SECRETARY RUBIO: My hope ultimately is that we can get back to a point where that canal is what it was meant to be, which is a place for the United States and Panama working in partnership, it's free for every - it's open for everyone, and that no foreign power through their companies or any other means has the ability to use it against us in a time of conflict and impede travel through it, because it would be devastating.
QUESTION: So this could easily get resolved without the United States taking direct operational control of the canal?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah. There's a lot of options, and I'm not going to preclude any options about what the final outcome looks like. But at a prerequisite baseline, we cannot continue to have the Chinese and through their companies exercising effective control of the canal area. And that needs to happen. I was pretty clear, and I hope that we'll see steps, additional steps in the days to come, to reaffirm that.
QUESTION: So you're now the head of USAID. The head of DOGE, Elon Musk, called USAID a criminal organization and added that it is time for it to die. Do you agree with that?
SECRETARY RUBIO: They have basically evolved into an agency that believes that they're not even a U.S. Government agency, that they are out - they're a global charity, that they take the taxpayer money and they spend it as a global charity irrespective of whether it is in the national interest or not in the national interest.
One of the most common complaints you will get if you go to embassies around the world from State Department officials and ambassadors and the like is USAID is not only not cooperative; they undermine the work that we're doing in that country; they are supporting programs that upset the host government for whom we're trying to work with on a broader scale, and so forth.
So they're completely unresponsive. They just don't consider that they work for the U.S. They just think they're a global entity and that their master is the globe and not the United States. And that's not what the statute says and that's not sustainable.
QUESTION: Can it be reformed or does it need to die?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, that was always the goal was to reform it, but now we have rank insubordination. Now we have basically an active effort - their basic attitude is we don't work for anyone, we work for ourselves, no agency of government can tell us what to do. So the President made me the acting administrator. I've delegated that power to someone who is there full-time, and we're going to go through the same process at USAID as we're going through now at the State Department.
I think there are some - this is not about getting rid of foreign aid. There are things that we do through USAID that we should continue to do, that makes sense. And we'll have to decide is that better through the State Department, or is that better through something, a reformed USAID? That's the process we're working through.
There are things that are happening at USAID that we should not be involved in funding or that we have a lot of questions about, but they are completely uncooperative. So we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.
QUESTION: Do you think that we'll still be the most generous nation on Earth at the end of this process?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think we'll be the most generous nation on Earth, but I think we're going to be the most generous nation on Earth in a way that makes sense, that's in our national interest.
QUESTION: Are you concerned during this aid pause that China could come in and fill the vacuum with their influence operations?
SECRETARY RUBIO: No. I mean, first of all, they don't do that now. If they did, they'd be out there competing with us in these places. But my point is this: Even if they did that, why would we fund things that are against our national interest or don't further our national interest, whether China's there or not?
QUESTION: Do these tariffs, especially those against Canada, fundamentally change the relationship that the United States has with our most immediate neighbors?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it changes our economic relationship. The President's point is that trade with Canada is very unfair.
QUESTION: As part of all of this, the President again said that Canada should be our cherished 51st state. Is he serious, and are you working on that at the State Department?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, we're not involved in a negotiation to make a - to make them a state, obviously. I think what we're focused on right now is what's most immediate in front of us, and that is that there's tariffs. That's obviously going to have an impact on our relations with them. We're still neighbors. We'll always be neighbors.
QUESTION: And can China expect more, do you think, on top of what he's already proposed?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, if they continue to cheat and steal, yeah, absolutely.
QUESTION: Is this administration going to recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela?
SECRETARY RUBIO: There's no talks about doing that. No one's discussed it. We don't recognize them now. What he's agreed to is very simple. He's released Americans that should never have been in his prisons. They were hostages.
I think leaders like Maduro - no matter how tough they try to be - they respect Donald Trump. They know this is not a guy who is going to send you a strongly worded letter. He will take actions. I'm not going to talk about what those actions are, but he knows and they know we have many options to inflict serious damage and harm on the Maduro regime.
QUESTION: Do you expect that the pressure campaign - the maximum pressure campaign - is coming back against Iran?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I think we need to apply more pressure to Iran until they stop doing the activities that they're doing. What are those activities? They're trying to ultimately get to a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: Do you see yourself, as the representative of the United States Government, ever going to Havana?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, first of all, we don't - I have no intention of going to Havana with this regime in place other than to discuss when they're going to leave. That regime is a disaster. It's destroyed the country. That is a regime that is hostile to the United States. And so until that changes, there's nothing for me to talk about with them.
