Former U.S. senator from Florida Marco Rubio jumps into new role as secretary of state with flurry of phone calls, planned trip to Panama.

State Department staff were instructed to “suspend any application requesting an X sex marker” and to “suspend any application where the applicant is seeking to change their sex marker.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is advising his department to cease refugee resettlement operations and begin ramping up vetting of visas from certain regions.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's trip to Central America, including Panama, is partially about countering China, a State Department spokesperson told Fox Business, as new President Donald Trump is pushing to "take back" the Panama Canal.

The Senate voted unanimously to confirm Sen. Marco Rubio's as secretary of state on Monday, making him the first member of President Donald Trump's second Cabinet.

The Trump administration paused all foreign aid and urged USAID to follow in step or face disciplinary action for not complying with the freeze.

After a unanimous confirmation vote hours after the President was inaugurated Monday, the former Senator was sworn as Secretary of State on Tuesday. Rubio promised to help Trump deliver on a foreign policy vision for which he has a “clear mandate.”

Vice President JD Vance has sworn in Marco Rubio as secretary of state, the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees to take the job.

Vice President JD Vance has sworn in Marco Rubio as secretary of state, the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees to take the job.

By Simon Lewis and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) -When Marco Rubio arrives in Latin America this weekend on his first foreign trip as Donald Trump's secretary of state, he'll find a region reeling from the new administration's shock-and-awe approach to diplomacy.