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Secretary Rubio Delivers Year-End Remarks to the Press, Dec. 19, 2025

December 19, 2025 · U.S. Department of State · 2:09:42

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an extended year-end briefing for the press at the Department of State on December 19, 2025, according to the State Department broadcast. He opened with the framework he said has governed his tenure: President Trump was elected on an understanding “that foreign policy was in need of a complete recalibration,” because its institutions and assumptions “were built upon a world that no longer existed.” At the core, he said, “foreign policy needs to be the national interest of the United States,” defined as policies “that make America safer or stronger or more prosperous. Hopefully, all three, but at least, one of those three” — applied through geographic and issue prioritization, because “even the richest, most powerful and influential country on Earth has limited resources.”

Rubio described the department’s reorganization — empowering the regional bureaus and embassies — and the folding of foreign aid under foreign policy: “Foreign aid is not a separate activity of the United States government. It is an element and a tool of our foreign policy… foreign aid, which is not charity, it is an act of the U.S. taxpayer.” He pointed to the President’s peacemaker engagements — Russia–Ukraine, India–Pakistan, Thailand–Cambodia, Sudan — and across more than two hours of questions ranged over Venezuela (declining to comment on the President’s talks while arguing Maduro “cannot be trusted to keep deals,” citing the prior administration’s sanctions-relief agreement), Gaza’s phase II, and immigration vetting, where he defended the admissions pause: “we do have a right, like every sovereign country does, to know who you are, why you’re coming, what you’ve done in the past.”

Why it matters

The year-end briefing is the Secretary’s own audit of his first year — the national-interest test, the State Department reorganization and the aid doctrine stated in one place — and the reference text for the posture the 2026 record is measured against.

Sources: U.S. Department of State, “Secretary Rubio Delivers Year-End Remarks to the Press” (official upload, embedded above); remarks as delivered 2025-12-19; transcript via state.gov as linked in the upload description and reviewed in the site’s private research store.