The following is the transcript of an interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 16, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let’s get straight to it this morning with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who joins us from Miami, Florida. Mr. Secretary for our audience, just to explain, this Red Sea area is a really important transit point for global shipping. The Houthis out of Yemen have been disrupting transit there for some time. President Trump cited these concerns when he announced the strikes. I’m wondering, how long will this campaign last, and will it involve ground forces?
U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: Well, first of all, the problem here is that this is a very important shipping lane and in the last year-and-a-half, the last 18 months, the Houthis have struck or attacked 174 naval vessels of the United States. Attacking the U.S. Navy directly 174 times, and 145 times they’ve attacked commercial shipping. So we basically have a band of pirates, you know, with guided precision anti-ship weaponry and exact- exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. That’s just not sustainable. We are not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot and so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, what does U.S. intelligence tell us at this point? Because the U.S. had been construct- conducting strikes for some time, but has not stopped the Houthis–
SECRETARY RUBIO: No.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –So what’s going to be different right now? Do you have more fidelity in the intelligence that would make this more successful?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, those strikes were a retaliation strike. So they launched one missile, we hit the missile launcher, or we sent something to do it. This is not a message. This is not a one off. This is an effort to deny them the ability to continue to constrict and control shipping, and it’s just not going to happen. We’re not going to have these guys, these people with weapons, able to tell us where our ships can go, where the ships of all the world can go, by the way, it’s not just the U.S. We’re doing the world a favor. We’re doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That’s the mission here, and it will continue until that’s carried out. That never happened before, the Biden Administration didn’t do that. All the Biden Administration would do is they would respond to an attack. These guys would launch one rocket, we’d hit the rocket launcher. That’s it. This is an effort to take away their ability to control global shipping in that part of the world. That’s just not going to happen anymore–
MARGARET BRENNAN: and it could–
SECRETARY RUBIO: –So, this will continue until that’s finished.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It could involve ground raids?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, those are military decisions to be made, but I’ve heard no talk of ground raids. I don’t think there’s a necessity for it right now. I can tell you that as of last night, some of the key people involved in those missile launches are no longer with us, and I can tell you that some of the facilities that they use are no longer existing, and that will continue. The- look, it’s bottom line, easy way to understand it, okay, these guys are able to control what ships can go through there. They’ve attacked the U.S. Navy 174 times. They’ve attacked the United States Navy. We’re not going to have people sitting around with the missiles attacking the U.S. Navy. It’s not going to happen, not under President Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The President also referenced Iran in his statement. Iran provides some support for the Houthis as you know. Put this in context for me, because U.S. intelligence has been suggesting for some time that Israel has the desire and intent to conduct an attack on Iran’s developing nuclear program in the coming months. President Trump has extended an offer for negotiations. Have you heard anything back from Iran? Is this strike in Yemen a signal to Iran?
SECRETARY RUBIO: This strike in Yemen is about their ability, the ability of the Houthis, to strike global shipping and attack the U.S. Navy, and their willingness to do it. 174 times against the U.S. Navy, 145 sometimes against global shipping. That’s what the strike is about. What we can’t ignore, and the reason why the President mentioned Iran is because the Iranians have supported the Houthis. They provided them intelligence, they provided them guidance, they provided them weaponry. I mean, there’s no way the Houthis, okay, the Houthis would have the ability to do this kind of thing unless they had support from Iran. And so this was a message to Iran, don’t keep supporting them, because then you will also be responsible for what they are doing in attacking Navy ships and attacking global shipping.
