U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the Trump administration’s foreign policy and economic strategy in a Washington, D.C., speech Thursday, warning that correcting past mistakes would take multiple presidential administrations to address.
Rubio introduced the Foundry School—a national program to train Americans in manufacturing and design—as part of his vision for reversing decades of economic shifts. “The nation-state still does matter, nationalism is real, national borders still matter, and countries are going to always act in their best interest,” he stated.
Rubio asserted that Trump administration policies represent the initial steps toward undoing errors in American economic policy dating back approximately 35 years. “I think we made a terrible mistake in this country many years ago, under people who were in charge at the time, especially at the end of the Cold War, and that was the idea that the ability to make things no longer mattered,” Rubio said.
He explained that the belief production locations should be determined by efficiency and cost led companies to prioritize low-cost manufacturing, resulting in “more profits for the company, lower costs for consumers.” This approach, he added, created a global fantasy that “the whole world would become free-enterprise democracies and everyone would look like us.”
Rubio emphasized this vision clashed with reality: “The reality is that human events have never worked that way. The nation-state still matters, nationalism is real, national borders still matter, and countries always act in their best interest.” He warned the result was America’s deindustrialization: “We lost our ability and capacity to make things—not just large machinery but even the most basic components that underpin economic life today.”
“Just a few years ago,” Rubio said, “we became dangerously dependent on other nations for critical goods necessary for national security and survival as a prosperous nation-state.” He concluded: “We are now involved in an endeavor across the board to try to reverse those mistakes.”
Rubio is considered a possible Republican presidential contender for 2028, though Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the current front-runner.
