Secretary of State Marco Rubio came into conflict with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
There was only one winner.
And Marco Rubio steamrolled Pete Hegseth in one big fight that no one saw coming.
Hegseth represents the more America First version of President Trump’s foreign policy.
Rubio is a throwback to the neoconservative and globalist vision of foreign policy that dominated the GOP during the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Romney years.
Their two interpretations of foreign policy came to a head after Hegseth sought to execute Trump’s desire to cut off Europe from freeloading off America.
Trump has long complained that European countries don’t pull their weight in contributing to NATO and expect America to fund their national defense.
“The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from so doing,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The 2026 National Defense Strategy sought to put Trump’s plan into action by reducing American troop presence in Europe.
“The Pentagon’s defense strategy issued in January signaled that the U.S. would reduce its military presence in Europe as it focuses more on the western Pacific and the Western Hemisphere. The goal, the strategy says, is to give European nations the main responsibility for the conventional defense of the continent,” the Washington Post reported.
To that end, Hegseth planned to announce further troop reductions in Europe.
Europe’s refusal to help in the Iran War also added more fuel to the fire about holding Europe accountable for leeching off American taxpayers for its national defense.
“The Iran war provided Hegseth and Colby with a new opportunity to rethink troop commitments. While Britain made a base available for U.S. long-range bombers that were used to strike Iran, Spain declined to make its facilities available for attacks on the country. After the German chancellor criticized the Trump administration’s Iran strategy, Trump in early May continued his criticism of Europe and threatened to remove troops from Germany,” the Post added.
The administration already canceled the deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and pulled troops out of Romania.
But Rubio pulled a power play and blocked Hegseth from following through on Trump’s plan to pull even more troops out of Europe.
“The U.S., he planned to say, was preparing additional cuts to its forces in Europe that would go beyond the canceled deployment of an armored brigade to Poland and the earlier withdrawal of an infantry brigade from Romania, people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth’s proposal was nixed after it was shared with Marco Rubio—President Trump’s national security adviser—and other senior officials, the people said,” the Post reported.
Department of War spokesman Sean Parnell claimed Hegseth and Rubio were on the same page
“Secretary Hegseth ensured his message was aligned with the president’s objectives and agenda, and he did not want to impede upon the president’s decision space,” a statement from Parnell to the Washington Post read.
But Rubio wasn’t executing Trump’s vision.
Rubio was responding to the complaints from establishment RINOs in the Senate who want to fight a forever war in Ukraine against Russia and baselessly claim Trump is emboldening the Russians with these troop withdrawals.
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