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Jan. 15, 2025 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
32:11
Will Marco Rubio Be Trump's Blinken?

Sen. Marco Rubio is a shoo-in for Secretary of State in the coming Trump Administration, but will the long-time neocon interventionist last long in an administration elected to pursue a new kind of foreign policy? Politico writes today that he may have a very short run at Foggy Bottom. Also today: Why is Trump's Ukraine envoy accepting highly paid speaking gigs from a Marxist-terrorist cult?

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Government Shuffles? 00:07:48
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today, we have Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you this morning.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
How are you?
Good.
You've been watching the TV or a copy of the TV or just reading about, you know, the government's changing quickly.
There's a new person being assigned every day.
Yeah.
And they're all going to straighten things out.
They're going to cut spending.
The number of employees will go down.
The dollar will get stronger.
And the people will get richer.
And the chicken in every pot.
You mean we have a libertarian coming in?
There are some people, you know, you can't say nothing is good because there's some people who pretend to be libertarians and they say a couple words that are sympathetic to libertarianism.
But I'm not predicting that there's going to be any magic.
Matter of fact, right now, as we speak, it may be over by now.
They've been probably questioning Marco Rubio.
I think he wants to be the Secretary of State.
That's a pretty good job, isn't it?
I mean, a lot of responsibility, things like that.
But there's argument.
You know, sometimes they talk about, is he going to be appointed or not?
But most people think he'll be appointed.
But the big betting is going on now.
How long is he going to last?
He's going to be one year or two years?
Or is he going to be there the whole time of Trump's administration, the next four years?
Well, a lot of people think that not too many people claim that there is no way that he won't be there in four years.
You don't hear too much of that.
But some of them are saying, well, you'll probably be, you know, there will be so many factions there, and there'll be so much undermining that in spite of the countries seemingly coming together, you know, with the new government and, you know, America First policies, that this wouldn't be a problem.
But there are factions there.
And, you know, I think the factions represents, the bigger the government, the more factions there are.
The more money involved, the more lobbying there has.
So it's not surprising, no matter how well-intentioned people are, you know, if people had differences of opinion, they were honest and open and had honest discussions, that would be one thing.
But there's a lot at stake here, a lot at stake.
And foreign policy and the whole works.
It is a big deal.
We'll know a lot more at the end of today exactly what is likely to happen.
But right now, I think it's going to be a horrendous job for anybody because there's so much in flux.
You know, there are events that could come up next week that could surprise everybody and change everybody's opinion about what we should do.
And that has happened quite frequently.
And that's why I think it would be much nicer if they would just accept the idea that is very easily understood and should be very good.
That is a foreign policy that is defended by the Constitution.
And they basically accept the principles of non-intervention.
The government should be there to do the best they can to protect our liberties.
Well, as you say, the hearings are going on today.
Now, on the one hand, he's a shoe-in.
He's one of them.
We talked about it before the show.
Plenty of Democrat senators like him for a number of reasons.
There are a lot of hawks on the D side as well.
And they like the fact that Marco Rubio really is a died-in-the-wool neocon.
He's an old-school neocon.
That's what he's all about.
He's always been about that.
He basically is a John Bolton type of character.
He's never seen a potential war that he did not want to turn into an actual war.
But, you know, we noticed this morning an article in Politico, which is quite interesting for a number of reasons.
And I put that first clip on, which is that he may not last very long in the job.
And that's the title of it.
Marco Rubo isn't likely to last long as Secretary of State.
And there's a number of reasons.
If you go to the next clip, unlike many of President-elect Donald Trump's nominees, Rubio is a shoe-in for Senate confirmation, exactly.
Having NAV Democrat support, U.S. diplomats and foreign officials too view the GOP senator from Florida as a knowledgeable, not insane, now that's questionable, not insane, well-behaved person with whom they can engage.
But the thing that's interesting about this article for me, Dr. Paul, is that, you know, every administration puts its own mark on how DC does business.
And I think what we're starting to see here now is that the Trump 2.0 is going to be a different kind of administration than Trump 1.0.
And I think that's what we're seeing.
And that's what this article does a pretty good job of fleshing out, which is that what Trump is doing is bringing in someone to the State Department who will not be a strong Secretary of State.
He's essentially, he's degrading the position of Secretary of State.
Now, that's my opinion.
I think I can back it up fairly well.
But nevertheless, let's hear.
Okay, first of all, backing up just a little bit, Dr. Paul.
So Trump was definitely elected on a new kind of foreign policy.
People were sick of Biden's wars.
He said, I'm going to be a peace candidate.
