Senate confirms Marco Rubio as secretary of state, giving Trump the first member of Cabinet

WASHINGTON, DC-JANUARY 15: On January 15, 2025, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the nominee of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for Secretary of State, speaks at his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington

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    Florida Senator Marco Rubio was approved as secretary of state 99-0 as President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet member.
    
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    The longtime Republican senator was considered the least controversial of Trump’s appointments, likely leading to his overwhelming approval.
    
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    Rubio will be the nation s top diplomat, and the first Latino to ever hold the position. He was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants and has been involved in foreign policy for years.
    

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  Florida Senator Marco Rubio was approved as secretary of state 99-0 as President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet member.
  
• 
  The longtime Republican senator was considered the least controversial of Trump’s appointments, likely leading to his overwhelming approval.
  
• 
  Rubio will be the nation s top diplomat, and the first Latino to ever hold the position. He was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants and has been involved in foreign policy for years.
  

FOX 2-WASHINGTON (AP)—On Inauguration Day, the Senate unanimously elected Marco Rubio as secretary of state, expeditiously confirming him as the first member of President Donald Trump’s new Cabinet.

The vote was 99-0, and Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, is one of the least contentious of Trump’s selections. John Ratcliffe’s appointment as CIA director is likewise anticipated to be swiftly approved. Later in the week, action is anticipated on other candidates, such as Fox News anchor and former combat veteran Pete Hegseth for defense secretary.

“Marco Rubio is a very intelligent man with a remarkable understanding of American foreign policy,” said the oldest Republican senator, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as the chamber began to convene.

Overview:

It is customary for the Senate to meet right away following the inauguration ceremony to start assembling the new president’s team, especially the national security officials. The Senate quickly confirmed Trump’s homeland security and defense secretaries on the first day of his first term, and on his own Inauguration Day, President Joe Biden’s choice to be the director of national intelligence was also confirmed.

Despite early skepticism and pushback from both sides of the aisle, Trump’s outsider Cabinet choices are increasingly making sense now that he is back in the White House and his Republican Party has majorities in Congress.

John Thune, the Senate majority leader, made a swift statement on Monday, stating that he anticipated voting on Trump’s selections to start “imminently”.

Instead of just blocking Trump’s candidates, Democrats have determined that it would be better for them to appear more cooperative. They are refusing to back some of his other, less popular choices, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, for health secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Leader of the Senate, stated that his party will “neither rubber-stamp nominees we feel are grossly unqualified, nor oppose nominees that deserve serious consideration.”

He claimed that Rubio exemplifies “a qualified nominee we think should be confirmed quickly.”

More than a dozen of the Cabinet nominees have already had protracted confirmation hearings in Senate committees, and more are scheduled to begin this week. Additionally, it is anticipated that a number of panels would convene late Monday to start voting in order to send the nominations to the Senate for confirmation.

Late Monday, Rubio’s candidacy was advanced by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hegseth and Ratcliffe were nominated by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, respectively.

In recent years, Rubio, a popular senator and Trump opponent in the 2016 presidential contest, has become closer to the president. He has been a member of the Foreign Relations Committee for more than ten years, and he made an appearance last week to answer questions.

Rubio would be the first Latino to serve as secretary of state and the country’s top diplomat. He has long been active in international affairs, especially in South America, and has become a hawk on China’s ascent. He was born in Miami to Cuban immigrants.

Rubio spoke about the repercussions of America’s “unbalanced relationship” with China at his confirmation hearing last week. Rubio is seen as an internationalist who recognizes the value of American engagement on the world arena, even as he echoing Trump’s anti-globalist rhetoric.

Both Democrats and Republicans are likely to back Rubio in a bipartisan manner. He would succeed outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has expressed his hope that the Trump administration will carry on Biden’s Middle East policies in order to help Ukraine fight the Russian threat and put an end to the war in Gaza.

The Senate is divided 53-47, but vice president JD Vance’s resignation reduces the GOP majority to 52 until his replacement takes office. For Republicans to overcome Democratic resistance to nominations, nearly every member of the party must be in line.

As is to be expected with Hegseth and a number of other options, a single senator’s objection would compel the Senate to take procedural actions that would postpone voting until later in the week.

The Source: The Associated Press collected this data.