We got a lot of great news, and great sound bites, out of President Trump's Tuesday cabinet meeting, but it was Secretary of State Marco Rubio's five-minute report at the tail end of the meeting, in which he "laid out the clearest, most refreshing articulation of America First I’ve heard from any cabinet official in years," according to one X user, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Reflecting on the foreign policy achievements of the year since Trump won re-election to the presidency, Rubio said, "It’s an honor to be involved in and be a witness to what I believe is the most transformational year in American foreign policy since the end of the Second World War at least."
And he isn't using the word "transformational" in the way people like Barack Obama or Susan Rice would use the word, which is refreshing all by itself.
Rubio continued:
"And it's transformational because for the first time in a long time we have a president who basically puts America at the forefront of every decision we make in our in relations with the world. And that may sound weird to people, like, 'Of course you always do.' No. That hasn't always been the case, until about a year ago."
I know that Rubio was being rhetorical in a way, but nobody in their right mind can argue that Joe Biden's foreign policy had anything to do with putting the health and welfare of Americans as the top priority.
Rubio then described President Trump's approach to foreign policy decision-making in his second term:
"[W]e've all witnessed in our own respective spaces how in every interaction the president has with the world, the goal he has in mind is very simple: What you want us to do, is it going to make us stronger? Is it going to make us richer? Is it going to make us safer? If it is, he's for it. If it's not, he's against it. If something's going to make America weaker, or poorer, or less safe, the President's going to be against it, and every single thing he has done in our foreign policy has been driven by the American people in mind.
"And I can go down the list."
And down the list he went. Regarding unchecked illegal immigration, Rubio said:
"Why has he focused on mass migration? It's very simple. Because no country is safe if you can just walk in without us knowing who you are, into [our] country. We've seen the destruction that that's wreaking not just in our own country, but the impact that it's having in Europe and in many other parts of the world."
DIVE DEEPER: Another One: Biden's Afghan Import Charged Federally After Suicide-Bomb Threat
On trade and tariffs, Rubio described President Trump's position as being "very simple":
:The President views the last 40 years as an era in which America and American workers and American farmers have been ripped off. They've been ripped off. And what he's saying is, 'We want to have trade with the world, but it has to be a trade in which American businesses and American workers and the products they make, and what American farmers grow and produce, has a fair shot to be sold around the world.'"
What about USAID and other foreign aid?
"You talk about foreign aid reforms. This is not our money. This is taxpayer money. What the President said is, 'We're going to do foreign aid, but we're gonna do foreign aid for countries that are aligned with the United States and in a way that doesn't waste the taxpayers money.'"
READ MORE: 'Trade Over Aid': Rubio Announces Plan to Deep Six USAID, 'Make Foreign Aid Great Again'
And on NATO:
You talk about NATO. The President's not against NATO. He went to NATO and basically said, “Look, you guys, we’re paying all the money,” and he got them to do the five percent commitment, which everybody said was never going to happen and it was impossible.
Obviously, Trump's biggest foreign policy success to has been the Gaza deal.
"He achieved in Gaza -- and he does it noy just because he hates war... but because he's the only leader in the world that can. No other leader in the world could have pulled off what happened in Gaza…That deal doesn't happen without the President's direct interaction with the leaders that were involved in this decision-making. And everyone said that deal couldn't hold, and then the President shepherded through the United Nations, of all places, to get a global coalition of countries to line up behind the peace deal, behind the Board of Peace. Every day is a challenge, but it's been driven directly by the President."
While acknowledging that war in Ukraine and Sudan and tensions between India and Pakistan and Cambodia and Thailand aren't America's wars and aren't Trump's wars, Rubio asserted that Trump is doing what he can to achieve peace in those corners of the world because he's the only one who can get these deals made.
Peace, and looking out for the American people first and foremost. How refreshing.
Watch Rubio's full remarks below.
.@SecRubio: "For the first time in probably 4 decades, the American foreign policy is driven by what is good for America and Americans... and that sort of clarity is transformational." pic.twitter.com/gsLu0r2aZI
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 2, 2025
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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