Berliner Boersenzeitung - From 'Little Marco' to 'Mr Secretary': Rubio shows Trump China push

EUR -
AED 3.850375
AFN 71.007285
ALL 98.201564
AMD 408.172647
ANG 1.878386
AOA 957.098007
ARS 1045.872072
AUD 1.604869
AWG 1.889562
AZN 1.779904
BAM 1.956809
BBD 2.104325
BDT 124.544208
BGN 1.968551
BHD 0.392806
BIF 3078.616524
BMD 1.0483
BND 1.404738
BOB 7.24187
BRL 6.086226
BSD 1.042247
BTN 88.460581
BWP 14.238612
BYN 3.410823
BYR 20546.688681
BZD 2.100823
CAD 1.461105
CDF 3009.671132
CHF 0.9326
CLF 0.036947
CLP 1019.484612
CNY 7.593157
CNH 7.597548
COP 4601.776869
CRC 530.878754
CUC 1.0483
CUP 27.779962
CVE 110.93704
CZK 25.34004
DJF 185.599225
DKK 7.456773
DOP 62.812982
DZD 139.925472
EGP 51.732528
ERN 15.724507
ETB 127.590195
FJD 2.38588
FKP 0.827441
GBP 0.832057
GEL 2.872517
GGP 0.827441
GHS 16.558308
GIP 0.827441
GMD 74.429381
GNF 8983.717181
GTQ 8.090008
GYD 219.258233
HKD 8.156883
HNL 26.33783
HRK 7.477799
HTG 136.811837
HUF 411.259269
IDR 16621.851823
ILS 3.881961
IMP 0.827441
INR 88.449668
IQD 1365.329933
IRR 44107.241094
ISK 146.394871
JEP 0.827441
JMD 166.037183
JOD 0.743352
JPY 161.121705
KES 135.724012
KGS 90.678259
KHR 4196.203348
KMF 495.323945
KPW 943.470001
KRW 1464.376148
KWD 0.322719
KYD 0.868564
KZT 520.398216
LAK 22893.239195
LBP 93331.897146
LKR 303.342173
LRD 189.165938
LSL 18.807555
LTL 3.095359
LVL 0.634107
LYD 5.089721
MAD 10.543169
MDL 19.010163
MGA 4864.600715
MKD 61.561738
MMK 3404.838947
MNT 3562.124849
MOP 8.356367
MRU 41.469775
MUR 49.11333
MVR 16.206707
MWK 1807.266202
MXN 21.344967
MYR 4.673848
MZN 66.997415
NAD 18.807555
NGN 1770.013361
NIO 38.350137
NOK 11.544016
NPR 140.753907
NZD 1.78839
OMR 0.401204
PAB 1.048049
PEN 3.952037
PGK 4.196203
PHP 61.740705
PKR 289.425072
PLN 4.332472
PYG 8136.349859
QAR 3.822154
RON 4.973557
RSD 117.765012
RUB 108.677289
RWF 1422.747058
SAR 3.935736
SBD 8.788484
SCR 14.275496
SDG 630.551352
SEK 11.497865
SGD 1.40737
SHP 0.827441
SLE 23.828224
SLL 21982.341102
SOS 595.612745
SRD 37.208405
STD 21697.702658
SVC 9.119876
SYP 2633.886163
SZL 18.801051
THB 36.153258
TJS 11.161414
TMT 3.669052
TND 3.32957
TOP 2.455227
TRY 36.242708
TTD 7.078649
TWD 34.034134
TZS 2787.788371
UAH 43.118052
UGX 3872.45876
USD 1.0483
UYU 44.569998
UZS 13370.893257
VES 48.807995
VND 26632.072752
VUV 124.456335
WST 2.926426
XAF 656.301612
XAG 0.033867
XAU 0.000389
XCD 2.833084
XDR 0.792824
XOF 656.301612
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.996486
ZAR 18.896155
ZMK 9435.963602
ZMW 28.791392
ZWL 337.552315
  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

From 'Little Marco' to 'Mr Secretary': Rubio shows Trump China push
From 'Little Marco' to 'Mr Secretary': Rubio shows Trump China push / Photo: ANGELA WEISS - AFP/File

From 'Little Marco' to 'Mr Secretary': Rubio shows Trump China push

Marco Rubio's first experiences with Donald Trump involved trading schoolyard insults, but he will now become the president-elect's face to the world -- potentially showing a more traditional, hawkish US foreign policy, especially on China.

