U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the Trump administration’s foreign policy and economic vision in a speech in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Rubio emphasized that national identity remains crucial as he described a shift in American economic strategy that has led to significant consequences. The administration is promoting the Foundry School, a program aimed at training Americans in manufacturing and design.
“The nation-state still matters, nationalism is real, national borders still matter, and countries will always act in their best interests,” Rubio stated.
Rubio asserted that the Trump administration’s policies are the initial steps to correcting errors made in American economic policy over the past three decades. “We made a terrible mistake many years ago, especially at the end of the Cold War, by believing that the ability to make things no longer mattered,” he said.
Rubio explained that the focus on efficiency and cost led companies to produce goods in the most economical locations, resulting in lower consumer prices but also a decline in domestic manufacturing. “That fantasy—that the entire world would become free-enterprise democracies and everyone would look like us—ran into reality,” he added.
“The result? America has deindustrialized. We lost not just large-scale machinery but even the most basic components that underpin modern economic life,” Rubio said, noting a recent realization of dangerous dependence on foreign nations for critical goods necessary for national security and prosperity.
Rubio concluded: “We are now engaged in an effort across all sectors to reverse these mistakes.”
