Secretary of State

The Secretary of State heads the oldest executive department and ranks first among cabinet secretaries in protocol and fourth in the line of succession, after the Vice President, the Speaker, and the president pro tempore. Thomas Jefferson was the first. In the early republic the office was the recognized path to the presidency: Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, and James Buchanan all served as Secretary of State before becoming President.

The Secretary is the President's principal adviser on foreign policy, conducts negotiations with other governments, oversees the embassies and the Foreign Service, and represents the country at international meetings. Formal duties that survive from the department's early days include custody of the Great Seal and receipt of presidential resignations, which is why Richard Nixon's one-sentence resignation letter in 1974 was addressed to Henry Kissinger. The Secretary is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate after hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee.

How much influence a Secretary of State has depends on the President and on the competing power of the national security advisor. Some Secretaries, such as Dean Acheson and James Baker, dominated policy. Others were overshadowed by the White House. In 2025 Marco Rubio became the first person since Kissinger to serve simultaneously as Secretary of State and national security advisor, and also took on acting leadership of USAID and the National Archives.