Secretary of State Marco Rubio told an official at the U.S. International Development Agency on Wednesday that foreign aid is “the least popular thing for government spending money” and is increasingly difficult to defend, according to a record of the private embassy incident. .
Mr Rubio tried to explain his support for the Trump administration’s systematic demolition of the AID during a Q&A session held by the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, and thousands of agent workers abroad learned they were accepting administration One day after the management work, you must return to the United States.
No journalists participated in the event, which was the standard “meeting and greeting” for the state to visit foreign capital secretary, but the New York Times received some transcripts.
Some of what Mr Rubio said reflects the public remarks he has made in recent days, but he seemed to express sympathy for the institution during the embassy activities.
Mr. Rubio raised the courtesy of the USDA mission director but questioned about Haven Cruz-Hubbard, who took a thin line between defending foreign aid, which he called “must “Impossible,” and President Trump’s demolition of the agency.
Mr. Rubio also seems to admit the personal distress of most of the diplomatic forces he now manages. “I know it’s hard to ask for patience,” he told Mr. Cruz-Habad. “I know it’s hard to ask for trust because you’ve never met me before. I’ve never been in charge of the State Department. I’ve never served as the U.S. Agency for International Development before The administrator.”
The Trump administration appointed Mr. Rubio to the position earlier this week. He noted that the agency was independent of the State Council and had been under scrutiny before it fell on me.
Mr. Cruz-Hubbard, who is a 23-year veteran of the agency, said Mr. Rubio was in “the sober moment of the United Nations Development Agency” and told him: “We are already in the United Nations Development Agency. The agency has accepted a lot of criticism of the work we are trying to do, in order to provide us with the sacrifice of our interests.
“And, you know, now we’re facing the prospect of being sent home,” he said.
He listed the agency’s plans in Guatemala and said they contributed to Guatemalan incentives staying in the country rather than immigrating to the north.
Mr Rubio replied that the agency’s plans at that country seemed worth it. But he said the facts were everywhere, and he repeated his recent claim that the U.S. International Development Program must be better aligned with U.S. national security interests.
He also noted that public opposition to foreign aid (long-standing polls are based on misinformation) has amplified that Trump officials and allies have—nearly impossible to defend the agency.
“I want to tell you that it has nothing to do with politics,” Rubio said. “But foreign aid is the least popular thing for governments to spend money. I spent a lot of time in my career defending it and explaining it. But, the whole The steps are getting harder. Really.”
“But for those responsible for doing foreign policy, we know it’s essential,” he added.
“The United States has not left foreign aid. No,” said Mr. Rubio. “But it must be a procedure that we can defend. We must be a procedure that we can interpret. We must be a procedure that we can justify. Otherwise, we will endanger foreign aid.”
He regrets the rapid pace of USDA workers’ leave, and he suggests that relatively few institutional workers force the government to take more dramatic action.
“We have some problems in the office,” he said. “Does this mean 5, 10, 20, 50 people sued the entire organization for action? No. But despite being told not to do so, we still let people keep paying. .” The Trump administration does not provide specific examples of such payments.
Mr Rubio said workers “almost invited themselves to get into trouble so they could come across news stories from it.”
“It’s not the way we seek to pursue it. As a result, it requires us to do other rewards,” he said later. “We just need to be a little faster than we thought.”
A State Council spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
