Shortly after taking the oath of office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a cable to every U.S. diplomatic and consular post worldwide. The stark message from the new diplomat: Sweeping changes are coming to a department that had mistakenly emphasized “ideology over common sense” and “misread the world.”

The lengthy cable was sent shortly after Rubio arrived at his new post in Foggy Bottom and was obtained exclusively by RealClearPolitics. It signals a fundamental shift in foreign policy and a realignment of all diplomatic efforts toward putting American needs first.

Toward this end, President Trump’s new diplomat promised to focus on mass migration, terminate DEI policies within the department, end the “censorship of the American people,” and pursue “energy dominance.”

Rubio was confirmed unanimously by the Senate the day before and is the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees on the job. Previously, he was a senior senator from Florida, and he served on the Foreign Relations Committee for more than a decade. He developed a reputation as a China Hawk and a fierce critic of the neoliberal foreign policy consensus that emerged after the Cold War.

The United States won that conflict against the Soviet Union, Rubio has long argued, only for an out-of-touch elite to place international interest above the concerns of the country. It is this view that likely won him the job.

Before administering the oath of office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance praised the diplomat, saying that Rubio “more than almost anybody that I’ve met in Washington” had a deep understanding of “the distinctive priorities of President Trump.” In his subsequent cable, as he did during his confirmation hearing, the new secretary immediately defined just exactly what an America First foreign policy would look like in practice.

“Every dollar we spend, every program we........

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