime, and Aviation Security," Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Sunday, as reported by CNN.
