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Secretary of State Marco Rubio lectured Iran in interviews this week, saying that the country should be spending money on supporting its people rather than on weapons and militaristic causes — an ironic statement coming from an administration that has gutted the U.S.’s social safety net while requesting a record-shattering Pentagon budget.

“Imagine an Iran that, instead of spending their wealth, billions of dollars, supporting terrorists or weapons, had spent that money helping the people of Iran,” said Rubio, speaking of the administration’s hopes for regime change in their war in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday. “You’d have a much different country. So we are always hopeful that that would exist over there.”

He repeated that sentiment in an interview with Al Jazeera that same day, adding that the country “wouldn’t have water shortages” and that their economy “would provide opportunities for an incredible people.” His statements ignore that the U.S.’s strict, decades-old sanctions regime is responsible for over $1 trillion in damages to Iran’s economy, Iranian officials have said.

They also ignore that, the same day as Rubio’s interviews, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy “all desalinization[sic] plants” in Iran, which would threaten crucial water infrastructure for the country and constitute a clear war crime, experts have said.

Rubio’s comments are highly hypocritical coming from a top official in an administration that, with Republicans in Congress, enacted sweeping cuts to some of the most crucial anti-poverty programs in the U.S., Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, kicking millions off their benefits last year.

Trump Touts “Hand-Carved” Columns on Ballroom as War Costs US 10k Jobs a Month

The U.S. and Israel’s war is also causing prices for oil and gas to skyrocket globally — which affects nearly every industry, with price hikes being passed on to consumers.

While some countries have offered economic provisions to their citizens to ease price shocks, the Trump administration has dismissed the public’s economic concerns. Last month, top economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that the war will “hurt consumers” if it’s extended, but “that’s really the last of our concerns right now.”

Meanwhile, Congress is slated to soon consider Trump’s record-shattering request for a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget in 2027 — up from the already sky-high budget for this year of $1 trillion. At the same time, the administration has reportedly requested a towering $200 billion in supplemental funding just for the war.

The U.S. already has by far the largest military in the world, spending more on defense than the next nine countries combined, while also having sent over $30 billion in military support to Israel in the first two years of its genocide in Gaza.

Top House Republicans are reportedly looking to enact even further cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies in order to fund the Trump administration’s request for $200 billion in supplemental Pentagon funding for its war. These cuts could cause 300,000 more people to lose their health insurance, on top of the 16 million people estimated to lose their coverage due to the Republican cuts last year.

Rubio’s comment is also hypocritical considering that this administration has denounced socialist countries that maintain anti-poverty programs, as well as his previous remarks criticizing proposals to fund public programs when he was in the Senate.

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Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering international affairs, politics, and labor. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky.

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