Thin-Skinned and Heavy Handed, The Trump Hypocrites like Marco “McCarthy” Rubio Are Wrong Again—on Cuba and Where “Terrorism” is Coming From

Those Who Challenge and Protest U.S. Policies Are Not Terrorists, and They Are Certainly NOT Paid By Other Governments

By Former U.S. Diplomat and Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright

Thin skinned and heavy handed, the Trump administration apparently feels like it is being singled out by those who dissent from its policies. As a result, Trump appointees are taking drastic “McCarthy” tactics to stop dissent.

In less than one month, alleging that dissent and protests are part of attempts of other governments “to overthrow the government of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sponsored two major initiatives to frighten those who oppose the Trump administration policies.  The first salvo was orchestrating a conference with 60 countries participating in “Threats From Left-Wing Terrorists.”  The second was the report on Cuba that alleged virtually every group that has ever visited Cuba is paid by the Cuban government.

No One is Paid to Protest—If One is NOT Outraged then You Aren’t Watching

These allegations paid protest and travelling on the dime of another country are unfounded, untrue and fly in the face of the history of protests in the U.S. and travel by U.S. citizens to see the effects of U.S. polices on other countries.

Trump’s erratic foreign policy including the disastrous attacks on Iran as a favor to Netanyahu’s Israeli war machine, attacks domestically cutting health and education, horrific treatment of migrants, daily outlandish statements on just about every subject and disregard for facts in virtually every issue, all provide good reasons for protests by outraged U.S. citizens.

No one needs to be paid to be outraged!!!

Dissent is Not Illegal and Is Not Paid by Other Countries

In particular, Secretary of State and National Security advisor Marco Rubio, who has authored the latest “McCarty” report to quell opposition to illegal, immoral policies of his Department and the Trump administration in general, seems to have lost his grasp on the history of dissent in the U.S.

From his 15 years in the U.S. Senate, he should remember that many of each administration’s domestic and international policies have been lawfully and non-violently protested by U.S. citizens in the U.S. Congress.

Having been a part of many protests since I resigned from the State Department in March 2003 in opposition to a war policy– President George W. Bush’s war on Iraq, I know that these protests are NOT a part of attempts of other governments to “overthrow the government of the United States,” but are legitimate shows of concern about specific policies. Rubio’s allegations of other countries’ influence in these protests are unfounded and untrue.

I was not paid by a foreign government to resign. I resigned because I felt the war on Iraq was illegal, immoral and a dangerous action geoparsing the national security of the United States.

I have not been paid by any country to protest U.S. policies, nor do I know anyone who has been paid.  Protest is a legitimate, time-consuming legitimate act of outrage about a policy that people use to bring attention to the policy, and hopefully effect change in the policy.

Marco “McCarthy” Rubio’s Tactics-Blame the Left When the Right Has Violently Attacked the U.S. Government

The first attack against legitimate protest came in the U.S. Department of State sponsored conference called “Far Left Terrorism” held in Washington, DC in July 2026 where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House pitbull Stephen Miller harangued the representatives of 66 nations about terrorists from the left wanting to overthrow the U.S. government.

In his opening statement Rubio railed: “This is a distinctive and unique evil. It has always been driven by a hatred above all else, a hatred for civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and the cowardly against the strong and the good.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called left-wing extremism as a growing threat aimed at “the overthrow of our system and form of government” that officials previously failed to sufficiently address.  Miller railed, “We must stay the course and be completely unflinching in the pursuit of justice against these enemies of civilization. If the left is allowed to use the real or actual threat of violence to destabilize our institutions, then those institutions cannot and will not succeed.”

A White House press release stated: “Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, far-left extremism will be treated with the same seriousness and ferocity the world has long reserved for jihadist terrorism.”

Oops, Trump and Rubio Forget to Mention the Violent Attempt at Overthrow of the U.S. Electoral Process by the Trump-Inspired Right Wing January 6 Mob

Of course, neither Rubio nor Miller mentioned President Trump’s pardon of the over 1500 persons who did try to violently overthrow the United States electoral process on January 6, 2001 as they attacked the Capitol police and broke into and destroyed many offices in the U.S. Capitol.

The attempted overthrow of the 2020 election by seeking to nullify the election results through lawsuits in 62 federal and state courts was attempted by Trump’s loyal personal lawyers including the current acting U.S. Attorney General and head of the U.S. Department of Justice Tood Blanche and disgraced and disbarred lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Guilani.  Their cases of election fraud were stopped by rulings in all 62 federal and state lawsuits that no election fraud had occurred.

Rubio and the State Department’s Untruthful, Dishonest Report About Cuba, Paid Protesters and Cuba Has Been Trying to Overthrow the United States Government

The most recent and most ludicrous allegations of left wing violence and protests being funded by other countries is in Secretary of State Marco “McCarthy” Rubio’s 10- page report on “Cuba: the Capitol of 21^st Century Communism”   Rubio accuses the National Network on Cuba, National Lawyers Guild, CODEPINK: Women for Peace, the People’s Forum, IFCO/Pastors For Peace, Democratic Socialists of America of being paid by the Cuban government whose goal, the report states, has been for 60 years of working to overthrow the U.S. government.

