Trump expected to pick 'rabid neocon' Marco Rubio for secretary of state

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 23, 2016 (Gage Skidmore)
Jake Johnson
and
Common Dreams
November 12, 2024News & Politics

President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly decided to name Republican Sen. Marco Rubio as his secretary of state, a move that would elevate to the status of top U.S. diplomat one of the most reliable war hawks and interventionists in Congress.

Rubio (R-Fla.), whom Trump once attacked as a "little puppet" of the late pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon Adelson, has vocally backed Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, agitated for a military confrontation with Iran, and encouraged a coup in Venezuela. The Florida senator is also a China hardliner, much like Trump's national security adviser pick, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.).

The New York Times, which first reported the Rubio selection late Monday, noted that Trump "could still change his mind at the last minute."

The expected Rubio pick runs counter to Trump's attempt during the presidential campaign to posture as a "candidate of peace," which is how Vice President-elect JD Vance described Trump in the run-up to last week's election.

"Trump's emerging 'national security' team is shaping up to be a kettle of hawkish neocons," wroteDrop Site's Jeremy Scahill, pointing out that Waltz was a "counterterrorism adviser" to Iraq War architect Dick Cheney.

Scahill went on to characterize Rubio and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.)—Trump's pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations—as "B-list neocon warmongers."

Scahill's colleague, Ryan Grim, called Trump's likely selection of Rubio as U.S. secretary of state a "huge win" for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Iran have plunged the Middle East into a regional war.

"Marco Rubio is a rabid neocon" who "never met a war he didn't want somebody else to fight," Grim wrote on social media late Monday.

With Republicans set to retake control of the Senate, Trump will likely face little difficulty confirming Rubio and other expected members of his Cabinet. Despite this, Trump is pushing Senate majority leader hopefuls to commit to allowing recess appointments, which would enable Trump to install administration officials without confirmation from the upper chamber.

Trump has yet to name his pick to lead the Pentagon, but his secretary of state and national security adviser choices hardly indicate a break from a foreign policy establishment that has produced catastrophic wars costing millions of lives and trillions of dollars.

Kaniela Ing, national director of the Green New Deal Network, noted Monday that "Rubio supported for-profit wars in Iraq, Afghanistan longer than anyone should."

"He's one of Netanyahu's top apologists, blindly fueling the ongoing genocide in Gaza," Ing added. "Trump's non-interventionist, anti-establishment mask is off. Millions of you got had."