MARGARET BRENNAN: They also get support from Russia, potentially, which you leveraged sanctions in regard to, but I want to ask you about tariffs because you were just in Canada this past week. China is Canada’s second biggest export market, Mexico’s third. In this ongoing trade back-and-forth, the U.S. is having, isn’t there a risk that China will ultimately be the winner? If it’s too costly to deal with the United States, won’t they benefit?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, actually, China and Canada are involved in a mini trade war right now. In fact, the Chinese have imposed a bunch of tariffs, reciprocal or retaliatory tariffs on Canada after Canada imposed tariffs on them. So here’s the way everyone needs to understand this, okay? The president rightfully believes that the balance of global trade is completely off gilt- kilter. For 30 or 40 years, we have allowed countries to treat us unfairly in global trade, much of it during the Cold War because we wanted them to be rich and prosperous because they were our allies in the Cold War, but now that has to change. You look at the European Union. The European Union’s economy is about the same size as ours. It’s not a low wage economy. It’s very comparable to ours in terms of its composition and so forth. Why do they have a trade surplus with us? So what the President is saying is two things. Number one, there are critical industries like aluminum, like steel, like semiconductors, like automobile manufacturing, that he rightfully believes, President Trump rightfully believes, the U.S. needs to have a domestic capability and the way you protect those industries and build that capability is by ensuring that there’s economic incentives to produce in the United States. The second is global, and that is, we are going to put tariffs on countries reciprocal to what they impose on us. And so this is a global, it’s not against Canada, it’s not against Mexico, it’s not against the EU, it’s everybody. And then from that new baseline of fairness and reciprocity, we will engage, potentially in bilateral negotiations with countries around the world on new trade arrangements that make sense for both sides. Fairness, but right now, it’s not fair. We’re going to reset the baseline, and then we can enter into these bilateral agreements, potentially, with countries so that our trade is fair. What’s not going to continue is, of course, these countries are upset–
MARGARET BRENNAN: So this is all just about leverage to get bilateral, not free trade- not North American Free trade deals–
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, it’s not leverage–
MARGARET BRENNAN: re- renegotiation–
SECRETARY RUBIO: – No, no, it’s not leverage, it’s fairness. It’s resetting baseline fairness. And then from there, we can work on deals and- and so forth, because they’ll have products we don’t make, we have products they don’t make. That’s where trade works the best. It has to be free, but it has to be fair, and right now it’s only free on one side, and it’s not fair for the other side–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well you know, sir, that–
SECRETARY RUBIO: –It’s an unsustainable position.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –the ad hoc nature of these policy announcements and pull backs are causing concern in the marketplace, as we saw this past week. So I heard you describe what seemed like a strategy to get to negotiations on a bilateral front. You also seem to negotiate- say this was national security minded. But then we also see comments by the President of like, 200 percent tariffs on champagne. That’s not a critical industry for the United States, that seems more emotional.
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, that means that’s- that’s called retaliation that’s what happens in these trade exchanges. They’re going to increase tariffs on- they already have high tariffs. They’re going to add more to their tariffs? Fine, then we’ll have to find something to- I mean, you tell me? I mean, Canada is going after whiskey and orange juice and you know I mean–
MARGARET BRENNAN: In retaliation.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, exactly. So that sounds pretty petty to me as well. So what’s the difference? The point is, I get it. I understand why these countries don’t like it, because the status quo of trade is good for them. It benefits them, they like the status quo. We don’t like the status quo. We are going to set a new status quo, and then we can negotiate something, if they want to, that is fair for both sides. But what we have now cannot continue. We have de-industrialized this country. De-industrialized the United States of America. There are things we can no longer make and we have to be able to make in order to be safe as a country and in order to have jobs. That’s why we had a rust belt, that’s why we’ve suffered all these important jobs that once sustained entire communities wiped out by trade that basically sent these factories, these jobs, this industrial capability, to other places that cannot and will not continue. I don’t- President Trump, this is no mystery, he’s been talking about this since the 1980s actually, even before he was a political figure. This is going to happen, and it’s going to happen now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about Russia. You said envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Vladimir Putin that happened last week would answer the fundamental question of whether we’re moving towards a ceasefire, or whether Putin is using a delay tactic? You spoke with Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, yesterday. Is this a delay tactic?