Exclusive — Secretary Marco Rubio Explains ‘America First’ Foreign Policy: ‘Common Sense,’ ‘What’s Right for America Before Anything Else’

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Breitbart News exclusively that critics of the America First foreign policy are dead wrong.

“I know that people in the media, not this media but other media, like to criticize the term ‘America First’ as some sort of evil thing,” Rubio said when asked to detail what America First means for foreign policy. “Let me ask people: How many candidates would be elected if they went out and told the American people, ‘My job is to put America second, or America third, or America last.’ If they don’t like America First, they should have the guts to go out there and tell people, ‘I am running for office on the belief that our foreign policy should be driven by America second or America third.’”

“No one ever does that because I think at its core everyone understands that our foreign policy—which is what I can speak about—has to be about what is good for America,” he explained. “I think every country should do that for their own countries, and foreign relations is how you untangle the differences.”

The answer came in response to a question from Breitbart News in a long-form interview filmed on Thursday morning at the State Department. In this part, Rubio was discussing President Donald Trump’s message to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where the president’s address focused on the use of American power to advance American interests.

“So I think the president’s basically saying common sense, which is our foreign policy and what we do around the world, is going to be driven by what’s good for America,” Rubio said. “Now we would argue that what is good for America is probably also good for many of our allies as well, and in those instances in which what’s good for us and what’s good for someone we like are not exactly aligned, then we’ll work on it with diplomacy and try to manage all of that.”

“But in the end, America First is common sense,” he reiterated.

Dan Fleuette/Breitbart News

Rubio argued that the use of American power to advance the American interest—the America First foreign policy vision—also helps America’s friends and allies around the world, lifting up the west in a positive way. He also said that while America First foreign policy possibly “offends” elitists, if they had their way America would now be a “middle power” rather than a world superpower.

“It’s what it is, and I think what the president is saying is that we as a country — with the largest economy in the world, the most powerful military in the world, the most influential culture in the world — we are going to use all the elements of American power to further the interest of the United States, which we believe also furthers the interest of our allies and the broader world,” Rubio said. “America First, meaning we’re going to always do what’s right for America before anything else.”

“We’re going to put it before the UN. We’re going to put it before the global commons, or whatever you want to call it—the global order that people worshiped around here for a very long time,” he continued. “We’re not against any of those things. We’re just not going to put them ahead of American interests anymore. That’s what the president’s doing, and it offends a lot of people in these think tanks and editorial writers.”

“But if we had listened to them, I mean, at this point, America would be a middle power,” Rubio concluded.

The full Breitbart News interview with Rubio at the State Department is forthcoming soon.