"International law? Not your business" - Rubio dismisses Europe while the United States creates deadly facts in Venezuela

Marco Rubio made clear in just a few sentences how the United States under Trump now thinks about Europe. The secretary of state said that the EU had no right to define what international law is - and certainly not the right to tell Washington how the United States should protect its interests. It was not a diplomatic note, not a cautious distinction, but a direct challenge to a community of states that has spent weeks trying to contain Trump's Venezuela policy and remind him of international rules.

"I do not think that the EU gets to determine what international law is - and certainly not how the United States defends its national security."

Rubio's sentence makes clear how low the willingness of the US government has become to adhere to common foundations. Who defines what is lawful and what is not? From a European perspective, treaties, courts, UN resolutions and the simple logic that violence in international relations must have clear limits answer that question. From Rubio's perspective, only power counts, and in his government, power always belongs to the one who appears the loudest. Europe is supposed to step back, swallow its concerns and accept that the United States will do what it wants - no matter what the consequences are.

This attitude is not new, but it is becoming more open. While Europe warns of a possible airstrike or an even larger operation in the Caribbean, Rubio speaks as if it were a minor issue that only gets in the way. The secretary of state acts as if Brussels wants to decide how America protects its citizens. But from whom? In truth, the question is whether a superpower has the right to attack states on its own, kill people without due process and bend international rules as needed. Rubio knows that Europe will not send an army into the field to stop Trump. He also knows that the EU is politically divided. But even a Europe hanging between two worlds still has the expectation that law does not depend on the whim of a president. It is exactly this expectation that Rubio is trying to dismantle. Not through arguments, but through arrogance: Whoever complains should be quiet. Whoever disagrees supposedly does not understand how the world works.

It is a sentence that shows how far the United States has moved away from the partners with whom it defended international order for decades. Today a secretary of state stands there and declares that no one but the United States may decide what law means. And of all governments, this one, which conducts policy with drones, bombs and unfounded claims, elevates itself to the sole judge. Rubio's message is clear: Law is whatever Washington says it is. And anyone who opposes it will be ignored. For Europe, this means that the old reliability is gone. For the world, it means that the United States is prepared not only to shift boundaries, but to tear them apart.