I'm going to end the wars.
Now, a lot of people understand that a lot of that is just campaign rhetoric.
However, that was appealing to people.
So when you do that, but you appoint as your top diplomat someone who loves wars and thinks we need more of them, a lot of the MAGA base, remember help set people.
You and I couldn't believe it.
Rubio, of all people.
You know, really?
They were shocked.
So let's listen to this first clip.
This is Rubio today outlining his vision of America's place in the world.
And it sounds very familiar to people who are familiar with the neocon burden of having to be the policeman of the world and having to share America's vision to the world and democratize the world.
So let's put that on and listen to it.
In Moscow, in Tehran, in Pyongyang, dictators, rogue states now sow chaos and instability and align with and they fund radical terror groups.
And then they hide behind their veto power at the United Nations Security Council or the threats of nuclear war.
The post-war global order is not just obsolete.
It is now a weapon being used against us.
And all this has led to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and of generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive and in this room today.
Eight decades later, we are once again called to create a free world out of the chaos.
And this will not be easy.
This is interesting if I can just have a second because he starts out by saying the old global order is gone.
It's over.
It's done.
We have new actors that are rising.
They're challenging our hegemony.
It doesn't work anymore.
But then his solution to this changing world is we've got to do all the stuff that we were doing that brought about this new world, this world of people, of countries gathering together to oppose us, the sanctioned countries forming bricks and others, the things that we did that forced them to get together, we need to do it harder and faster.
Republicans' Less Interventionist Foreign Policy 00:05:49
That's basically what I think his view is.
You know, there are coalitions that always come together.
In this sense, the coalition is America First idea.
People want to be strong.
They want to be patriotic.
They want a strong military.
And we're waiting for and encouraging a different type of combination.
And it leaks out all the time in the campaign events because there's Republicans.
We cite it all the time where Republicans are really very sincere in a less interventionist foreign policy.
They're not all warmongers, you know, and they're not the hawks.
So you have that group that's a growing number, but then the internal politics of what Washington is like, you know, and how you get appointments and different things like that, you end up with a mishmash of support.
You say, well, why is he doing this?
This is exactly opposite of what he should be doing.
And, you know, the coalition, if we had our way, and that would mean that you would have libertarian leader and Republicans, constitutional conservatives.
But for some reason, I don't know why it happened, but the Democrats, you know, the progressive Democrats, sometimes they come out, but, you know, they don't sound like somebody that's still paying attention to the Constitution.
And they come out, but they're not there.
So I think there's a group of people out there, and I think there's a lot of people who supported the changes offered to us by the current to be president.
And so because we say, well, watch out, watch out, something could happen.
He's going to appoint Kellogg, and he's not our friend, and this sort of thing.
But I think the movement, I think that we can still say that the movement from the people in this country would like to be seeing a lot less wars, stop the wars and don't start any new ones.
And that's great political arguments.
And I think they serve their interests.
But what I fear is that attitude can be changed very, very quickly.
One event can make a difference and cancel out a lot of the good things that we see happening.
Yeah, I mean, I think I sort of, I think I finally understood why Trump picked Rubio.
At the time, we were all depressed.
We thought we were going to get a better group of people, a group of leaders.
I think I finally understand what it is.
He's picking Marco Rubio to be the lightning rod at state for all of the things that he's taking outside of state's purview.
And the writer of this article, I like it because it agrees with me.
Go to this next clip because I think this is where you start sort of sussing out what's happening.
He says, but Rubio will be lucky to last a year at Foggy Bottom.
Rubio is already being undermined through pushback from Trump's MAGA base.
We talked about that.
The naming of other Trump appointees with overlapping portfolios, as well as the essentially weak nature of the position he's inheriting.
So he's being undermined because the position of Secretary of State is to be downgraded in favor of people that are closer to Trump, his envoys, his national security advisor, and others.
Now, this is where Politico goes, Politico, because they're nervous about this.
Go to the next one.
A Rubio departure could mean fewer restraints on Trump's already unorthodox foreign policy, further rattling America's global allies.
Now, again, this is Politico being Politico because they're nervous that Trump might actually pursue a different kind of foreign policy.
Some of it may sound bizarre, and certainly to the establishment like Politico, it will.
But so they're saying that if Rubio does go, it could be a real depressing thing for people who want the status quo.
And now, this is the main reason why I saw this this morning.
I wanted to send it over to you because this next clip I think is really interesting.
It says a lot.
How tough is it for the would-be chief diplomat?
If you put that next one up, the minute Trump's choice of Rubio leaked, hardline, go back one, please.
