Rubio Deputy Criticizes Obama Ambassador’s Foreign Policy Outlook
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau challenges former Obama ambassador Ivo Daalder’s criticism of Marco Rubio’s foreign travel.
2 min read
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau publicly criticized former Obama ambassador Ivo Daalder for his dismissive remarks about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s foreign travel. Landau reposted Daalder’s post on X, accusing him of representing a foreign policy establishment viewpoint that prioritizes European approval over engagement in the Western Hemisphere.
Daalder’s Criticism of Rubio’s Travel
Daalder, who served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013, questioned both the destinations of Rubio’s solo travels and his attention to major international issues. He wrote, “Secretaries of State travel the world, to our biggest allies and to address the most pressing issues. But Marco Rubio does neither. His solo travels take him where assistant secretaries go. Rarely the boss.”
Landau’s Response and Accusations
Landau, the second-ranking official at the State Department, called Daalder’s post an example of a flawed approach to American foreign policy. “THIS post perfectly encapsulates the decadence and degeneracy of the contemporary US foreign policy establishment,” he wrote. He argued that Daalder’s criticism treated European visits as the proper work of a secretary of state, while relegating Latin American engagement to subordinates.
Landau challenged the notion that visits to South American capitals like Bogotá, Quito, and Lima were beneath the secretary of state. “God forbid a US Secretary of State show his face in Bogotá, Quito, or Lima because that’s where mere ‘Assistant Secretaries’ are supposed to tread,” he continued.
Broader Criticism of the Foreign Policy Establishment
Landau accused the foreign policy establishment of producing failures on both sides of the Atlantic. “This smug approach led not only to predictably catastrophic results in the Western Hemisphere but also in Europe itself, where the combination of moral vanity and strategic incoherence also proved toxic,” he wrote.
Landau, who previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico during the Trump administration, ended his response by accusing establishment figures of spending their time on academic work and professional recognition while dismissing Trump and Rubio. “But sure: keep holding your academic seminars, writing your unread articles, awarding each other meaningless prizes, and looking down your noses at Donald Trump and Marco Rubio,” he wrote.
Source: Breitbart
