Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling through Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic as he represents President Trump and the new administration.  He’s doing great.

Today, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered remarks to reporters in El Salvador discussing his role as Acting Director of USAID after President Trump and Elon Musk moved to incorporate USAID into the State Department.  Secretary Rubio repeated that USAID must align with U.S. foreign policy and the national interests of the U.S. government.

Citing the “uncooperative” nature of the USAID leadership acting as an independent entity, Secretary Rubio announced he is now Acting Director of USAID with the intention of removing all elements who operate against the direct U.S. interests he outlined.  Additionally, Secretary Rubio affirmed the positive nature of President Trump’s call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum [Details soon]. WATCH:

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WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The Trump administration over the weekend put on administrative leave dozens more staff at U.S. Agency for International Development, three sources familiar with the move said, as it moves to abolish the agency’s independence and bring it under the control of the State Department.

Nearly 30 career staff in the agency’s Legislative and Public Affairs bureau lost access overnight to their emails, the sources said, bringing the total number of senior USAID career staff who have been put on leave over the past week close to 100.

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Knowing the severe ramifications likely and taking a proactive approach toward root-cause analysis, CTH attended the ASEAN summit to gauge how Asia was likely to respond to Trump term-2 and the looming possibility of a severe nationalist approach toward a renewal of USA manufacturing. The untangling of the Beijing Belt & Road initiative was a key topic of interest noted.  [Watch Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Panama this weekend to express the position of President Donald Trump as it pertains to Chinese influence over the maritime transit gateway known as the Panama Canal. Following the meeting with President José Raúl Mulino, the government of Panama has announced they will no longer support China’s Belt & Road initiative.

Photographic message received; or the one-time Rubio needed to be shorter, you decide.

STATE DEPT – Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha today in Panama City to address critical regional and global challenges. Secretary Rubio informed President Mulino and Minister Martínez-Acha that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal. Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty.

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The promises of an America-First agenda in combination with clearing out the bureaucracy is underway as the first five days of the administration culminate.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has put a pause on most foreign aid with the exception of Egypt and Israel as the State Dept begins reevaluating spending priorities.  Coinciding with this announcement, President Trump removed over a dozen Inspectors General from various DC agencies.

WASHINGTON DC – Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted spending Friday on most existing foreign aid grants for 90 days. The order, which shocked State Department officials, appears to apply to funding for military assistance to Ukraine.

Rubio’s guidance, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires department staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on nearly all “existing foreign assistance awards,” according to the document, which was obtained by POLITICO. It is effective immediately.

It appears to go further than President Donald Trump’s recent executive order, which instructed the department to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days pending review by the secretary. It had not been clear from the president’s order if it would affect already appropriated funds or Ukraine aid.

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Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has outlined his plans for his first foreign trip on behalf of President Trump.

In keeping with the #1 priority of U.S. border security and western hemisphere focus, Secretary Rubio will be heading to Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.  Obviously, the strategic national interest of the Panama Canal will be at the forefront of the visit; however, the visit to Guatemala and El Salvador will likely focus on their role in the transit of illegal aliens to the U.S. southern border.

President Trump has taken a very strong approach in his prior remarks about the central and south American nations being responsible to control migration.  There are numerous Non-Governmental Organizations and U.N agencies operating in Central America who direct and support the illegal migration flow.

This will be a test of Rubio’s capability to transfer President Trump’s open statements about repatriation of unlawful border crossers back into the nations of origin.  Undoubtably, Rubio will carry the economic weapons of trade and tariffs in his discussions with leaders in the region.

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While President Trump was signing executive orders, the Senate voted 99-0 to confirm Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.  Not a single senator voted against Rubio.

Today, Vice-President JD Vance conducted the swearing-in ceremony, thereby immediately putting Secretary of State Marco Rubio officially into place.  Rubio becomes the first cabinet member to achieve Senate confirmation. WATCH:

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Not a surprising appointment all things considered.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to replace Senator Marco Rubio, pending Rubio’s resignation from his Senate seat which will follow his confirmation.

This will provide an opportunity to position DeSantis loyalist, his Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier, as Florida Attorney General to replace Moody. This also positions congressman Byron Donalds to run for Florida Governor, supporting the MAGA coalition.

Moody will take up a pro-DeSantis position in the Senate in preparation for a head-to-head contest between Ron DeSantis and JD Vance in 2028 for the GOP presidential nomination. As senator, Ashley Moody will be unlikely to challenge any of the Trump agenda and will likely support it given the stakes for Ron. All in all, a predictable outcome.

