The rumors in Washington are growing louder. There are reports that US President-elect Donald Trump will soon nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
Rubio, who serves on the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees and is known for his hard-line approach to U.S. foreign policy, would become the first Latino to hold a top U.S. office if nominated and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. diplomat.
It would also mark a surprising reversal from the 2016 Republican presidential primary, in which the two men infamously traded nicknames.
Experts said that after the public debate, Rubio appears to have adjusted his views over the years to align with Trump’s positions on issues including the Ukraine war and immigration policy.
Let’s take a look at how the Florida senator’s relationship with Trump has changed over time and what we know about Sen. Rubio’s views on key foreign policy issues.
How it all began: ‘Little Marco’, ‘Little Hand Trump’
The two clashed during the 2016 presidential primary when President Trump mocked Rubio for sweating a lot and called him “Little Marco.”
Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. The problem is that he is a choker, and once a choker, always a choker! Mr. Meltdown.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2016
Rubio counterattacked this remark. “I don’t understand why his (Trump’s) hands are the size of a 5-foot-2 person. … You know what they say about men with small hands? You can’t trust them.”
But trust him. He did. Rubio ended up endorsing Trump for president after dropping out of the primary.
Do Trump and Rubio agree on Ukraine?
On paper, the two appear to have different approaches to U.S. foreign policy.
Rubio is closer to a traditional interventionist who advocates a strong approach to diplomatic disputes, while Trump’s foreign policy has focused on avoiding foreign military intervention.
This has at times led Rubio to publicly criticize Trump’s foreign policy, including in 2019 when he accused the then-President of “giving up” on U.S. military operations in Syria before they were “completely finished.”
But in recent years, experts said Rubio has softened his stance to align with Trump.
“Rubio is a flexible and pragmatic politician who has adapted to the rise of President Trump,” Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.
One of those changes is Rubio’s approach to the war in Ukraine.
In the first months after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Rubio enthusiastically mobilized support for Ukraine among Americans through social media.
During that time, he labeled Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘murderer’ and questioned his mental health.
I’d love to share more information, but at this point I can tell you that it’s very obvious to many that there is a problem. #Putin
He’s always been a murderer, but now his problems are different and important.
It would be a mistake to assume that President Putin will react the same way he did five years ago.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 26, 2022
On the other hand, President Trump has claimed that President Putin would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 if he had been in power.
President Trump, who takes office again in January, also said he could end the conflict “within 24 hours.” He suggested that Ukraine might have to cede territory to Russia to reach a peace deal.
Musgrave said Rubio has softened his stance but has a “pragmatic, flexible and more attractive face” than Trump’s verbose rhetoric.
In a recent interview, Rubio suggested that Ukraine should seek a “negotiated solution” with Russia, and he was one of 15 Republican senators who voted against the military aid package for Ukraine passed in April.
Rubio said the United States can expect a more “pragmatic foreign policy” under President Trump.
Are Trump and Rubio aligned in their support for Israel?
The two first clashed over the issue in 2016, with Rubio, a longtime supporter of Israel, accusing Trump of being “anti-Israel” and issuing a statement titled “Fact Check: Donald Trump is not an ally of Israel.”
Rubio’s remarks were in reference to Trump’s suggestion that he would “be kind of a neutral person” in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In his first term in office, President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thereby dispelling all doubts about its neutrality.
He later criticized President Joe Biden, who defeated him in the 2020 election, for holding back Israel’s war in Gaza, and said during a debate with Biden in June that he would help Israel “get the job done” if re-elected.
Rubio has taken a typically hawkish stance on Israel’s war in Gaza, telling an activist in 2023 that he did not support a ceasefire and that Hamas was “100% responsible” for the deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
He then supported Trump’s plan to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters to force them to “act.”
Nader Hashemi, an associate professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University, told Al Jazeera that Rubio’s past comments on the conflict, especially when referring to Palestinians, were sometimes “indistinguishable from (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu’s.” “You can,” he said.
Rubio has defended Israel’s right to conduct ground operations in Rafah, citing the “tremendous risk” to Palestinians, despite the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel halt its offensive. He likened Israel’s operation to the pursuit of Adolf Hitler during World War II.
But in April, Rubio voted against a bill providing emergency funding to Israel, signaling that he was moving away from unrestricted support for foreign wars more in line with Trump’s foreign policy approach. It also includes funding for U.S. border enforcement.
Has Rubio changed his views on immigration to align with Trump’s?
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, appears to have shifted to a more populist approach on immigration.
Musgrave said that early in his career, Rubio “was a force trying to change the Republican Party to be more open to immigration and more open to diversity.”
In 2003, while a member of the Florida House of Representatives, Rubio co-sponsored a version of the DREAM Act that would have allowed undocumented immigrant students to receive green cards if they met certain criteria.
When Rubio became speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 2006, he delayed immigration reform that would have cracked down on undocumented immigrants.
After being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, he began to take a harder line on immigration, but his stance remained considerably more relaxed than Trump’s hardline immigration policies. For example, in 2016, Rubio said mass deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants was not a “realistic policy.”
But now, Musgrave said Rubio has shifted to “an anti-immigrant, legal immigrant stance that maintains both his political base and President Trump’s policies.”
But in recent months, Rubio has defended Trump’s more populist rhetoric, including remarks that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
“It’s a word he (Trump) uses, but it has nothing to do with race,” Rubio said in a Spanish-language TV interview. “The country is threatened by this influx of people. Criminals and terrorists.”