Text size:

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who would be the first Hispanic and first Spanish-speaker as US secretary of state, from his earliest days has been a vociferous opponent of Latin American leftists.

In recent years the senator from Florida, whose nomination was announced by Trump on Wednesday, has become one of the most outspoken senators against Beijing.

His efforts have included championing Taiwan, moving to restrict Chinese business operations in the United States and leading legislative measures to punish the Asian power over its treatment of Hong Kong and the Uyghur minority.

Rubio has also long joined Republicans in their fervent support for Israel and hard line on Iran's clerical state.

Yet for all of his adamant views on the world, the baby-faced 53-year-old was once seen as a rising star in a more moderate Republican Party that would reach out to minorities and suburban swing voters.

After Barack Obama won reelection in 2012, Rubio, then an ambitious first-term senator, sought to work across party lines to overhaul the immigration system and offer a more humane, legal pathway to undocumented immigrants.

Trump has won his second term on a starkly different platform -- mass deportation -- and Trump crushed Rubio's own presidential ambitions in 2016 in the Republican primary.

Rubio, seeking to fight Trump at his level, told a Virginia rally during that campaign: "Have you seen his hands?"

"You know what they say about men with small hands," Rubio said tauntingly.

The crowd erupted. But Rubio's low blow antagonized Trump, who would mock him as "Little Marco."

"He referred to my hands -- if they're small, something else must be small," Trump said days later at a Republican debate, as Rubio stood just feet away. "I guarantee you there's no problem."

- Future 'defined' by Asia -

Rubio, much like Vice President-elect JD Vance, has looked at the Republican electorate and become a full-throated supporter of Trump, much to the president-elect's delight.

Rubio's nomination will also be a landmark for Hispanics, whose drift toward Trump helped him win the latest election.

In an interview on Catholic-oriented EWTN after Trump's victory, Rubio backed Trump's assertion that the United States is overextended and should focus on rivalry with China.

Speaking like Trump, if more diplomatically, Rubio said Ukraine had fought valiantly but hit a "stalemate" against Russian invaders and that the United States should show "pragmatism" rather than send billions of dollars more in weapons.

"I don't like what Vladimir Putin did, and we do have an interest in what happens there," Rubio said of Russia's president.

"But I think the future of the 21st century is going to largely be defined by what happens in the Indo-Pacific."

Rubio in the Senate has led efforts to arm Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing.

In July, Rubio insisted that a second Trump administration would support Taiwan after Trump in an interview appeared to say that the island needed to pay the United States "protection" money.

- 'Exceptional' America -

Rubio advanced quickly in politics, winning a city election in 1998 five years out of college and becoming speaker of the Florida House of Representatives at age 34.

A Roman Catholic, he has four daughters with his childhood sweetheart, Jeanette Dousdebes, a former cheerleader for the NFL's Miami Dolphins.

Rubio has frequently spoken of his working-class background -- a father who worked as a bartender, coming home late, and a mother who was a cashier.

In a 2012 interview with Time, Rubio recalled how his mother left him a voice message urging him not to "mess" with undocumented immigrants, pleading that they are "human beings just like us."

Now that he is poised to be America's top diplomat under the anti-immigration Trump, Rubio is likely to take another part of his family's message -- their steadfast opposition to communism.

In a 2012 memoir, "An American Son," Rubio recounted how his cigar-smoking grandfather told him how the United States was a beacon to the world's oppressed.

"My grandfather didn't know America was exceptional because he read about it in a book. He lived it and saw it with his own eyes."

(G.Gruner--BBZ)