Less than a week after his election victory and on the verge of securing control of both houses of Congress, the president-elect of United States, Donald Trumpbegins to outline his Cabinet. Although until Monday there were only rumors about the two major positions in the U.S. ExecutiveOn Tuesday, everything points to the fact that they will be occupied by two important figures of the party: Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of state (equivalent to foreign minister) and congressman Marco Rubio Michael Waltz as national security advisor, the president’s top post of trust.
Although the appointments have not yet been confirmed, they have been corroborated by different sources consulted by the main U.S. media, including. The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and Reuters, among others. The positions that both Rubio and Waltz would assume will play a prominent role in a legislature where international politics, and especially U.S. mediation in the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, will play a key role. Middle East y Ukrainewill have a strong relevance. Or at least so Trump has let it slip during the election campaign and insisted on his electoral triumph, where he promised to “end the wars.”.
With these choices the magician chooses two figures who have been able to adapt to the Trumpist rhetoric that has taken over the Republican Party. but who, in turn, have been critical at times. What happened in the storming of the Capitol after Trump accused Biden of voter fraud in 2020 is a good example of this. Nonetheless, both Waltz and Rubio have been close enough to Trump on the most relevant aspects of U.S. foreign policy to be considered for these positions. In addition to the experience and background they both have on these issues.
The senator, 53 years old and son of Cuban immigrants, faced is part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and came to sound as Trump’s vice president for this election. Rubio has followed the positions of the Republican hard wing and advocated for toughening pressure on the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and China.. In addition, he will be the first Latino Secretary of State in the history of the United States.
Waltz, 50, a Florida representative, businessman and former Green beret, has been one of the most visible Republican Party members in support of Trump during the campaign. In addition to leading the coalition Veterans For Trumpthe president-elect has relied on this former military officer to speak on Defense issues. He was a member of the Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. of the House of Representatives and has previous experience in the administration as an advisor to former Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. As a Green Beret he fought in Afghanistan and has been among the Republicans most critical of the withdrawal of troops from the country. Waltz is considered a hardliner on issues such as China and Iran.
Positions on armed and trade conflicts.
One of the conflicts in which the world will be most watching to see how the new Trump Administration will react is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rubio has in the past voted against the military aid package to Ukraine and has accused the outgoing Administration of being “funding a stalemated war.” Waltz, for his part, acknowledged in an article that “the era of Congress’s blank check to Ukraine was over.”. Both are positions advocated by Trump, although neither has clarified whether they agreed to a cession of part of Ukrainian territory in a possible negotiation with Putin.
On the U.S. exit from the NATO both Waltz and Rubio have agreed with the president-elect in asking European allies to increase Defense spending, but not to leave the Alliance. The Republican senator earlier this year defended Trump’s controversial remarks that he would encourage Russia to do whatever they pleased to an ally that did not meet the 2% Defense spending minimum by saying they had been misunderstood. He also clarified that the U.S. did not leave NATO during Trump’s presidency, letting slip that it would not do so now either.. “He doesn’t talk like a traditional politician, and we’ve been through this. You’d think people would have figured it out by now,” he said at the time.
One of the international issues on which the two are most positioned has been in defense of Israel and its current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. And not only with regard to the offensive on Gaza y Lebanonbut also in the past by supporting the illegal settlements in the West Bank occupied; something Trump also supported during his first term in office. Rubio has even questioned whether a cease-fire is necessary in the area.a position that does clash with Trump’s vision, who has already asked Netanyahu to put an end to military actions as soon as possible. Waltz, for his part, has advocated that Israel should attack Iran’s oil installationsThe Biden Administration demanded that this not be done so as not to raise tensions in the region. This stance could point to a more confrontational position with Iran by the next U.S. Administration.
Another challenge Trump has referred to on his way to the presidency is the trade dispute with China (and other countries) to protect its industry and products by applying tariffs on imports. Both the future Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor are opposed to a rapprochement with China and advocate expanding sanctions on the Asian giant. U.S. media describe Rubio as one of the most important voices in U.S. China policy.. In 2020 he sponsored a bill that sought to prevent the importation of Chinese products made with forced labor by China’s Uighur ethnic minority, something that Biden eventually signed into law. As for Waltz, he sits on the House China Task Force that addresses where the U.S. should stand to compete with China. In addition, he has in the past joined Republicans in accusing the Chinese government of behind the origin of covid.