The Senate unanimously confirmed former Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, securing President Trump's first Cabinet appointment.
Rubio was confirmed 99-0 by the Senate on Monday as Trump returned to the Oval Office for the first time in four years.
Rubio is one of Trump's more conventional nominees, and he was not expected to face much resistance in the Senate where he served for more than a decade.
Rubio once clashed with Trump when they were primary rivals in 2015, with Trump dubbing him "Little Marco." Rubio later became a supporter of Trump during his first term.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is known for his aggressive foreign policy views especially concerning China. Despite his generally hawkish outlook, Rubio has echoed Trump's "America First" messaging, including Trump's calls to end the brutal war in Ukraine.
Rubio was sworn in Tuesday by Vice President J.D. Vance, who left the Senate to join Trump, leaving the chamber temporarily with 99 members.
"We will work hard every second of the day to help him achieve the agenda the American people have given him to achieve," Rubio said.
"[Trump's] primary promise when it comes to foreign policy is that the priority of the United States Department of State will be the United States. It will be furthering the national interest of this country," Rubio said.
Trump has set an expansionist vision for his second term, proposing to buy Greenland, annex Canada and take back the Panama Canal by force, while keeping America out of unnecessary wars that do not serve the national interest.
"Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen," Trump said in his second inaugural address Monday. "We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
During a confirmation hearing last week, Rubio defended Trump's "legitimate" concern about Chinese influence over the Panama Canal.
"This is a legitimate issue that needs to be confronted," he said. "President Trump is not inventing this."
Rubio will inherit a world in chaos, with a conflict in Ukraine nearing its three-year mark and a fragile cease-fire holding between Israel and Hamas.
Trump's pressure tactics were instrumental to negotiating the Israel-Hamas deal, which went into effect Sunday. But Trump said Monday that he is "not confident" the agreement will last.
"Well, I'm hoping and praying it will hold -- but remember, on Oct. 6 there was a ceasefire in place between Israel and Hamas," Rubio told CBS on Tuesday. "Oct. 7 was a violation of that."
"So when you're dealing with a terrorist organization that has committed atrocities, motivated by all kinds of evil, I don't think you can go into it very confident that things will hold in the long term."
"We want it to work out. We think there is the broader hope of a peace in the region," he added. "So we're hopeful, but I think we need to be realistic about what we're dealing with here."
