The View's Ana Navarro praises Donald Trump for potentially adding 'qualified' Marco Rubio to cabinet

After months of sounding alarms over the dangers of a second-term Donald Trump presidency, The View cohost Ana Navarro has praised the president-elect after speculation arose indicating that he might appoint conservative senator Marco Rubio to his cabinet.

In a rare on-air move, the 52-year-old Republican panelist praised a member of her own political party on Tuesday's live show, admitting that she's known Rubio for a long time, though the pair haven't "spoken in years" on a personal level, she said.

"I will say this, Marco is qualified, he's been on foreign relations in the senate for many years. I'm happy because he knows Latin America, which, for me, is a region that's often forgotten. He speaks Spanish, he knows who these leaders are, he knows what the issues are," Navarro said, after speculation mounted that Trump would name Rubio as Secretary of State. "I think he's going to come in hot on places like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, which I care about enormously."

Navarro said she's still "surprised by the appointment" for various reasons, mostly because of "all of this stuff that happened between them before" — particularly during the 2016 election cycle, when both Rubio and Trump traded insults about each other's physicality.

"I'm surprised by Marco, because Donald Trump had such turnover in his cabinet in 2016, that I think giving up your senate seat where you're your boss, to go work for Donald Trump who could wake up any day of the week and fire you is high risk, high reward," she finished.

Sara Haines also remained optimistic about the choice, noting that she gleaned from her colleagues' observations about Trump's potential cabinet picks that "this is a more moderate version than what people expected him to do in his second term," and stressing that she won't "stew" in what she's afraid of regarding Trump's politics.

"Everybody he's appointed so far has government experience," Navarro added after jumping back into the conversation, though Sunny Hostin raised concerns over the potential appointment of South Dakota politician Kristi Noem, who previously opened up about shooting her family's dog.

"She killed her dog," Hostin said, to which Navarro replied: "So, hide your nannies and your dogs!"

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Despite unconfirmed reports about the rest of his cabinet, Trump announced on social media that he wouldn't pick two specific individuals to join him in the White House.

"I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation," Trump shared on his Truth Social platform. "I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country."

The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.