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Secretary of State Marco Rubio Briefs Members of the Media, May 5, 2026

May 5, 2026 · The White House · 0:49:47

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

What happened

Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed members of the media at the White House on May 5, 2026, filling in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. He led with the operation the President had announced over the weekend: “the president announced this project — Project Freedom — and the goal of it is to rescue like almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries that are trapped inside of the Gulf,” stranded by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Rubio said the stranded commercial crews had been at sea for more than two months, running short of food, potable water, and essential supplies, that several civilian ships had been fired on, and that “at least 10 sailors have already died.” He called the blockade “piracy,” noted that many nations had privately or publicly asked the United States to help free the ships, and argued that a nuclear-armed Iran able to close the strait at will — with gasoline at “$9 a gallon or $8 a gallon” — is the strategic case behind the administration’s posture.

Why it matters

Project Freedom is the humanitarian face of the Hormuz confrontation, announced by the Secretary of State from the briefing-room podium: an American-led rescue of third-country civilians as the public rationale for breaking the blockade. Its stated scale — 23,000 people, 87 countries — is the commitment the operation is measured against on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the Project Freedom announcement — nearly 23,000 stranded civilians of 87 countries to be rescued, with at least 10 sailor deaths already recorded, all as stated by Secretary Rubio at the briefing.

Sources: The White House, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio Briefs Members of the Media, May 5, 2026,” The White House, May 5, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by Secretary Rubio at the briefing.