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.
In an interview on Catholic-oriented EWTN after Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, 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 sending 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. He has called for direct shipments of US munitions and advanced military technologies in hopes of deterring China, rather than simply selling weapons to Taiwan.
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.
