Trump officially nominates Marco Rubio for secretary of State

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday officially announced he will nominate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to be secretary of State, ending a nearly two-day delay between initial reports and the official announcement.

In a statement, Trump said that Rubio is a “Highly Respected Leader, and a very powerful Voice for Freedom.” Trump also called Rubio a “strong Advocate for our nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our allies.”

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the top Republican on the selective Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He ran against Trump for president in 2016, but once Trump entered office he became a key ally of the White House on Latin America policy. Rubio was a contender to be Trump’s running mate, though he ultimately lost out to Vice President-elect JD Vance.

The announcement comes as speculation swirled over the delay in announcing Rubio’s nomination to the role of America’s top diplomat. Some allies of former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and top Trump loyalist Richard Grenell insisted that no decision had been made, despite media reports that Trump planned to nominate Rubio. And Rubio faced criticism from some corners of the Republican Party for his more traditional and neoconservative views on foreign policy and national security.

However, Rubio is expected to face little resistance from his fellow Republicans in his confirmation process. Reports of Rubio’s nomination prompted expressions of praise from across the Republican Party, and even some Democrats. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rubio’s Democratic counterpart on the selective Senate panel, celebrated the announcement, saying in a statement Wednesday that “while we don’t always agree, he is smart, talented, and will be a strong voice for American interests around the globe.”

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Conservatives have signaled they’re not planning to make it easy for the speaker to keep his position in a floor vote in January.

By Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers11/13/2024, 4:15pm ET

Mike Johnson clinched the internal GOP nod to serve as speaker again. But he’s not in the clear yet — the true test is a formal vote on the House floor in January, where he’ll have almost no room for error.

House Republicans voted unanimously Wednesday to make Johnson their speaker nominee, according to three people in the room. The Louisiana Republican has been shoring up support for months, crisscrossing the country to campaign for his colleagues, and the party is expected to hold onto House control by a slim margin.

Johnson was widely expected to clear the simple majority threshold required in the private conference meeting, despite conservative complaints about how he handled spending and other issues during his first year as speaker. It’s a problem that will become more relevant for the floor vote on Jan. 3, when the 218-vote threshold means he likely can’t afford to lose more than a handful of GOP members.

He did, however, get a significant boost with incoming President Donald Trump endorsing his continued speakership during a closed-door conference meeting hours before Wednesday’s leadership vote. Trump’s landslide win has given him an even tighter grip on the conference, and any GOP lawmakers who oppose Johnson could risk not only the ire of their colleagues but also of the leader of their party.

Still, Johnson’s critics haven’t given up yet. Conservatives have repeatedly felt burnt by deals Johnson cut on issues like government funding over the past year. And some of them have controversial demands about conference rules, including keeping the threshold for triggering a vote to boot the speaker at one person, that they say are essential for earning their votes. They are also publicly calling on Johnson to squash a push from his centrists, which was first reported by POLITICO, to punish members who vote against bringing GOP bills to the floor.

Plus, some are also waiting to see if the upcoming government spending deadline that is set just before Christmas will give them extra leverage.