9 Questions Senators Should Ask Marco Rubio
Getting the SecState nominee on the record about taking Greenland, blaming Ukraine, and Elon Musk’s quest to topple European governments.
OF ALL PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP’S cabinet picks, Sen. Marco Rubio, the secretary of state presumptive nominee, is almost certainly the least controversial. He has been in the Senate for fourteen years, serving on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. He doesn’t spout extreme ideologies or outlandish conspiracy theories. He hasn’t cozied up to mass-murdering dictators. He doesn’t champion junk science. He hasn’t been accused of sexual misconduct. He hasn’t even shot a dog.
He is, in short, the kind of person an old-style, pre-Trump Republican administration could have nominated for a cabinet position.
Not surprisingly, Rubio is expected to sail through to confirmation, without any of the drama surrounding Pete Hegseth (defense), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (health and human services). Nonetheless, we should want to know how Rubio’s “normie” persona and views—all in the Reaganite mold of what the modern GOP’s dominant MAGA wing regards as a failed and corrupt ancien régime—will fit with the administration in which he is going to serve. Will he remain a voice for the internationalist conservatism he has espoused for most of his career—an outlook that champions America’s global leadership in defense of a rules-based, democracy-friendly international order? Or will he be a figurehead providing a respectable cover for a Trumpian foreign policy based on authoritarian whim, might-makes-right swagger, and spheres-of-influence accommodations with dictatorial regimes?
Here are a few questions Rubio should answer.
1. In recent days, the president-elect has expressed an intent to acquire Greenland, an independent territory belonging to our ally Denmark, and the Panama Canal—and has refused to rule out the use of military force to accomplish this goal. Is this something you regard as a legitimate goal for U.S. foreign policy?
2. President-elect Trump has also repeatedly suggested in recent days that Canada should join the United States and floated the idea of using economic pressure to coerce some form of U.S.-Canada unification. What stance will the U.S. State Department take toward Canada under your leadership?
3. In September 2022, you spoke of “Vladimir Putin’s unwarranted and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.” In his recent press conference, President-elect Trump suggested that President Biden provoked Putin’s invasion by urging Ukraine to join NATO and said that he “could understand [the Russians’] feelings about that,” since it would mean that “Russia has somebody right on their doorstep.” Do you agree with that view of the causes of the war in Ukraine? If not, are you concerned about the signal such language sends Russia, Ukraine, and NATO?
4. You have said several times that you now support a “negotiated settlement” to end the war in Ukraine. You also said, “I want and we want and I believe Donald Trump wants for Ukraine to have more leverage in that negotiation.” Last year, you were among the congressional Republicans who, at Trump’s urging, blocked a Ukraine aid package for several months, which almost certainly contributed to some serious Ukrainian setbacks on the frontlines. How do you think this affected Ukrainian leverage ahead of possible negotiations?
5. In your prepared confirmation-hearing remarks, you have said, “In Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang, dictators sow chaos and instability and align with and fund radical terror groups.” How does the Trump administration plan to counteract this subversion? Does President-elect Trump share your view that Moscow should be treated as a source of chaos, instability and terrorism? How does this factor into his stated intent to mend relations with Putin?
6. It is widely known that social media-based disinformation campaigns are a key weapon of subversion (including election interference) by rogue states, especially by Moscow and Beijing. Yet the Republican party and the Trump administration are openly hostile to measures to counter online misinformation—efforts they associate with left-wing censorship. What position will the State Department under your leadership take on this issue? Do you intend to prioritize countering subversive disinformation and devising ways to do that while respecting First Amendment protections for speech?
7. There have been some alarming signs recently that China may be contemplating a military seizure of Taiwan. Is the United States committed to preventing such a scenario? A few months before the election, Trump suggested in an interview that the United States had little interest in defending Taiwan and that Taiwan should pay us for its defense as one would pay an insurance company. Would you make the case to the president for a strong stance backing of Taiwan’s defense?
8. Do you believe that punitive tariffs, even toward U.S. allies, are a legitimate way to promote U.S. policy goals? What will you do if moves to impose such tariffs clash with the goals of more conventional American diplomacy?
9. Elon Musk, a prominent member of Donald Trump’s inner circle and co-leader of an anticipated “government efficiency” entity within the Trump administration, has been using his position as owner of the X social media platform to destabilize the current governments of our key allies—the United Kingdom and Germany. Among other things, he has called for prison for the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and touted a radical-right party which has backed Russia and dabbled in Nazi apologism as Germany’s “last spark of hope.” What effect will such highly visible rogue efforts by a prominent administration figure have on U.S. foreign relations? Who will have more influence over U.S. foreign policy in the incoming Trump administration, the secretary of state or Elon Musk?