Rubio in Greece digs into past to tout Trump’s ‘America first’ approach

In the shadow of the Parthenon, the secretary of state gave a selective reading of history as he urged Europe to ‘awaken from its slumber’

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, delivered a classically inspired apologia for Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy on Wednesday, giving a sweeping speech to the backdrop of the Parthenon in Athens that appeared tailor-made for campaign ads if he runs for president in 2028.

The highly produced speech contained a forceful rejection of the kind of globalist politics that Trump has blamed for America’s and Europe’s ills, including growing illegal immigration and the outsourcing of manufacturing. In it, Rubio warned that the western world was at an “inflection point” and defended America’s “unapologetic pursuit of national power”.

“The word nationalism became a dirty word, so we tore down our monuments,” Rubio said. “We condemned our own history, and in too many places, we taught our children to be ashamed of the country they would inherit.”

“Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice,” Rubio continued. “We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power: to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialise our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future.”

The shift in the Trump administration’s use of national power has unsettled many European allies, who have continued to seek compromises in order to keep the Trump administration onside on major issues including support for Ukraine and economic cooperation through the European Union.

Rubio has developed a less aggressive – but nonetheless pointed – message of calling for European powers led by the US to fight against “civilisational erasure”.

“Together, we must strengthen an alliance capable of confronting threats of our age,” he said, extolling the recent agreement between the US, Denmark, and Greenland that he claimed will “reshape the Arctic and bolster the security of all of Nato.”

On Wednesday, speaking to a crowd of 250 invited Greek and European officials, as well as journalists, Rubio sought to rally European allies, saying they should follow the example of the current government of Greece, to embrace a partnership with the US on everything from “everything from energy to migration to defense, where Greece has been a model ally”.

To bolster his case, Rubio delivered a selective reading of history from antiquity to the present, saying that the values of the Ancient Greeks imbued those of later scientists and explorers, including some controversial choices including Christopher Columbus and the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, whose legacies are associated with the subjugation of Latin America.

“The greatest Americans of every generation have carried the unmistakable features of their forefathers – born in Athens, formed by Rome, baptized in Christendom, hardened in the furnace of medieval Europe, endowed with the English genius for liberty, and then carried across the Atlantic to be reborn on the shores of a new world,” he said.

In an unusual aside for the US’s top diplomat, Rubio also linked his own journey back to Europe, and then back to the Greeks of antiquity as well.