President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his secretary of state, three people familiar with his thinking said on Monday, as Trump moves rapidly to fill out his foreign policy and national security team.

Trump could still change his mind at the last minute, the people said, but appeared to have settled on Rubio, whom he also considered when choosing his running mate this year.

Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has staked out a position as a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba in particular.

He initially found himself at odds with those Republicans who were more sceptical about interventions abroad, but he has also echoed Trump more recently on issues like Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying that the conflict has reached a stalemate and “needs to be brought to a conclusion”.

Despite speaking in hard-line terms about Russia in the past, Rubio would likely go along with Trump’s expected plans to press Ukraine to find a way to come to a settlement with Russia and remain outside Nato. It is unclear whether the leaders of Ukraine or Russia would be prepared to enter into talks at Trump’s urging.

Rubio has been among the most outspoken senators on the need for the US to be more aggressive on China. He has adopted positions that later became more mainstream in both parties. For example, while serving in Congress during the first Trump administration, he began advocating industrial policy meant to help the US better compete with China’s economy.

Rubio also served as a co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which has aimed to craft aggressive policy on China, especially in trying to address human rights abuses there. In 2020, Rubio sponsored a bill that tried to prevent the import of Chinese goods made with the use of forced labour by China’s ethnic Uyghur minority. President Joe Biden signed it into law the next year.

Judge delays decision

A judge postponed a decision on whether to undo Trump's conviction in his hush money case, after his lawyers called for freezing and ultimately dismissing the case.

New York judge Juan M. Merchan had been set to rule on Tuesday on their earlier request to throw out his conviction because of a US Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity. Instead, he told Trump's lawyers on Tuesday he'd delay the ruling until November 19.

New York Times News Service