The minute Trump's choice of Rubio leaked, hardline MAGA types rushed to say it wasn't a done deal, underscoring the suspicions many in Trump's base have toward Rubio, whom they see as too hawkish and interventionist.
Now, what this is saying, if you read between the lines, is a significant part of Trump's base doesn't like this interventionism, doesn't like this hawkishness, and they're recognizing that.
And I think that's a positive sign.
Yeah, and you can see that in many ways, Trump is in a position where he's going to have a difficulty pleasing both sides of that.
And then there's also the people who history shows that the military-industrial complex is very much involved with money and other efforts to have their way.
And that is very intimidating.
And I think that it will not be easy for Trump to satisfy all these people.
And it would become chaotic.
I think the whole thing, you know, whether it's a DOD or the State Department, they're so big.
So many thousands of bureaucrats are running around.
Everybody has a political agenda.
Inside Politics Agenda 00:15:04
And then there's, you know, what gets lost in this?
This all costs money, you know.
Are they really saying, you know, do they bring it up under the idea of the interest in Doge?
Are they talking, you know, all this stuff costs money?
No, it's just, it's this political inside politics.
But I think the greatest threat right now that could bring a lot of things down internationally is the rejection of the dollar system.
And they don't even mention that.
They're talking about inside politics agenda.
But, you know, when it comes to China, though, Rubio is a major, major hawk, and he wants to save the dollar system with the use of force.
Now, I have a couple of clips from today's hearing of him on China.
Let's listen to that first clip of him on China.
This is, yeah, let's play that whole clip if we can, that first clip of Rubio on China.
That'd be that second clip.
Here we go.
We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all of its benefits, and they ignored all of its obligations and responsibilities.
Instead, they have repressed and lied and cheated and hacked and stolen their way into global superpower status, and they have done so at our expense and at the expense of the people of their own country.
So China is stolen.
Because they stole everything.
They didn't make anything just stole everything.
You know, it's almost like a declaration of war.
I mean, how could they be diplomatic with accusations?
And they expect to be able to work with people.
You know, even at the height of the Cold War, when there were missiles in Cuba, you know, Kennedy and Khrushchev, they at least talked to people, which we were fortunate to.
But are we going to be able to talk to the Chinese after this?
I think what's going on is China's terrible.
I wouldn't want to live there and a lot of things.
But I'll tell you what, if you want to live in a world with them, you have to be more honest.
And one thing I think we're dishonest with in this country is that we're willing to say no matter what we do wrong, we never admit it.
And we are to be the king and the runner of the empire.
And therefore, it's all China's fault.
And China keeps spending this money.
Yeah, because we buy their stuff.
It's something that I think this is, for some people, this might be heresy.
I think they have become more knowledgeable how markets work and finances work than we realize.
And I think we're ignoring some of the financial realities in this country that deficits don't matter.
And I just hope there's a cut in spending or something done that way.
But I am fearful that the emergency spending will continue and we'll be spending more money at the end of the year than we are now.
Yeah.
Well, I've been to China, spent a couple weeks there, and I think it's an amazing place.
I think the innovation is incredible there.
They out-innovate us.
And people like Rubio are mad because they work harder than we do.
And they work smarter than we do.
They've got trains that go as fast as airplanes.
I actually rode in one in Shanghai.
I mean, these are things we spent $5 billion and we never even built a single mile of railroad track in California, however many billion it was.
And they're building these amazing things.
And all Rubio wants to do is sit and sulk and say, well, they stole our stuff.
Oh, I know.
Yeah, I think it's crybaby stuff in many ways.
Now, let's listen to the second clip from Rubio about China because it's also very important and indicative of his thinking.
If we can get that second clip queued up, we're getting some rain here in Lake Jackson.
We've got this second, there we go.
This is the third audio video clip.
Let's listen to this.
If we stay on the road we're on right now, less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not.
Everything from the blood pressure medicine we take to what movies we get to watch and everything in between, we will depend on China for it.
They have come to dominate the critical mineral industry supplies throughout the world.
Everywhere in the world, they've now established critical mineral rights.
Even those who want to see more electric cars, no matter where you make them, those batteries are almost entirely dependent on the ability of the Chinese and the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to produce it and export it to you.
So if we don't change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not.
That's an unacceptable outcome.
He's basically undermining his own thesis and the Chinese have done so many amazing things.
Yeah, the whole thing, people look at this.
We still can make a lot of our decisions.
We have a holistic type medicine movement going on now.
And I think COVID, one of the benefits has been that people have become aware that the government is not going to protect us from that.
