FLORIDA, USA — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is officially President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of State. Trump made the announcement Wednesday. Now, it's up to the Republican-controlled Senate to confirm Rubio to that appointment.
Rubio, a Miami native who was first elected to Congress in 2010 and ran against Trump as a presidential candidate in 2016, was reportedly among a shortlist of Trump's potential vice presidential picks earlier this year before the former president chose JD Vance as his running mate.
Rubio and Trump's relationship might once have seemed an unlikely possibility, given that the two were bitter rivals in 2016 for the GOP nomination and viciously attacked one another. Trump belittled Rubio as “Little Marco,” mocked him for drinking water during speeches and called him a “nervous basket case," who was “disgusting." Rubio said Trump was a “con man” who tried to “swindle” the Republican Party. Rubio also tried to question Trump's manhood.
“You know what they say about men with small hands,” Rubio quipped at one point during that campaign.
But now, they appear to have smoothed things over, with Rubio joining Trump on the campaign trail endorsing him, being named to the aforementioned VP shortlist, and now being named as part of the president-elect's cabinet.
What does the Secretary of State do?
The U.S. Secretary of State is the president's "chief foreign affairs advisor," according to the U.S. Department of State.
Under the Constitution, the president decides foreign policy for the United States. To facilitate those decisions, the president appoints a secretary of state to carry out foreign policies "through the State Department and the Foreign Service" of the U.S.
The duties of the Secretary of State – the activities and responsibilities of the State Department – include the following:
- Serves as the President’s principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy;
- Conducts negotiations relating to U.S. foreign affairs;
- Grants and issues passports to American citizens and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States;
- Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic representatives;
- Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign governments;
- Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and agencies;
- Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;
- Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries;
- Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;
- Provides information to American citizens regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian conditions in foreign countries;
- Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;
- Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;
- Administers the Department of State;
- Supervises the Foreign Service of the United States.
If you're unfamiliar with Rubio or need a refresher on the Florida Republican, here's a look at the U.S. senator's life, family and faith.
Who is Marco Rubio's family?
Rubio was born in Miami in 1971 to Cuban immigrants who were "pursuing the American Dream." Raised primarily in Miami, he says his father worked as a banquet bartender and his mom split her time as a homemaker and maid at a local hotel.
Rubio credits the draw to public service largely to his grandfather, "who saw his homeland destroyed by communism."
According to his bio, Rubio lost his father in 2010 just two months before he won his first election to the U.S. Senate.
Rubio met his wife Jeanette, a fellow native of Miami, through mutual friends, his website said. They have been married since 1998. According to Rubio's campaign website, Jeanette was born in Miami to parents of Colombian descent.
Together, they have four children: Amanda, Daniella, Anthony and Dominick. Jeanette reportedly spent "several years focused on raising" their kids before creating a consulting firm that works for the Braman Family Charitable Foundation in South Florida.
What are Marco Rubio's religious beliefs?
According to a Politico article from 2016, Rubio has had a "complicated religious history." Speaking to supporters when he was a presidential hopeful, he reportedly said he went from "Catholicism to Mormonism back to Catholicism to a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated evangelical megachurch and finally back to Catholicism."
“I’m fully, theologically, doctrinally aligned with the Roman Catholic Church,” Rubio said at the time, according to Politico.
In 2023, Rubio spoke to students at Liberty University, a Christian college, and said Christians should "stand on their truths" in political issues.
“Our faith should participate in our political lives,” Rubio reportedly said, “and it must, in order to protect our freedom to worship, to stand for truth — the truth that an unborn human being is a human being, the truth that every single human being born into this world is the product of a biological male and a biological female, (and) the truth that the family is the most important truth in society.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
