The cupboard of United States President Donald Trump has began to take form, with its first nominee confirmed to a task: Florida lawmaker Marco Rubio.
On Tuesday, Rubio, 53, was sworn in as secretary of state, the nation’s chief diplomat and the highest-ranking function within the cupboard, second solely to the vp and president.
The ceremony got here after a uncommon unanimous vote within the Senate to raise him to the function.
All 99 members voted in favour: The one vote lacking within the 100-seat chamber was Rubio himself, as he needed to step down as senator to take up his new place.
Talking on the swearing-in ceremony, Vice President JD Vance described Rubio as a “wanted departure from a era of failed international coverage”.
“He’s a bipartisan solutions-seeker, a man who can truly get issues executed, however a conservative of nice precept and imaginative and prescient,” Vance mentioned. “And I feel greater than anyone that I’ve met in Washington over the previous few years, Senator Rubio, I feel, understands the distinctive priorities of President Trump.”
However what has Rubio pledged to do in his new function? And what did Tuesday’s ceremony reveal concerning the newly-minted diplomat? Listed here are three takeaways.
Rubio defends State Division workers
In his first remarks as secretary of state, Rubio praised the federal workers who conduct day-to-day operations on the US Division of State, the chief company he’s now charged with working.
“That is a rare honour and a privilege to serve on this function, to be right here — frankly, to supervise the best, the simplest, essentially the most proficient, essentially the most skilled diplomatic corps within the historical past of the world,” Rubio mentioned.
“ I need to additionally thank the regionally employed employees, the nationals of these nations who work with us,” he added. “With out their assist, with out their help, it could be unimaginable for us to conduct our mission.”
Rubio’s remarks come at a delicate time for federal civil servants, as Trump sweeps into workplace with a raft of government actions designed to rein in authorities forms.
Simply sooner or later earlier, on the primary day of his second time period, Trump threatened to fireside these workers he perceives as loyal to his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
“To achieve quick management of the huge federal out-of-control forms, I’ll implement a direct regulation freeze, which is able to cease Biden bureaucrats from persevering with to manage,” Trump advised supporters gathered on the Capitol One Area in Washington, DC.
“Most of these bureaucrats are being fired. They’re gone. Needs to be all of them, however some sneak by.”
In contrast, Rubio entered his new function defending the work of the State Division and praising its workers.
“ There’s no different company on this planet, there’s no different company in our authorities, that I’d moderately lead due to the expertise that’s collected right here on this room and people watching world wide,” he mentioned.
Rubio pledges to advance ‘America First’
Nonetheless, Rubio as soon as once more restated his agency dedication to advancing Trump’s “America First” coverage platform, and warned that modifications would come to the State Division in consequence.
“There might be modifications, however the modifications aren’t meant to be harmful. They’re not meant to be punitive,” he advised the viewers at his swearing-in, made up largely of State Division workers.
Rubio outlined a imaginative and prescient the place the State Division takes extra of a number one function in authorities affairs.
“Typically, the Division of State has been form of relegated to a secondary function as a result of another company can transfer sooner or appears to be bolder or extra inventive,” Rubio mentioned.
“It’s not your fault. However we’re going to alter that. We need to be on the centrepiece. We need to be on the core of how we formulate international coverage.”
The previous senator defined that the division’s function shifting ahead could be extra inward-looking, searching for to craft insurance policies that may make the US “stronger or safer or extra affluent”.
He additionally suggested workers to have a look at Trump’s election to a second time period in November as a mandate to centre US priorities.
“Our job, internationally, is to make sure that now we have a international coverage that advances the nationwide curiosity of america,” he mentioned, including: “I count on each nation on earth to advance their nationwide pursuits.”
Balancing hawkishness with peace
However regardless of his unifying tone on Tuesday, Rubio confronted protesters as he sat for Senate hearings about his nomination over the previous week.
“Little Marco, preserve your palms off our nation!” one protester shouted, denouncing the US’s involvement in “eternally wars”.
One other, talking Spanish, criticised hardline US insurance policies overseas: “The sanctions of Marco Rubio are killing youngsters in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.”
Rubio brushed apart the interruptions with light-hearted remarks. “I get the bilingual protesters,” the lawmaker, a baby of Cuban immigrants, quipped. He would be the first Latino particular person to function secretary of state.
However the protests have been a reminder of Rubio’s status as a foreign-policy hawk, recognized for his aggressive stance to US adversaries abroad.
One specific goal throughout Rubio’s affirmation hearings was China, which has sanctioned the Florida politician for his help of Hong Kong’s autonomy. He advised senators final week that he believed the US-China rivalry would “outline the twenty first century”.
“The Communist Get together of China that leads the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is essentially the most potent and harmful near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted,” Rubio mentioned.
He defined the specter of China dwarfed that of the US’s Chilly Battle rival, the Soviet Union.
“They’ve parts that the Soviet Union by no means possessed. They’re our technological adversary and competitor, an industrial competitor, an financial competitor, a geopolitical competitor, a scientific competitor now — in each realm.”
Nonetheless, regardless of his hawkish posture, Rubio advised State Division workers on Tuesday that he deliberate to observe by with Trump’s guarantees of delivering world peace.
“That’s what we endeavour to do: to advertise peace world wide as a result of that’s in our nationwide curiosity,” Rubio mentioned. “With out peace, it’s onerous to be a robust nation, a affluent nation.”
He did, nonetheless, admit that “there might be battle”. In explaining how he seen US coverage overseas, he echoed rhetoric well-liked among the many Christian proper: particularly, that the US is based on a spiritual mandate.
“We’re, on the finish of the day, a nation based on a robust precept. And that highly effective precept is that every one males are created equal as a result of our rights come from God, our creator — not from our legal guidelines, not from our governments,” Rubio mentioned.
“We hope your complete world can sooner or later dwell underneath that. And we’ll at all times, at all times be robust defenders of that precept.”
