Marco Rubio is Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, and his opening statement at his Senate hearing shows he's breaking from the dangerous and demoralizing commitment to advancing other countries' interests ahead of our own that has been the post-war consensus for 60 years.

Jerry Dunleavy IV
@JerryDunleavy

The opening statement given by Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio just now eviscerates decades of failed U.S. foreign policy: "Out of the triumphalism of the end of the long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus, and this consensus was that we had reached 'the end of history.' That all the nations of earth would become members of the democratic Western-led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the 'liberal world order.' And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national sovereignty and national identity, and we would become 'one human family' and 'citizens of the world.' This wasn't just a fantasy -- we now know it was a dangerous delusion.

Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed our industrial capacity, and has pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and of rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America but also around the world -- it's one that threatens the stability of societies and governments. Across the West, governments now censor and even prosecute domestic political opponents. Meanwhile radical jihadists openly march in the streets and sadly drive vehicles into our people.

Oof. Tell me how you really feel, Mario.

While America far too often prioritized the 'global order' above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will -- in what they perceive to be in their best interest. And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interests at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all its benefits, and they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have repressed, and lied, and cheated, and hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, and they have done so at our expense and at the expense of their own country.

In our very own hemisphere, despots and narco-terrorists take advantage of open borders to drive mass migration, to traffic women and children, and to flood our communities with fentanyl and violent criminals. In Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang, dictators -- rogue states -- now sow chaos and instability and align with and they fund radical terror groups, and then hide behind their veto power at the United Nations Security Council and the threat of nuclear war. The postwar global order is not just obsolete -- it is now a weapon being used against us. And all this has led to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and of generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive today."

He also announced the Ukraine War "must end."

Charlie Kirk
@charliekirk11

Marco Rubio's answer on Ukraine is pitch perfect. First, he makes clear that America's border security MUST come first, before any funding goes to far-off battlefields. Second, he affirms President Trump's demand that the "killing must stop" and calls for an end to the war and an immediate ceasefire. Third, he's honest: He acknowledges that funding another war "as long as it takes" is not realistic, and any end to the war must be a negotiated compromise. Otherwise, Ukraine will be destroyed from the loss of every last young man in the country.

This is the way. End the war.

A country can't survive without young men. With so many of Ukraine's dead, there's an obvious answer where the country will get its new young men from, and it's not a great answer.

He also warned against America's insane drive to turn over all of our manufacturing, including of critical drugs and drug precursors, to the Communist Chinese government and would-be Empire.

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh

Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio just issued a grave warning for America. Listen intently. He's right, and we need to act.

"If we stay on the road we are on right now - in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China allows us to have it or not."

"Everything from blood pressure medicine to what movies we get to watch, and everything in between. They dominate the critical mineral industry. Even those who want more EVs - those batteries depend on China."

"If we don't change course - we will live in a world where much of what matters on a daily basis, from our security to our health - will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not."

Of course the left filled the hearing room with its chain-disruptors.