Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to criticize what he calls “soulless global bureaucrats” who use arguments about a rules-based international order to challenge U.S. foreign policy. In a speech scheduled for Friday, he will argue that Marxism’s influence survived the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Leaders from both major U.S. parties have defended the postwar system of international institutions, much of it built with American support. Rubio is expected to say that the system has instead been turned against the United States, a position he also took during his January 2025 confirmation hearing.
In prepared remarks, Rubio describes Marxist ideas as still influential in Western society. The speech may change before he delivers it.
“For this global elite, ‘international law’ is not a neutral body of rules,” Rubio is expected to say. He plans to argue that it is used to advance particular interests while being presented as universal principle, and that some of its defenders support democracy only when election results suit them.
Rubio’s prepared remarks say that although Soviet communism was defeated, “the spirit of Marx” endured in newer doctrines that would place national self-determination beneath global consensus. He is expected to contrast Marxism’s traditional aim of eliminating distinctions between people with what he characterizes as modern radicals’ effort to erase distinctions between nations.
Rubio is due to speak to the Federalist Society at the National Lawyers Convention. He is expected to criticize the International Criminal Court and other international bodies, arguing that they use law for political purposes rather than justice. A State Department source said Rubio believes overseas judges and officials are trying to constrain the United States and overrule decisions that should be made by Americans.
He is also expected to defend the administration’s sanctions against the International Criminal Court, which he calls an unelected tribunal. Rubio plans to warn that if the court tries to enforce what he describes as “paper decrees” against Americans, the U.S. response will echo a saying attributed to the Roman general Pompey: “Stop quoting laws to men with swords.”
Rubio will also challenge claims that Americans live on stolen land. According to the prepared remarks, he will argue that such claims deny the country’s right to exist and describe the United States as “a nation of irrepressible ambition.”
The speech comes amid a wider debate over the post-World War II international system. Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed recently invoked self-determination while criticizing the United States as a leading violator of international law.
“The beauty of this country is our ideals,” El-Sayed said. He added that the United States had helped create the United Nations, the World Health Organization and international courts to uphold democratic principles, but had then violated those same ideals.
El-Sayed’s comments echoed remarks made last year by Neville Roy Singham, a technology entrepreneur whose funding network has supported CodePink and other left-wing groups. An investigation into his finances reported that, following the sale of his company ThoughtWorks, Singham directed about $285 million to nonprofit and media organizations. Tax filings cited in the investigation show that the People’s Forum received $22.4 million, CodePink received $1.33 million and BreakThrough BT Media Inc., which operates BreakThrough News, received about $1.1 million. Singham and his wife, CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, live in Shanghai.
In a speech on Nov. 13, 2025, at a forum in Shanghai, Singham called the existing international rules-based order a false account of World War II. He urged support for a new international order based on multilateralism promoted by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
“The international rules-based order was created by another lie,” Singham said. He argued that creating a new order would require undoing what he called the ideological damage caused by the prevailing account of World War II.
Organizations supported by Singham have promoted campaigns focused on Cuba and Venezuela, opposition to sanctions on Iran and NATO expansion, and educational events about China. Their programming often presents these causes as part of a broader resistance to U.S. influence. Event materials and social media posts have also publicized Cuba-focused discussions, cultural events and delegations opposing U.S. policy.
Investigations into the funding network have described a range of organizations, educational programs and activist campaigns that promote Marxist ideas and criticize U.S. policy. At the People’s Forum in Manhattan, the 1804 Books bookstore and press describes its work as offering socialist literature and revolutionary theory. The bookstore sells works by Karl Marx, including a children’s coloring book. Records cited in the investigations trace about $22.44 million to the People’s Forum and $16.76 million to the Tricontinental Institute through Singham’s network.
The bookstore’s catalog includes Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program, Critique of Political Economy and The German Ideology, written with Friedrich Engels. Tricontinental identifies “national liberation Marxism” as a central influence in its mission and invokes Marx’s argument that philosophy should change the world.
Other groups also explicitly reference Marxism. The Marxist Education Project says it operates through the tax-exempt Movement Education Project Group and uses Marxism as its framework. The People’s Forum has hosted a study group on the second volume of Marx’s Capital.
The People Before Profits Education Fund, also known as the Chelsea Fund for Education, solicits support for Marxist education and lists the Little Red Schoolhouse, a national training program for young activists, among its projects. The Marxists Internet Archive describes itself as a nonprofit library preserving Marxist writings.
