Following his expected Senate approval after confirmation hearings, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) will step into the role of secretary of state, but his influence and responsibilities may be significantly diminished compared to his predecessors.
According to an Axios report, Rubio will face challenges in asserting his authority, particularly as President-elect Donald Trump has already delegated significant foreign policy duties to other envoys before even assuming office.
While Rubio has refrained from speaking with foreign leaders until after his confirmation, multiple Trump appointees, including envoys, have been engaging in diplomacy and negotiations long before the president-elect is officially sworn in.
“Rubio has extensive foreign policy and national security experience from his years in the Senate, but he isn’t a member of Trump’s inner circle. He’ll have to fight for influence and for Trump’s ear as the U.S. decides how to handle a range of conflicts and alliances around the world,” Axios journalist Barak Ravid wrote.
Ravid pointed out that while many foreign policy matters are typically handled from the White House, Trump’s administration has taken a different approach by assigning multiple presidential envoys significant roles in managing key international issues.
These include the Middle East, the Gaza crisis, and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, all of which are already being addressed by Trump’s appointed envoys, while Rubio remains notably absent from these critical conversations.
One of Rubio’s greatest challenges, according to the report, is Trump appointee Rick Grenell, who has been given a broad mandate by the president-elect to involve himself in foreign policy discussions. “His broad job description could allow him to get involved in many other foreign policy files and step on the State Department’s turf,” Ravid reported.
The source also noted that Grenell is well-positioned to succeed Rubio if he leaves the administration in the coming years, as many Trump insiders expect. In this environment, Rubio’s role as secretary of state may be fraught with limitations, as he navigates a landscape where much of the foreign policy power has already been assigned to others within the Trump administration.