Marco Rubio told State Department employees that changes under President Trump “are not meant to be destructive, they’re not meant to be punitive.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked into the State Department on Tuesday for the first time in his new job, taking the reins of the main agency carrying out U.S. foreign policy at a time of violent global crises and as other nations begin engaging with President Trump.
After greeting employees at a ceremonial gathering, Mr. Rubio went into a meeting with his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia to discuss issues in the Indo-Pacific region, an area that, in his eyes, China seeks to dominate.
Mr. Rubio was sworn in as secretary of state at 9:30 on a frigid Tuesday morning by Vice President JD Vance. He arrived at the flag-festooned entrance hall of the State Department at 1 p.m. to applause, as hundreds of employees strained to get a glimpse of him and his wife, Jeanette Rubio, and their four children. Lisa Kenna, a career diplomat who is serving as Mr. Rubio’s executive secretary, as she did for Mike Pompeo in the first Trump administration, introduced the new secretary.
Mr. Rubio thanked the many diplomats working overseas, then laid out Mr. Trump’s foreign policy goal: “That mission is to ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interests,” he said.
“There will be changes, but the changes are not meant to be destructive, they’re not meant to be punitive,” he added.
He said that “things are moving faster than ever” around the world, and that the department had to be quick to act and react.