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I think that was a pro- promising meeting. As I’ve said repeatedly, we’re not going to negotiate this in the public. Hopefully we’ll have something to announce at some point fairly soon. I can’t guarantee that, but I certainly think the meeting was promising, the exchange was promising. I don’t take away from Steve’s meeting, from Ambassador Witkoff’s meeting, negativity. There are some challenges. This is a complex, three-year war that’s been ongoing along a very long military front, with a lot of complexity to it. So no one’s claiming that it’s easy, but I want everyone to understand, here’s the plan. Plan A is, get the shooting to stop so that we can move to Plan B, phase two, which is have everybody at a table, maybe not- maybe with some shuttle diplomacy, to figure out a way to permanently end this war in a way that’s enduring and it respects everybody’s needs and so forth. No one is saying that that second part is easy, but we can’t get even to that second part until we get past the first part. It’s hard to negotiate an enduring end of a war as long as they’re shooting at each other, and so the president wants a ceasefire. That’s what we’re working on, assuming we can get that done. That won’t be easy in and of itself. We move to the second phase, which is negotiating something more enduring and permanent. That will be hard. It will involve a lot of hard work, concessions from both sides, but it has to happen. This war cannot continue. The president has been clear about that, and he’s doing everything he can to bring it to an end.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, we’ll talk about that later in the program as well with Envoy Witkoff. I want to ask you about a decision you made to revoke a student visa for someone at Columbia University this past week. The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes, “the administration needs to be careful, it’s targeting real promoters of terrorism not breaking the great promise of a green card by deporting anyone with controversial political views.” Can you substantiate any form of material support for terrorism–
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –specifically to Hamas, from this Columbia student–
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –or was it simply that he was espousing a controversial political point of view?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, not just the student, we’re going to do more. In fact, we- every day now we’re approving visa revocations, and if that visa led to a green card, the green card process as well and here’s why, it’s very simple. When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest, and you’re coming as a student, you’re coming as a tourist, or what have you. And in it, you have to make certain assertations and if you tell us when you apply for a visa, I’m coming to the U.S. to participate in pro-Hamas events, that runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. It’s that simple. So, you lied. You came- if you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa. Now you’re here. Now you do it. You lied to us. You’re out. It’s that simple. It’s that straight forward.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, is there any- but is there any evidence of a–
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes. Sure.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –link to terrorism, or is it just his point of view?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, they take over. I mean, do you not- I mean, you should watch the news. These guys take over entire buildings–
[CROSSTALK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: We covered it intensely. I’m asking about the specific–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –They vandalized colleges. They shut down colleges–
SECRETARY RUBIO: –well then you should know that this is–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –justification for the revocation of his visa–
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, this specific individual was the spokesperson–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –was there any evidence the materials support for terrorism?
SECRETARY RUBIO: –was the negotiator- on negotiating on behalf of people that took over a campus? That vandalized buildings? Negotiating over what? That’s a crime in and of itself, that they’re involved in the being the negotiator, the spokesperson, this that the other. We don’t want- we don’t need these people in our country that we never should have allowed them in in the first place. If he had told us, I’m going over there, and I’m going over there to become the spokesperson and one of the leaders of a movement that’s going to turn one of your allegedly elite colleges upside down, people can’t even go to school, library buildings being vandalized. We never would have let him in. We never would have let him in to begin with. And now that he’s doing it and he’s here, he’s going to leave, and so are others, and we’re going to keep doing it. We’re here- and by the way, I find it ironic that a lot of these people out there defending the First Amendment speech, alleged free speech rights of these Hamas–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes.
SECRETARY RUBIO: –sympathizers, they had no problem, okay, pressuring social media to censor American political speech. So it’s, I think it’s ironic and hypocritical. But the bottom line is this, if you are in this country, to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus. We never would have let you in if we had known that and now that we know it, you’re going to leave.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is it only pro-Palestinian people who are going to have their visas remote- revoked, or other points of view as well?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No, I think anybody who’s here in favor- look, we want to get rid of Tren de Aragua gang members. They’re terrorists too. We, the president, designated them, asked me to designate and I did, as a terrorist organization. We want to get rid of them as well. You’re- we don’t want terrorists in America. I don’t know how hard that is to understand. We want people- we don’t want people in our country that are going to be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety. It’s that simple, especially people that are here as guests. That is what a visa is. I don’t know what we’ve gotten it in our head that a visa is some sort of birthright. It is not. It is a visitor into our country, and if you violate the terms of your visitation, you are going to leave.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Secretary Rubio, like to have you back. Talk to you about a lot more on your plate another time, but we have to leave it there.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Face the Nation will be back in a minute.
