Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told senators the U.S. as a superpower is standing at a crossroads, and the “postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.”
Rubio, who is President-elect Donald Trump‘s pick to be Secretary of State, sought to characterize established geopolitics as a failing system in his first appearance sitting before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a body he was once a member of.
“Out of the triumphalism of the end of long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus that we had reached ‘the end of history.’ That all the nations of Earth would become members of the democratic Western-led community,” Rubio said in his opening testimony. “That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the ‘liberal world order.’ And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity, and we would become ‘one human family’ and ‘citizens of the world.'”
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He added: “This wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion.”
Rubio — often described as a hawk — was in some ways a surprise choice for Trump, who has made disentangling the U.S. from foreign conflicts a to priority of his second administration.
He promised to hold closely to Trump’s foreign policy agenda if confirmed to head the State Department, stating that “under President Trump, the dollars of hardworking American taxpayers will always be spent wisely and our power will always be yielded prudently, and toward what is best for America and Americans above all else.”
A veteran of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Intelligence Panel, Rubio is widely seen as one of Trump’s least controversial Cabinet picks, and is expected to sail through the nomination process.
“President Trump returns to office with an unmistakable mandate from the voters,” Rubio told the Senate committee. “They want a strong America. Engaged in the world. But guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”
“That is the promise President Trump was elected to keep,” he continued. “And if I am confirmed, keeping that promise will be the core mission of the United States Department of State.”
If confirmed, Rubio will be the first Latino to ever hold the office of secretary of state.
Rubio has had a rollercoaster relationship with the president-elect over the past nine years.
Rubio and Trump ran against each other during the 2016 Republican primary. At the time, Rubio characterized the business mogul as a “con artist” who has “spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy.”
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Trump regularly mocked Rubio in return, branding him with the nickname “Little Marco” and calling him a “liar” who is not “presidential material.”
Following Trump’s victory in the primary and subsequent election as the 45th president of the United States, Rubio changed gears. He became a close ally of Trump’s first administration and endorsed his 2024 Republican primary campaign.