There are still people who think that, yeah, you have to cancel people if they still believe in managing COVID vaccines and letting, making you, you know, get approval from the government to do this.
This is amazing that they go along with this.
It's like there's no freedom of choice.
Yes, there's way too much government.
That's what I've been harping on for a long time.
But I'll tell you what, even in medicine, people are going to have to take it upon themselves to do a little bit more research because there are the alternatives.
The internet is big enough that you can find things.
But, you know, even today, I still have questions about things I learned at medical school, and I'm questioning whether I should still believe them.
And I'm still looking for honest information on drugs and things like that.
But I'm aghast when I look at the number of drugs that are available and how big this is and how much control there is.
And it is an attack.
And now the government's taking over all of this, all of the medical care.
We do have those problems, but they're upon ourselves.
But it's not like China did it to us.
They did it to us.
Yeah.
But China, like I said, they're not exactly totally ignorant about how markets work.
Yeah.
Well, this, I think, is another little piece of evidence, I think, that Rubio is being set up to be the punching bag.
Because here you have Rubio appearing saying that China is responsible for all of our problems.
Everything they have, they stole from us.
It's all their fault.
We're only going to be able to do what they, I mean, what they allow us to do.
This Chinese Communist Party is everywhere.
But at the same time, Donald Trump himself invited Xi Jinping to his inauguration.
So this terrible, evil company, a country that's the worst totalitarian dictatorship on earth, according to Marco Rubio, the leader of that country was invited by the president, his boss, to come out to the inauguration.
That sounds inconsistent.
And that's what's going to happen to Marco.
Little Marco is going to be out.
He's going to be tossed out.
He's going to be a punching bag for the world press.
What's this with Greenland?
What's this with Panama?
Bam, Maybe they look at it as a temporary political problem to deal with without the true understanding that we're changing things really for things to come and more permanent.
But, you know, we get the promises, but I think most politicians that I knew are really short-term people.
You know, if they can get by the one vote, how are we going to get this one vote passed?
And all the energy is directed to one thing going on and get this passed and everything is going to be all right.
Oh, get the debt limit increase and that'll take care of it.
We have another six months we can deal with these problems.
So they're not long-term planners.
All they know is the long term is if they don't accommodate the special interest, they could be short-term.
So it is a system that is bankrupt and morally destructive to what we're doing.
Especially in the House.
It's a two-year cycle.
You got to always, I've got to stay in here so I can keep doing good for the people.
Well, the last story we want to talk about, and just touch on it briefly because we're getting short on time, but I think it's something of concern.
And thanks to Dave DeCamp for bringing this up and writing it up on anti-war.com.
But if you can put up that Trump's incoming Ukraine envoy, here we go.
This is on anti-war, I think, two days ago.
Trump's incoming Ukraine envoy speaks at event hosted by cult that wants regime change in Iran.
Now, that doesn't sound right.
This actually happened over last weekend.
Keith Kellogg, who's Trump's envoy.
We talked about Kellogg talking about Iran earlier in the week.
But he went over to speak at an event hosted by the MEK, also known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which up until Hillary Clinton was a terrorist organization listed by the United States as a group of international terrorists.
And what they do is they give a lot of money to retired politicians, to people of stature, to come and give a speech.
And they all stand on the stage together.
I should have shown the picture of it.
They all stand on the stage together, and it gives the impression.
I think Bolton spoke there.
All these types of people speak there.
I don't even know.
I may have had a clip on.
Anyway, and it gives the impression that they're with the MEK.
They're our supporters.
So to have someone that's going into an extremely senior position in the Trump administration just literally a few days before Trump takes power and speak before a radical Marxist jihadist cult is very, very troubling and disturbing, I think.
Do you think there's a little bit of inconsistency about Rubio's attitude toward China?
At the same time, they're still dealing with them in many ways the wrong way.
It isn't having an honest discussion.
But it's a system that is designed to see how quickly they can get one-up on the opposition.
Yeah.
And Kellogg goes before this group and says, we're going to reinstate the maximum pressure policy on Iran.
And of course, they love that because the MEK is known for assassinating Iranian scientists.
They work together with the Israelis to assassinate these nuclear scientists.
They assassinated and killed American soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war.
But the idea that somehow you're providing cover for them and talking about a policy, he's not the Iran guy.
He's a Ukraine guy.
But saying that the administration is going to be pursuing this policy, he has no right to say that.
You know, if you go to the next clip, Kellogg's participation in the event.
Now, if I were Trump's people, I would be putting Kellogg on a serious leash after this.
Go to the next one, please.
Go to the next one, please.
