Free Republic

The world is far safer after President Donald J. Trump’s highly successful, decisive precision strikes against the Iranian regime’s key nuclear facilities. Take it from those who actually know: President Trump: “Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran, as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term! The white structure shown is deeply imbedded into the rock, with even its roof well below ground level, and completely shielded from flame. The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!” Israel Atomic Energy Commission: “The devastating US strike on Fordo destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and...

Karl Marx's economics, and it concedes valuable ideological ground to the left every time it's repeated. It's a line some conservatives still reach for, almost reflexively. It's time that changed, because even the claim that communism works in theory is plainly false. In a speech Thursday announcing a global crackdown on left-wing terrorism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made exactly that argument: communism does not even work in theory. Socialism and communism, by their very nature, require the centralization of power, the destruction of the individual, and the abolition of private property, the very institution that has been instrumental to...

Direct YouTube Link: Secretary Rubio delivers opening remarks at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political TerrorismA whole industry grew up in our countries around the study of extremism. We have think tanks and fellowships and journals and consultancies, with the unspoken understanding among them that the only kind of political violence that was a true threat to our system – I’m sorry – that only one kind of political violence was a true threat to the system. A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil. It is. But a bomb planted by...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday announced the imposition of visa restrictions in a bid to target violent, far-left terrorist groups. The announcement coincided with an international summit in which Rubio met with representatives of dozens of nations and warned of growing far-left extremism. He further invoked international coalitions to stop the Islamic State as a model for them to emulate. "Today, in support of National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 and ongoing U.S. Government efforts to disrupt networks fomenting political violence before they escalate to criminal action, the Department of State is announcing a new visa restriction policy that targets...

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign to dismantle the International criminal court (ICC) on Monday, claiming that the global tribunal was interfering with US military and law enforcement operations at the risk of American sovereignty. Rubio invoked images of US Border Patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal Monday. “If we stand idle, all of them will be at the mercy of foreign judges, thousands of miles away – facing the constant risk of...

An illegal alien child rapist from Laos who was set for deportation until Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the State Board of Pardons granted him clemency has been removed from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Digital. Rubio stepped in to terminate Tue Lue Vang's legal status in the U.S. and ensure that Walz's actions would not create roadblocks for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removing him from the country. "Just weeks ago, a foreign child rapist was freed to once again endanger America's children after receiving a pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was planning to head to Brussels last month to deliver what would be a bombshell announcement in a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s top military chiefs. The U.S., he planned to say, was preparing additional cuts to its forces in Europe that would go beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the earlier withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth’s proposal was nixed after it was shared with Marco Rubio—President Trump’s national-security adviser—and other senior officials, the people said. Instead, Hegseth said...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be staking out differing approaches to carrying out President Donald Trump’s national security agenda as the possible 2028 presidential rivals jostle for position in a divided Republican Party.With vastly different backgrounds and policy experience, they have moved along separate paths to stake out territory: Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants with a long history in the Senate and major interest in Latin America, and Vance, a child of the Midwest and Marine Corps veteran who served in the Senate for only two years before being...

Israel and Lebanon signed a framework peace agreement on Friday — icing out Iran and its proxy group Hezbollah — following four days of negotiations in Washington. “In this performance-based trilateral framework agreement, Iran is out, Hezbollah is out, and the road to peace between Israel and Lebanon is in,” Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said at a signing ceremony. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the agreement as a “first step” to returning Lebanon to its prior prosperity before Hezbollah moved in and promoted terrorism. “The people of Lebanon have suffered tremendously now for decades as a...

Simmering anger at the billionaire’s unchecked power spilled out in a remarkable Cabinet Room meeting. The president quickly moved to rein in Mr. Musk. Cabinet officials generally like the concept of what Elon Musk set out to do — reducing waste, fraud and abuse in government — but have been frustrated by the hacksaw approach to upending the government and the lack of consistent coordination. Marco Rubio was incensed. Here he was in the Cabinet Room of the White House, the secretary of state, seated beside the president and listening to a litany of attacks from the richest man in...

