President-elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to be his secretary of state, according to multiple reports. Rubio is a hawkish supporter of Israel and a harsh critic of Iran and China.

He’ll join Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Mike Waltz (R-FL) in Trump’s emerging national security team. The picks are likely to please the GOP’s pro-Israel wing and have all generally been seen as part of the GOP’s more traditionally hawkish wing — but all three also voted against supplemental U.S. aid to Ukraine earlier this year. (In Rubio’s case, that meant opposing supplemental funding for Israel and Taiwan as well.)

The contest to be Trump’s secretary of state had narrowed down to a handful of candidates by Monday evening, with Rubio, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and former Trump administration official Ric Grenell emerging as the final contenders. All three men had expressed interest in the role and were lobbying Trump and his advisors for the job. 

Rubio had been mentioned as a top Cabinet pick since the summer, when he was one of the final names on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist. The Florida senator’s allies in the Sunshine State and D.C. began floating him to Trump’s transition team as a secretary of state pick after Trump chose Vice President-elect JD Vance as his running mate.

Rubio, who has strong relationships with Florida’s sizable Jewish community, has been highly active on Israel and Iran issues throughout his time in office. He’s currently the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Rubio has been a staunch defender of Israel’s military operations against Hamas and Hezbollah and a critic of the Biden administration’s response to Oct. 7. After his trip to the Jewish state in May, Rubio wrote in an op-ed that, “President Biden must face the fact that his foreign-policy weakness is responsible for our adversaries’ aggression. To deter further aggression against American lives and interests, he must establish a credible threat of military force.”

He told JI after the trip that Israel needs ongoing support from the U.S. which “requires the constant work of explaining a very complicated region in the simplest terms possible,” including pushing back on “ridiculous narratives about war crimes and genocide.”

Rubio brushed off comments from Trump at the time calling for Israel to wind down its operations, suggesting that they stemmed from the fact that Trump wasn’t receiving security briefings.

The Florida senator was a lead sponsor of legislation that would have created congressional authority to block the administration from withholding arms shipments from Israel. He also sponsored legislation that would block the U.S. from sending any aid through U.N. agencies and nongovernmental organizations into Gaza or the West Bank.

He has worked frequently across the aisle on Israel issues, especially with Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), including organizing a screening of footage of the Hamas attack on Israel for fellow senators.

Well before the Oct. 7 war, Rubio led a bill that codified into law the 2016 memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Israel that provides billions in military aid a year to Israel. The incoming Trump administration is set to negotiate the next U.S.-Israel MOU, with the current one set to expire in 2028.

Amid debate over supplemental national security funding for U.S. allies this year, Rubio said that he viewed support for Ukraine as a key national security interest that could shape the global order, but said that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win total victory, calling instead for a negotiated solution. He said that voters insisted that lawmakers prioritize border security first, above support for Ukraine, and that he wouldn’t vote for any Ukraine bill without border security.

He told Jewish Insider in July his foreign policy is “21st-century American strength,” noting that “the world looks different than it did five, 10, 15 years ago.”

“America faces a lot of challenges, and it has to be able to prioritize the ones that are most critical to our national security and our national interest,” he elaborated. “It doesn’t mean we don’t care. We want to see great outcomes everywhere in the world, but there are things we’d like to do and then there are things we have to do, and so I think that that’s the era we’re in now.”

Asked how Israel fits into such calculations, Rubio called the Jewish state “the only pro-American, free enterprise democracy in the Middle East,” adding, “If we’re not going to support Israel, then no ally in the world would trust us.” 

Rubio was a leader of an effort in the Senate to reinstate the Houthis’ designation as a foreign terrorist organization. Joining Waltz, who led the corresponding push in the House, it seems likely that the Trump administration will move quickly to redesignate the Iranian-backed Yemeni group.

The Florida senator pushed for stronger oil sanctions on Iran and stronger enforcement and for sanctions on the International Criminal Court, as well as other terrorism-related sanctions.

Back in 2020, Rubio even criticized the Trump administration on Iran, saying it shouldn’t have renewed sanctions waivers on Iran’s civil nuclear program.

Rubio was also one of just two Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who voted in favor of antisemitism envoy Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt’s nomination, and has been outspoken against antisemitism, anti-Zionism and support for Hamas inside the U.S.

He has argued that the U.S. needs to more deeply probe those responsible for supporting campus protests and has sponsored federal anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions legislation. He pushed for legislation to revoke visas of those involved in pro-Hamas campus protests.

Rubio was a longtime supporter of efforts to ban TikTok in the United States, supported by some in the Jewish community as a means of combating antisemitism online.

Notably, Rubio was also among the Republicans who criticized Trump for dining with white nationalist leader Nick Fuentes in 2022, telling JI that Fuentes “shouldn’t be legitimized by allowing him to come into places like that” and that Trump should condemn him.

When Rubio was a candidate on the 2016 campaign trail, he attacked Trump as insufficiently supportive of Israel and was an early supporter of leaving the Iran deal.

Hagerty congratulated his Senate colleague on the pending nomination.

“I have no doubt that he is ready to implement President Trump’s America First, peace-through-strength agenda around the world,” Hagerty said.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), the chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for the State Department and foreign aid, said that there is “no one better suited to carry out Trump’s vision at the State Dept. than Rubio. He is battle tested, smart and believes in America First.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who is running in a competitive race to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Republican leader, celebrated the news in a post on X, writing that Rubio would “restore American leadership around the world, especially in Latin America, as he represents the United States with dignity and courage!”

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first administration, said that Trump’s picks are “shaping up to be an all-star national security lineup. Dictators are shaking and the Deep State is quaking.”

“The president calls the shots. He is assembling a team that truly understands the complexities of the foreign policy challenges we face, embodies the doctrine of peace through strength, and has demonstrated loyalty to him, which is critical for these posts,” Goldberg said. “Khamenei will be popping Xanax with this team around the president, and that’s a good thing.”

Michael Makovsky, the president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, called Rubio a “terrific pick” within Trump’s national security team.

“Like Waltz, Rubio is very serious, pro-Israel and hawkish on Iran, who believes in the importance of a smart, robust and credible American national security posture. Rubio will certainly be a vocal force within the administration for pressuring Tehran and backing Israel in its civilizational battle against the Iranian axis,” Makovsky told JI. “Rubio’s biggest challenge might be managing his building, where many foreign service officers don’t share Trump’s agenda. The pro-Israel community should be very pleased by President-elect’s national security pick so far in Waltz, Rubio and Stefanik.”

Amid the announcements of Trump’s national security team, Commentary editor John Podhoretz similarly commented, “The shift toward the GOP in the Jewish vote, which is very real, is being rewarded.”