Rubio Tells Federalist Society Americans Are Struggling, Then Turns on the ICC and UN

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before a room of conservative lawyers in Washington on Friday evening, Nov. 13, and said that a lot of Americans are having a hard time paying their bills.

"I think we have to recognize that people are struggling. There's no doubt about it," Rubio told the Federalist Society's National Lawyers Convention, according to the Associated Press. The AP's analysis is that voters angry over costs gave Democrats control of Congress, a reading of the election that is the wire service's and not Rubio's.

That matters because it cuts against a familiar line from the White House. President Trump often points to the stock market as proof the economy is doing well, the AP noted. Rubio drew the distinction plainly, at least as the wire service quoted him: "The health of our economy has nothing to do with the stock market."

A Different Yardstick for the Economy

In Rubio's telling, the question is whether ordinary people can afford what they need. That is his framing, and it has not been checked against economic data.

He also did not walk away from the administration's record. Rubio defended the war with Iran while conceding that it pushed up gasoline prices, the AP reported. On the Iran war and costs, he said: "It's not easy to address these things because it's not popular to address them."

The AP says voters frustrated over prices gave Congress to Democrats after blaming Trump for tariffs, the Iran war and an unmet pledge to bring prices down. Again, that is the AP's analysis. Several outlets have described the results as massive losses or a wipeout for the GOP, but those are characterizations, and no vote totals or margins have been reviewed here to measure them against.

Taking Aim at the ICC and the UN

Much of the address was aimed at a more familiar target for this audience. Rubio condemned what he called "the weaponization of international law," singling out the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. According to the AP, he also condemned the "global elite" and "international activists and bureaucrats."

He referenced the January capture of Nicolás Maduro and boat strikes in Latin America, and he referred back to a speech he gave in Greece last month on Western values, the AP reported. The speech ran about 30 minutes and he was introduced by his daughter Daniella, according to a single search-result snippet from ms.now.

The 2028 Question He Would Not Answer

Any time a Republican with Rubio's profile gives a speech this broad, the next presidential race comes up. Rubio declined to say whether he will seek the presidency in 2028, the AP reported, a race that could pit him against Vice President Vance.

Coverage elsewhere leaned into the political subtext. According to its headline as it appeared in search results, CNN framed the speech as Rubio saying there is more work to do and downplaying the election losses. We were not able to review the full CNN article. The Washington Sun headlined the speech as an optimistic tone for 2028 and said Rubio has distanced himself from running next cycle; that account is single-sourced, and Rubio himself declined to discuss the subject. For now, any talk of a campaign is speculation.

One caution on the record: no official transcript or video of the speech from the State Department or the Federalist Society has been located. Rubio's words quoted here come from the AP's reporting and have not been checked against the full address.

What Comes Next

No follow-up appearance or policy announcement tied to the speech was found. The open threads are plain enough: how the fight with the ICC and the UN develops, what the Iran war's effects on prices turn out to be, and whether Rubio's remarks on struggling families lead to anything more in a 2028 field that might include Vance.