Traditionally, secretaries of state have played a prominent role in American administrations. Although they are only fourth in the line of succession to the presidency, these officials often overshadow even vice presidents. It is enough to recall examples such as Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Hillary Clinton or John Kerry to understand how influential and vocal public servants can be in this position.
Given this, current Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emerged as a particularly disappointing figure. As Trump’s second term takes on a decidedly authoritarian tone and tears down longstanding American alliances, one might expect Rubio, who has previously criticized Trump and his foreign policy positions, to be one of the few “adults in the room,” as seasoned officials like John Kelly and James Mattis were called during Trump’s first term. Analysts have credited these figures with the ability to slow Trump down through argument and quell his impulsive outbursts.
However, during his first months in office, Rubio instead presented himself as a marginalized official and a submissive new convert to Trump's worldview, even as he sharply deviates from his earlier foreign policy positions.
One of the first clear indications was his confused demeanor during Trump’s unprecedented public attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to the Oval Office in February. As Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance angrily berated Zelensky, Rubio sat hunched over Vance, sinking into the couch like a character from “Get Out” entering a “dark space.”
Afterwards, Rubio was quick to praise the scandalous diplomatic behavior he had passively witnessed: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way no president has had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America first,” he wrote on X. He didn’t even mention that, as a senator, he was known for his strong support for Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression.
Rubio continued to take actions that further damaged his reputation in the months that followed. In March, he and other senior members of the administration turned a cabinet meeting into a ritualistic praise of the president, saying:
“Mr. President, first of all, I think the American people should be proud to have a president who promotes peace and an end to conflict on the planet. This is a war that has been going on for three years... which, as you rightly noted, would never have started if you were president. But it is here now and it must be ended... And there is only one leader in the world capable of bringing two sides to the negotiating table. That is our president, the president of the United States of America, President Trump. And that is exactly what he is doing.”
After noting that peace talks on Ukraine were underway in Saudi Arabia with US mediation, Rubio praised Trump for making progress toward peace, despite "obstacles from other countries that may have different opinions about how things should go."
Calling the president the only chance for world peace sounds like rhetoric flirting with religious worship. Even more troubling are Rubio’s statements about countries having “different opinions” on the war in Ukraine, as most traditional American allies have clearly identified Moscow as the aggressor. Rubio has embarrassed himself by pretending, in this verbal chaos, that it is not so.
His total submission to Trump was further confirmed at the last cabinet meeting. In eulogies similar to those I witnessed while reporting from dictatorships like North Korea and then-Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), Rubio’s rhetoric quickly became muddled and incoherent.
“Mr. President, I believe that one of the most important achievements of your presidency will be to reorder the world in the right way,” Rubio said, praising Trump’s global trade war and unpredictable tariff policy. He credited Trump with breaking with 30 years of U.S. policy that he said had allowed China to “deindustrialize” the United States. He added: “I want to congratulate you and your team on this, because it has extraordinary geopolitical implications, as you can see from the fact that all these countries are now coming here and wanting to join something that … I mean, it’s just unbelievable that we’ve lived in a world where Chinese companies can do whatever they want in America.”
As Secretary of State, Rubio should be more specific about the countries that are supposedly rushing to redefine trade relations under Trump's tariff regime. In reality, no new agreements have been announced, and there are no serious indications of progress in the negotiations.
According to former US Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas Freeman, a Japanese delegation recently left Washington without any substantive progress.
“It seems they went to talk to the American leadership (about trade), and the American leadership asked them, ‘What are you offering?’ To which the Japanese replied, ‘Well, what is it that you want?’ And the Americans couldn’t explain exactly what they wanted,” Freeman said.
Rubio has made a string of similar infamies. As a senator, he praised the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and supported its development mission and role in promoting American influence. Yet as secretary of state, he participated in its abrupt dismantling, parroting the Trump administration’s claims about the agency’s alleged wastefulness and irrelevance, even though a study published in the medical journal The Lancet estimated that such cuts could lead to the deaths of up to 25 million people worldwide from treatable diseases, including HIV and tuberculosis.
Rubio built a political career in Florida as the son of Cuban immigrants, consistently criticizing human rights abuses in Latin America, and today shows almost no commitment to freedom of expression or human rights.
Other secretaries of state have staunchly defended the State Department in bureaucratic and budget wars against threats from the Pentagon and the presidency. Yet Rubio has done nothing to publicly defend the State Department from budget cuts so drastic that they could cut its staff in half. Moreover, on Tuesday he announced a sweeping reorganization of the agency to address, as he put it, “decades of overcrowding.”
One of the most dramatic consequences of the State Department budget cuts would be a radical degradation of the United States' relations with Africa, a region where the United States has long viewed China's growing economic and political influence as detrimental to Western interests. Numerous African countries would lose American embassies and consulates, and the State Department's Bureau of African Affairs would be abolished.
In the same vein, Rubio, who once championed the State Department's annual human rights reports, is now overseeing their drastic reduction. The reports have criticized foreign governments for rights abuses such as restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, denial of minority rights and gender equality, sexual exploitation, restrictions on free and fair elections, and inhumane prison conditions. When NPR recently reached out to the State Department for comment on the subject, the State Department did not respond.
In the United States itself, Rubio, who once criticized authoritarian regimes for stifling free speech, now takes a hard line against the right to free speech for foreign students, arguing that those who express views contrary to U.S. policy should not be allowed to study in the country. He praised the Trump administration's decision to revoke more than 300 student visas and promised to vet prospective applicants for political affiliation.
Perhaps the most devastating of all Rubio's actions is his support for the deportation of hundreds of people under the Trump administration, including the illegal deportation of Kilmarnó Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison notorious for overcrowding and brutality.
Rubio built his political career in Florida as the son of Cuban immigrants, consistently criticizing human rights abuses in Latin America. Yet today he shows little commitment to freedom of expression or human rights. Instead, he shakes hands warmly with Salvadoran President Najib Bukele, an authoritarian leader who calls himself “the coolest dictator in the world,” calling him “a good friend of the United States.”
Meanwhile, Rubio expressed surprise that there was any fuss at all about the deportations, even though they are being challenged in court as a serious violation of due process rights. "I don't understand what the problem is," he said last week regarding Garcia's case.
That statement only reinforces what has been clear since January: Rubio is a lost man and a hollow political acrobat who stands for no principles other than loyalty to the man who appointed him.
The text is taken from "Forin polisija"
Translation: NB
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