00:00I believe that America should lead the world, and I believe that we are, and we'll have a very good
00:03story to tell about that.
00:04American leadership, however, should always be on behalf of the American interests.
00:08I say this because I think over a period of time in our foreign policy, we lost focus on that.
00:13The reality of it is that our foreign policy, first and foremost, must always be what is in the national
00:18interest of the United States of America.
00:20And determining the national interest oftentimes requires us to make pragmatic decisions.
00:26Sometimes in foreign policy, the choices are not between a good choice and a bad choice.
00:30It's between two less-than-ideal choices, and you're trying to figure out which one of these two choices is
00:35the one that is best for the United States and least harmful to our interests.
00:38And that plays out every single day.
00:40That said, we remain the world's sole global superpower, the most powerful country on Earth.
00:45We have the largest economy.
00:46We have the most formidable and powerful military, ever known to man, by the way.
00:50Our dollar remains the reserve currency of the world.
00:53Our language is used extensively throughout the world to transact all sorts of business and many of our engagements.
01:00But all of this means very little if that power is not used to protect the people who built it,
01:04the people who it is meant to protect.
01:07I also remind everybody the United States government is not a charity.
01:09We are not here to play social worker.
01:11We are here to win.
01:12We are here to win on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the national interest.
01:16To win for our country, to win for the people of America, to win for the things that are important
01:21for our future.
01:21And that's what we exist to do.
01:23The State Department exists to carry out the foreign policy of the United States, both in diplomacy and in aid,
01:28in a way that furthers the national interest and helps the American people.
01:32And it's guided every decision that's been made since January of 2025.
Comments