I already covered that part.
But Kellogg's participation in the event signals that the MEK may have a line into the incoming Trump administration.
But that's called influence peddling.
Imagine if it were some Chinese group or some Russian group.
People would be going nuts.
But these guys hate the Iranian government.
They want to overthrow it with U.S. help, and so that's okay.
And I just want to do one other thing.
This is from Dave.
I'm glad you brought this up again.
If you go to the next clip, a report about the MEK published by the RAND Corporation in 09 concluded that the group has many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control, including mandatory divorce and celibacy, emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options.
This is a crazed cult with guns and weapons.
And here we have Kellogg going to speak to them.
In fact, here's their flag, by the way.
If anyone looks at this flag and starts to wonder, this looks pretty odd.
There's like a hammer and sickle, but the hammer is a gun.
It's got a red star.
I don't know if I'm Keith Kellogg.
I want to be going over there accepting a huge check to speak to this group, Dr. Paul.
Right.
You know, Keller said at the event that they should reinstate maximum pressure on Iran.
But that will fit into some of the things we hear from the new president to be.
And that is, what about the tariffs?
Tariffs are something very significant, and there's a pretty strong history that they don't work all that well, and that it is a tax.
It backfires and usually hurts the people that imposed it.
But that would go along with Kellogg.
Kellogg wouldn't object to that.
I imagine he might just say more more more, and we can't let them get away with.
You know, beating us at our game they're.
They're making more profits on the automobile business than they.
When you look at the numbers, it's astounding how many cars come out of China and people should say, you know, compared to the way it was in the 50s I mean China they were still not even wearing Western clothes.
Absolutely with them.
Yeah absolutely well, I guess I'll.
I'll close out now, Dr. Paul, if we're done, I do want to thank Dowding Thomas, Daniel Hamill and Conrell 2020 for making a contribution toward the furtherance of this show with a with a live chat.
We appreciate your, your donation to the RON PAUL Institute here as we're doing the show live, and want to thank everyone else who's watching and ask you to please hit that thumbs up or like or whatever it might be on your platform and please pass the show around.
Help us get the word out that we are a principled supporter and opposer of any administration as long as they are following the path of liberty.
And, Dr. Paul, you know all about that, right?
You know, there seems to be a lot of chaos out there and some people glory in it because it offers them an opportunity to invite a new system, and I think there's definitely truth to that.
Chaos And Opportunity 00:02:14
But sometimes it's the evildoers that do it deliberately for that reason.
But when there is chaos that comes from and it's expected to come from government intervention, spending too much money and having a Federal Reserve, you do have downturns and this, this means that this is, it is an opportunity to get people to change their mind.
And when these conditions deteriorate, I'm just hoping that we have more people and we have a growing number of people that understand the significance of the Federal Reserve and spending too much and all this activity, and that's when the rebuilding has to occur.
So, but there's, there is so, so much chaos in the foreign policy, the number of employees, the efforts by dogs is, you know significant, and I do my best to encourage this effort to cut the spending.
And I think it's important because, you know, we've had often had, over the years, votes in the Congress on a particular bill or some legislation that they, they could, they had to rein in.
You know waste, fraud and abuse and I said that's a good idea, but but it's not going to solve the problem and I'm just hoping that it will be better than I expect with with the people that are determined to cut the spending.
But it contradicts things.
It's too big.
Our foreign policy is too big to manage.
How do you manage the DOD and the State Department, thousands of people and all these different factions angling for a political position or a job.
Afterwards they're going to limit the jobs.
I don't think they're going to do that.
When the generals leave it it it's going to be hard, hard to do that.
So it's it's.
It's something that is huge and people have to become willing to understand what's going on.
The understanding is very clear.
Government is too big and we don't obey the law of the land, which is the Constitution.
And we finance it with counterfeit money.
And if we don't look at that, this stuff isn't going to work.
And people say, well, you're too negative, too negative.
Promoting Peace and Prosperity 00:01:02
But I'm not negative.
I think the problem is horrible, but the solution isn't complicated.
And it is something that, because one thing I found out when I was campaigning and actually is that freedom is very popular.
When you tell people what it means, it isn't like I'm going to come down and burn your house down by stupidity or anything like that.
Just leave people alone.
So I think that the opportunity is there and we can be very, very positive.
Actually, the repairing of this system when it becomes absolutely necessary could be easy, but it could get worse if we don't have more people joining in in this effort that we promote constantly.
And that is promoting peace and prosperity through the emphasis on liberty.
And that is an easy job.
All of us should participate or things won't get better before they get worse.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.
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