C-SPAN’s Washington Journal with Greg Lukianoff spotlights 2025’s key political moments, from Trump’s bold foreign policy claims—ending Gaza’s war in "10 months," dismantling Iran’s nuclear threat, and securing hostage releases—to RealClear Politics polling showing 54% disapproval of his handling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends a national-interest-driven approach, tying foreign aid to U.S. security and prosperity while dismissing humanitarian concerns as secondary. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s unprecedented recall of nearly 30 career diplomats by mid-January raises questions about transparency and continuity in global relations, underscoring how partisan shifts reshape America’s diplomatic legacy. [Automatically generated summary]
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After rebuilding the United States military in my first term, and with the addition we are adding right now, we have the most powerful military anywhere in the world, and it's not even close.
I've restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat, and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East and secured the release of the hostages, both living and dead.
President Trump from last week on foreign policy, when you take a look at the average polls put together by RealClear Politics, they found that 54% of those polled in these surveys disapprove of the president's handling of foreign policy, while 43% approve.
You can take a look then below that on immigration and the economy also tied to foreign policy and you see the average disapproval rate at 50% for immigration.
47% approve of how he's handling immigration.
55% disapprove of the economy and 41% approve of the economy and of course economy related to foreign policy on tariffs and trade.
We'll get to your calls here in just a minute on whether or not you support or oppose President Trump's handling of foreign policy, but take a listen to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who held a news conference recently, and this is what he had to say about the year President Trump had in 2025 on foreign policy.
At its core, the core principle of the national interest, the core principle behind our foreign policy needs to be our national interests.
So you have to, first of all, define what is the national interest and then you have to apply it.
We defined it as we are in favor of foreign policies that make America safer or stronger or more prosperous.
Hopefully all three, but at least one of those three.
And then it requires you to prioritize.
Even the richest, most powerful and influential country on earth has limited resources, has limited time.
And it has to be able to dedicate those resources and time through a process of prioritization.
That includes geographic prioritization.
It also includes issue prioritization.
And that's what we intend to do here.
Then you have to have the mechanisms of foreign policy to deliver on it.
In essence, you have to have a Department of State and a National Security Council and all the elements of U.S. foreign policy influence and power to deliver, to identify and then deliver on those priorities.
And that's what we've attempted to do here, and I think we're well on our way to doing it.
There's more work to be done.
There's things we will improve upon.
But generally speaking, it was the genesis behind the reorganization of the department, oftentimes applying reforms that secretaries of states of both parties, appointed by presidents of both parties, have long sought to do.
And we're very proud of that going into effect and continuing to work forward.
I think we generally avoided massive disruptions to our operation, although any transition involves some disruption.
But we're very happy with the way we empowered our regional bureaus, meaning our embassies and the folks at the desks here behind the regions have become more empowered and having influence over every element of our foreign policy, particularly how it's applied tactically.
At the same time, one of the things we looked at is foreign aid.
Foreign aid is not a separate activity of the United States government.
It is an element and a tool of our foreign policy, and it should be used for the purpose of furthering the national interest.
That doesn't mean we don't care about human rights.
That doesn't mean we don't care about starvation.
That doesn't mean we don't care about hunger.
That doesn't mean we don't care about humanitarian need.
What it does mean, however, is that even foreign aid, which is not charity, it is an act of the U.S. taxpayer.
Now, American charities are free to give their money to whoever they want, as long as it's not a sanctioned entity.
But the United States and the taxpayer money should be spent in furtherance of our foreign policy, should be spent in places and on things that further our foreign policy.
And even that is not unlimited.
We have a limited amount of money that we can dedicate to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance.
And that has to be applied in a way that furthers our national interests.
And that's what we have sought to do as well.
And in that endeavor as well, we have empowered the regional bureaus and our embassies to play a dramatic role.
In fact, they are not just the implementers of this.
They, in many cases, are the ones that are suggesting and are leading the response.
And so bringing the tools of foreign aid underneath the umbrella of our broader foreign policy has been an important and dramatic reform.
Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, recently outlining the President Trump's approach to foreign policy.
You hear him talking about diplomats.
Front page of the New York Times this morning, nearly 30 envoys were called to the United States by the White House with no explanation given.
Many of the ambassadors were told in recent days to leave their posts by mid-January.
They are all Foreign Service officers who were appointed to their positions by the Biden administration and confirmed by the Senate.
A standard tour is three to four years.
The union representing career diplomats said this was the first time that such a mass recall had taken place of career diplomats serving as ambassadors or chiefs of mission.
You can read the front page of the New York Times this morning more on that story there.
David in Indiana, Republican.
David, good morning to you.
talking about President Trump handling foreign policy.