Marco Antonio Rubio is the first Latino American, currently serving as the 72nd Secretary of State of the United States of America under the second presidency of Donald John Trump. A Republican Party member, Rubio served as US senator from Florida and speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
The historic confirmation of the former member of the U.S. Senate, Rubio was unanimously confirmed and took office on January 21, 2025, right after the oath of office ceremony from Vice President JD Vance.
On his first day in office, Secretary Rubio emphasized the importance of the advancement of the national interest of the United States in the whole world. He also acknowledged the talented minds and brilliant ideas behind the department; he vowed to serve with integrity, honor, and service. In his speech, he addressed the employees that they were diplomats who demonstrated, “…tremendous integrity and dedication,” as they were the face of the country overseas.
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered him to promote America’s national interest before he took his oath of office. “To ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interest…as anything that makes us stronger, safer, and prosperous, and that would be our mission. That would be our job across the world… To ensure that we have a foreign policy that advances the national interest of the United States.”
President Trump’s America First pronouncement in his inauguration reflects the harmonization of policy from both domestically and overseas. Although countries around the world advance their national interest in the international community, State Secretary Rubio believed that, “We expect all the countries to advance their national interest. And in those instances, and I hope there would be many in which our national interests (and theirs) are aligned with them.”
The Cuban American descent is known to be the “virtual secretary of state for Latin America” during the first term of the Trump administration and in the US Congress as the most belligerent to China and the Chinese Communist Party. As a consequence, China sanctioned Rubio twice and was also banned from entering China.
The Trump administration has a bold commitment to promote peace around the world by preventing conflicts. “The promotion of peace, the avoidance of conflict,” Secretary Rubio stated. He further emphasized the value of considerations by not trading off the value against the American people.
“We recognize that there would be those times that, unfortunately, there would be conflict, but never at the expense of our national security, never at the expense of our national interests, and never at the expense of our core value as a nation and as people.”
US Secretary Rubio inspired the department by sharing, “I want the Department of State to have the best ideas and the best options available for the President. I want us to be able to execute them better than any other agency in the government….. We want to be at the centerpiece; we want to be at the core of how we formulate foreign policy…”
“We need to be a 21st-century agency that can move by cliché that is used by many at the speed of relevance. We need to move faster than we ever have because the world is faster than we ever have.”
Faced by the interconnected global disputes and crises among other nations that make the world distorted with unknown geopolitical dynamics, the credentials and vast experience of the new Secretary of State on foreign relations and domestic politics will certainly serve as a leadership arsenal to the American people around the world.