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The alligator emojis will be happy, so too will the MAGA coalition.

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The question is not really whether Sea Island will attempt to regain their power position in 2028 through Ron DeSantis, the question is more appropriately considered: from what position will they launch DeSantis into 2028.

The Florida Governor’s term ends in 2026. Will the traditional path of a year in the private sector to accumulate wealth be followed, or will DeSantis take this opportunity to fill the Senate Seat of Marco Rubio with himself.

[Source]

Perhaps the last sentence in that statement provides a clue. No one uses the phrase “proven record of results” more than the tribe of power organizers who constructed the public image of Ron DeSantis. You cannot converse with a member of Sea Island about DeSantis without them saying “proven track record of results.” It’s almost an autonomic response.

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I’m not going to dwell too much on this announcement, because it has already been discussed.

President Trump has announced his nomination of Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the position of Secretary of State.

[Source]

This move takes Marco Rubio out of the position of Chairman for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  That’s the sum value of this move, and the companion reason for President Trump to appoint Steven C. Witkoff to be Special Envoy to the Middle East. (link)

Senator Marco Rubio will be State Dept Secretary with a short leash and a very limited portfolio.  However, from his perspective the political status and future value is awesome.  It will be interesting to see: (1) who is appointed chairman of the SSCI, and (2) who Ron DeSantis appoints as Rubio’s replacement.

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During the NATO summit in DC Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, “at today’s NATO Summit, I will reaffirm that Hungary will not participate in the NATO-Ukraine mission, but we will continue to meet our objectives in the development of Hungarian defense capabilities, thus strengthening our Alliance.”

Orban has been traveling the globe, establishing a coalition of partners and setting up the baseline for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.  However, the U.S. Intelligence Community and all those downstream politicians who work at the behest of the global crisis agents, are not happy about the peace strategy at all.

PM Orban went to Ukraine to speak to President Zelenskyy, then went to Russia to speak to President Putin, then went to China to speak to Chairman Xi, then headed to Washington DC to meet with President Biden, then last night went to see the key that would bring it all together, President Donald Trump.

Orban then Tweeted a video saying, “We continued the peace mission in Mar-a-Lago. President @realDonaldTrump has proved during his presidency that he is a man of peace. He will do it again!”  The collective UniParty inside Washington DC is having absolute fits about it.

It’s not just Joe Biden and the current administration who are apoplectic about Prime Minister Orban’s peace effort.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is furious and vowing to stamp out the ideology of the Republican network who dare challenge the current geopolitical efforts.

The republican senator from Kentucky said defending the blood-soaked efforts of the New World Order is his priority. “This is going to be my top priority. No question about it,” McConnell said in an interview this week. McConnell added that he might even start to hold court with reporters in the halls of the Senate. “This is the most important thing going on in the world right now,” the Kentucky Republican said.” [LINK]

Mitch McConnell is furious about the efforts to bring about a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and he is vowing to confront any Republican who doesn’t acquiesce to the foreign policy program of the UniParty.  McConnell’s intents are in full support of the U.S. Intelligence Community and the Biden administration.  However, McConnell has an ally in Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

As noted, “Speaker Mike Johnson, who held up Ukraine aid for months despite public pressure from McConnell, is now starting to sound a lot like the Kentucky Republican when talking about national security, especially Ukraine.”  For Speaker Johnson, Zelenskyy’s ability to maintain access to the U.S. treasury is a top priority.  The money must keep flowing in order to keep the conflict alive.

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Good grief, the sanctimonious puss spewing by the DC media chattering class exhibiting their alignment with big government is insufferable. The inability of any media outlet to present the reality of the DC interests with levelheaded discussion is frustrating.

The issue of compartmented (siloed) information, specifically as a tool and technique of the aloof DC system to retain control and influence, is a matter we have discussed on these pages for several years. Quite literally anything can be classified as a ‘national security interest’ in the deep state effort to retain the illusion of power over the proles, ie us. It is the exact reason why congress exempts themselves from laws and regulations written for everyone else.

That said, in this interview from this morning, Senator Marco Rubio does a good job framing the context of the recent Administrative State leaks to media (DOJ-NSD, FBI) to advance a particular narrative. Yes, it’s an election year, and Rubio returns to his roots pushing back against some of the nonsense. As noted by the Vice-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), if the Mar-a-Lago document issues were so vital why was the Gang of Eight never briefed? WATCH:

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