Talk about turning the facts on their heads, as is well-documented, 13 successive U.S. presidential administrations since 1959  –Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama (first term when CIA policies were still in effect, but changing in Obama’s second term with diplomatic recognition), Trump 1, Biden and Trump 2 — have attempted to overthrow the Cuban government in the 60+ years of its existence.

The current attempt of overthrow of the Cuban government by the United States is centered on  the brutal total blockade of fuel going to Cuba which has left Cuban citizens without electricity for operations in hospitals, for food preparation for the ability to conduct normal life activities. Making life so miserable for the Cuban citizenry that they overthrow their government would  full fill the longstanding hopes of Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio is Not Honest About His Background As a Cuban-American

Marco Rubio has been less than forthright about his heritage as a Cuban-American in his quest for the overthrow of the Cuban government.

Marco Rubio, “Mr. Righteous against birthright citizenship,” is a “birthright citizen” born in the U.S. of non-citizen parents who had immigrated in 1956 from Cuba under the Batista dictatorship, not from the 1959 revolutionary government.

Marco Rubio, “Mr. Tough on illegal immigrants,” his own grandfather entered the U.S. illegally and was ordered to be deported but was saved from deportation by an amnesty during the Cuban missile crisis.

Marco Rubio, “Mr. Kill the Boat Drug Runners of the Caribbean”, his own brother-in-law was convicted of drug running and his sister implicated but never charged.

Marco Rubio, “Mr. I Know All About Cuba Because I Am Cuban-American,” has been to Cuba only once—where in Cuba did he go?  A few hours at the U.S. prison on the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo.

No doubt, more will come in the next two years as Rubio, Miller and others in the Administration seem to think they can get away with outrageous bullying of individuals and organizations that do not agree with them and that challenge them in nonviolent ways, in contrast to the January 6 gang..

In particular, there are always protests against the horrific effects of brutal sanctions that the U.S. government uses to make life so difficult that citizens of other countries that they will overthrow their own governments, whether it be Cuba, Venezuela, Iran or Nicaragua.

Israel’s Paid Influence on U.S. Citizen Perceptions Seems to be OK with Rubio

However, Rubio no doubt is thinking that since his buddies in the Netanyahu’s government have paid Trump’s former campaign manager, Brad Parscale, millions of dollars in a specific program to influence U.S. public opinion stop the massive decline in Israel’s “likeability,” that other countries have paid off U.S. persons to work clandestinely on the same scale.

Parscale’s firm was hired by Israel for $6 million in September 2025 and then signed a $15 million contract with Israeli firm Havas to conduct a digital campaign on behalf of the State of Israel according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).  Pascale and his team sent conservative influencers suggested positive language about Israel for posts on social media sites such as X, Instagram and TikTok.   The influencers are then compensated based on how many “likes” each post gets from readers.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government has dramatically increased spending on influence operations. Earlier this year, Israel increased by four times  its “public diplomacy” influence budget from $150 million in 2025 to $730 million in 2026.

But even the Israel Times says it’s too late for a “facelift” as a Pew Research Center poll reported that 60 percent of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, up seven points in a single year, with only 37% viewing it favorably after Israel has committed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, pillaged and plundered homes, farms, animals in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian West Bank, destroyed southern Lebanon and got the Trump administration up to its neck in the war on Iran,

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Keep Challenging Illegal, Immoral and Criminal Policies

The two recent major attempts of the Trump administration to quell dissent, show how serious challenging illegal, immoral and criminal policies has become and how important it is that we push back hard against these attempts intimidating citizens to silence their dissent.

The two recent major attempts of the Trump administration to quell dissent, show how serious challenging illegal, immoral and criminal policies has become and how important it is that we push back hard against these attempts intimidating citizens to silence their dissent.

However, despite these brutal, heavy handed attempts to silent us, dissent is spreading to regular citizens. In a recent letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper Honolulu Star Advertiser, which serves a large U.S. military population, a resident of Hawaii summarized the challenge very well, “The true domestic enemy includes those who monopolize political and economic power. The real enemy includes individuals who misinform, threaten and disenfranchise the less powerful. The true enemy are those who are antidemocratic, have little or no concern regarding the welfare of others and enrich themselves, family and a few friends at the expense of the general population.”

About the Author: Ann Wright spent 16 years in the U.S. Department of State as a U.S. diplomat, 8 times as long as Marco “McCarthy” Rubio has been appointed as Secretary of State.

After serving in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves for 29 years and as a U.S. diplomat for 16 years, and 8 presidential administrations, she resigned in March 2003 in opposition to President George W. Bush’s justification that the U.S. should wage war on Iraq on the knowingly false claims of Iraq possessing “weapons of mass destruction.”