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth all have voiced doubts about Iran’s commitment not to build a nuclear weapon. Rubio and Hegseth speak to press. Malcolm Ferguson. June 16, 2026 CIA Director John Ratcliffe and others within the Trump administration don’t think Iran is being serious about its promise not to develop or attain nuclear weapons, according to anonymous sources from Axios.

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There are a lot of stories about Cuba floating around right now. Some are MSM outlets acting like they have a scoop on something that's been happening or rumored to be happening for months. Some are simply absurd and probably not true. Most aren't actually verified by the Donald Trump administration and come from anonymous sources. I'm not even going to bother with those today. I saw this happen in the final months before we captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. Most of these reporters and media outlets didn't even care about these countries until they became newsworthy, and once they...

On Saturday's episode of MS NOW's The Weekend, co-host Eugene Daniels offered a revealing defense of the Cuban regime: "It's their country, so them deciding what kind of government and political system they want to have, the leaders and the folks in that country, is their business, I think a lot of people would say." This is the standard sovereignty shield used to protect dictatorships. Daniels ignored that Cuba has been ruled by communist tyrants since 1959, with no free elections and a long record of suppressing "the folks." If those "folks" had a chance to express themselves in a...

In recent conversations with aides and allies, President Trump often interjects with a question about his vice president: Does JD Vance have what it takes to go all the way? He usually answers his own question: He’s not so sure. It is not that Mr. Trump is abandoning Mr. Vance. He involves him in major decisions, has given him high-profile opportunities to position himself for 2028 and trusts the 41-year-old vice president to wage partisan warfare on his behalf. In a cabinet meeting this week, Mr. Trump compared Mr. Vance to Eliot Ness, the mob-busting federal agent, for working to...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers virtual address at CIT’s Conference, Endowed by Their Creator: Catholicism, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Experiment at 250On Thursday, April 9th, Catholic Law’s Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, together with Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government and Catholic University’s Carroll Forum for Citizenship and Public Life, co-hosted a symposium celebrating the nation's semiquincentennial. The day brought together leading scholars and public intellectuals from across the country to explore the relationship between the Catholic intellectual tradition and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and to reflect...

Skip to content An official website of the United States Government Here's how you know Close Menu State Department HomeState Department Home search Search Marco Rubio, Secretary of State May 20, 2026 Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a video message to the people of Cuba, reaffirming the unwavering support of the United States for the Cuban people in their pursuit of freedom, dignity, and self-determination. In his remarks, Secretary Rubio addressed the continued suffering endured by the Cuban people after 67 years of tyranny, censorship, and human rights abuses by the illegitimate regime. A courtesy translation of the...

During the days of colonialism, it was gratifying for the British, Portuguese, Germans, and French to look at the world map and bask in all the colonies of each country. But the pretty blotches of red or blue or black hid an unpleasant fact. Many of those colonies were a drain on the mother country; they would put into those colonies far more than they got out of them. This was particularly obvious in those colonies that were principally desert. Spain also had colonies. Cubans tried to become independent but failed due to the eternal ineptitude of Cubans, whose only...

Rubio is like the baseball team that scraps for every run and creates openings while Vance seems to be waiting for President Trump to hit a three-run homer to bring him in. Rubio is clearly leading Trump among Latinos, winning converts for him in a way Vance is failing to do. He has used his position as secretary of state to polish his image. Rubio has a charisma edge while Vance seems to be a stolid follower in Trump's wake.

HAVANA (AP) — CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Cuban officials including Raúl Castro’s grandson during a high-level visit to the island Thursday, Cuban and U.S. officials said. Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of Cuban intelligence services, and discussed intelligence cooperation, economic stability and security issues. A CIA official confirmed the meetings to the AP. Ratcliffe was there “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,’' the CIA official said....