Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling through Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, where he represents President Trump and the new administration. Reporters are questioning him on his stops. USAID was an important topic.
Secretary Rubio said USAID is answerable to the State Department, but they are not. They won’t answer simple questions and are “completely uncooperative.”
Yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered remarks to reporters in El Salvador discussing his role as Acting Director of USAID after President Trump and Elon Musk moved to incorporate USAID into the State Department. Secretary Rubio repeated that USAID must align with U.S. foreign policy and the national interests of the U.S. government.
Citing the “uncooperative” nature of the USAID leadership acting as an independent entity, Secretary Rubio announced he is now Acting Director of USAID to remove all elements that operate against the direct U.S. interests he outlined.
Rubio said that the plan was always to reform USAID. Still, now they have ‘rank insubordination’ and had to take dramatic action to bring it under control because officials there were being completely uncooperative.
He underscores that foreign aid doled out by USAID must continue. However, whether that happens in a reformed USAID or somewhere in the State Department has yet to be determined.
Secretary Rubio’s comments:
With some hesitation, I say Secretary Rubio is doing great. He just got in with the wrong crowd when he was first elected. He became one with the McCain group.
He seems perfect for this job at this time, given his family background and deep concerns about the US hemisphere.
What do you think?
USAID AND PANAMA
He’s live now at 8:50 ET (He also discusses Panama). He repeated that everything USAID does must now be aligned with and further US interests.
About Panama, he said canceling China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a great first step. However, Panama is an important ally, and we do a lot with Panama, so more has to be done.
Democrats getting funds from USAID, like AOC, are very angry.
Corrupt Democrats are outing themselves right now in a full-court press to defend their USAID slush fundpic.twitter.com/y5wL4moXGr
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 3, 2025
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Mule fritters. Name one accomplishment that has come out of this organization. It’s either squashed now or we’ll be dealing with the same thing years from now.
I’m remaining optimistically cautious of Rubio. As long as he’s not given access to a blank check, and there’s oversight, it should work. One would hope. Unfortunately many of us fear the next administration could reverse the efforts of the Trump administration.
Ruling by Executive orders in the end is a destructive pattern. It may have been temporarily necessary for Trump, but on long run Congress and the courts have to get it under control.