Marco Rubio has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate as the next Secretary of State.
The Florida senator, 53, and former presidential candidate, was confirmed with a resounding bipartisan vote from his colleagues and himself.
His nomination to head the State Department cleared the Senate earlier in the evening, amid a series of other Trump Cabinet picks that also presented major hurdles.
The Senate then decided to immediately consider Rubio's confirmation before its 100 members; even the Florida Republican himself got to vote on his own fate.
Rubio's nomination follows a Senate tradition of confirming at least one member of the presidential Cabinet on Inauguration Day, dating back to Bill Clinton's first day in office.
Normally, the nominees are important to national security, and as the incoming head of the State Department, Rubio will have a lot to do in that sense.
Trump wants to take back the Panama Canal, rename the Gulf of Mexico, end the war between Russia and Ukraine and engage the Middle East, which he talked about on Monday.
“I want to be a peacemaker and a unifier,” Trump said minutes after his inauguration. “I am happy to say that hostages in the Middle East have been returning home to their families since yesterday, a day before I took office.”
Senator Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, arrives ahead of Trump's inauguration as the 47th President of the United States at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. He was confirmed Monday evening by the Senate and elected Secretary of State
Scott Bessent, nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, nominee for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, nominee for Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, nominee for Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner and Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in
Marco Rubio during his Senate confirmation hearing
“America will regain its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful and most respected nation on earth, which will inspire the awe and admiration of the entire world,” he added, looking ahead to his US ambitions on the world stage.
As the US's top diplomat, Rubio is now tasked with negotiating the complicated landscape of global affairs on behalf of the president and achieving the lofty goals he has set.
Talking to Canadian colleagues about America's northern neighbor joining the US and negotiating with Danish officials to acquire Greenland are serious potential tasks that Rubio could be tasked with.
Rubio has even recently given credence to claims that the Panama Canal is influenced by China, a key point Trump has made for its recapture.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month, Rubio said the canal needs to be reevaluated.
He also suggested that the agreement under which the US transferred the country to Panama may have been violated.
“I'm compelled to suspect that an argument could be made that the terms under which that channel was transferred have been violated,” Rubio said in response to a question from Senator John Curtis of Utah.
Rubio said Panama has not transferred sovereignty over the canal, but he expressed concerns about Chinese ports operating on either side of it.
“The reality is that today, through their companies, which we know are not independent, a foreign power has the ability to turn the canal into a chokepoint in a moment of conflict,” Rubio said.
Trump and Rubio at a campaign rally at the JS Dorton Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 4, 2024
Republican US presidential candidate Marco Rubio and rival candidate Donald Trump (R) speak simultaneously during the US Republican presidential candidates debate in Detroit, Michigan, America
Rubio shakes hands with Vice President JD Vance
Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, during a lunch following the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC
Rubio warned it is a “direct threat to US national interests and security.”
In addition to Rubio, a cast of Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees also moved closer to officially joining his administration on Monday evening.
Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host whose nomination as defense secretary has generated some controversy, left the committee 14-13 and will soon be eligible for a full confirmation vote.
