Secretary of State Marco Rubio took aim at open borders and globalism Wednesday in a sweeping speech in Athens, Greece that at times sounded more like a campaign stump speech than a foreign policy address.
“We opened our borders and outsourced our industry and allowed our militaries to wither and to decay,” Rubio said against the backdrop of the sun setting on the ancient citadel in Athens.
“The word nationalism became a dirty word. And so we tore down our monuments, we condemned our own history, and in too many places we taught our children to be ashamed of the countries they would inherit,” he continued. “And with every passing year, we seemed to outsource more of our sovereignty, transferring our decisions to global bureaucracies far beyond the reach of our control.”
Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have both been widely discussed as potential successors to Trump in 2028, with the president himself repeatedly fueling speculation over which of the two could inherit his political mantle.
Rubio argued the consequences were now playing out in an increasingly dangerous world.
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“As the West’s confidence faltered, its adversaries and rivals only grew more assertive,” he said.
Rubio called the current moment an “inflection point,” warning that the threats facing the West are “every bit as real as they were during antiquity.”
“And now there is war again. There is competition between great powers again,” he said.
Rubio singled out Iran as he drew a sharp distinction between Western values and those of its adversaries.
“Fanatics like the radical mullahs of Iran, whose cult of death hails child suicide bombers as national heroes and portrays martyrdom as an end to itself,” Rubio said.
“Our heroes may be willing to die for their cause, but our heroes do not worship death,” he went on. “It is precisely because we value life, that we come to recognize the heroism in those who would sooner sacrifice it than to betray their principles.”
The secretary of State delivered the address from the Acropolis, using the birthplace of Western civilization to trace America’s own inheritance from Ancient Greece.
“For twenty-five centuries since, the Parthenon has stood. Empires have risen and fallen beneath its shadow,” Rubio said.
“Two and a half centuries after the founding of the American republic halfway across the world from where I stand now, I stand here today â as the Secretary of State of that republic, and as the great-grandson of settlers who arrived in the new world from Spain â I stand here to testify to a debt that no lapse of time, no distance of space, can ever extinguish.”
Rubio said he saw signs that Europe was beginning to reverse the trends he described.
“We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was lit here millennia ago,” Rubio said. “There are already signs. Across this continent, we are witnessing the beginning of what we hope will be a generational shift.”
During his visit, Rubio announced a new counterterrorism partnership between the U.S. and Greece.
He emphasized the strategic importance of Greece on Wednesday, calling it a “source of stability in an unstable world.”
“As you see a world that faces these destabilizing events, you recognize how important this alliance with Greece is to the United States,” Rubio said. “It is a source of stability in an unstable world.”
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