The Influencers: The People Shaping Trump’s New Washington
This story is part of a series exploring the backgrounds and agendas of the players — the well known names and behind-the-scenes operators alike — who will wield power in Trump’s second term.
When the Chinese government steamrolled pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019, Sen. Marco Rubio saw it as an existential clash between freedom and tyranny — and one that demanded a response from the United States.
He advanced legislation that year to sanction officials responsible for the crackdown, reconsider Hong Kong’s trade status and block sales of tear gas and other crowd control equipment to the Hong Kong police force.
“We have to decide: Do we want to be a defender of democracy?” Rubio told me in an interview that August. “Do we want to be a defender of those principles that have made the world, in my view, safer? And do we think American democracy is safer with more democratic nations on earth?”