Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state by the Senate on Monday by a vote of 99-0.
Rubio will play a key role in fulfilling many of Trump’s most ambitious campaign pledges, including putting a stop to the conflict in Ukraine, thwarting China’s expanding might, and enacting a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Democrats paved the path for a streamlined confirmation process after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee overwhelmingly recommended Rubio’s confirmation earlier Monday.
For one of their own, it is a thundering demonstration of Senate bipartisanship.
Since 2011, the 53-year-old Floridian has been a member of the Senate. Before withdrawing and supporting Trump, he was a presidential candidate in 2016. He was on Trump’s shortlist for vice president in 2024.
Rubio is a well-known China hawk who is against restoring relations with Cuba and would be the first Latino to serve as secretary of state.
As Axios first reported, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Ashley Moody, the state’s attorney general, to take Rubio’s spot in the Senate.
One of the biggest foreign policy difficulties facing the Trump administration will be Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which will begin its fourth year next month.
Trump will sign more than 200 executive actions, a vast first wave of policy priorities centered on energy, border security, lowering the cost of living for American families, terminating DEI programs throughout the federal government, and more.
“The president is issuing a historic series of executive orders and actions that will fundamentally reform the American government, including the complete and total restoration of American sovereignty,” the official told Fox News.
Trump will declare a national border emergency on the first day, order the U.S. military to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security to completely secure the southern border, and make it a national priority to eradicate all criminal cartels that are active on American soil.
Trump will issue a proclamation closing the border to all illegal aliens.
Additionally, Trump plans to form homeland security task forces comprising FBI, ICE, CEA, and other law enforcement officers to “fully eradicate the presence of criminal cartels.”
To fulfill his homeland security mission, Trump will also order the designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, according to the official.
Trump will also re-institute “Remain in Mexico,” and direct the military to construct a new area of border wall. He will grant emergency authorities to suspend the entry of illegal aliens across the southwest border, allowing for individuals apprehended to be “swiftly returned to their countries of origin.”
Trump will “fully unleash” Alaskan energy, which the official described as essential to U.S. national security.
The senior official told Fox News that the energy executive order deals with “every single energy policy,” and addresses liquid natural gas, ports, fracking, pipelines, permitting, and more, while also terminating President Biden’s policies, which he said “have constrained U.S. energy supply.”
Additionally, the official stated that Trump will completely overhaul the federal bureaucracy by reinstating presidential authority over the career federal workforce and letting federal employees know that they can lose their jobs if they don’t follow executive orders.
Trump will issue an executive order to establish a new merit-based hiring review and increase presidential authority over top government officials. Trump will also act to get federal employees back to working face-to-face.
The official also said Trump will end the “weaponization of the federal government,” and “restore freedom of speech” and “end federal censorship.”
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