Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the interpreter and took matters into his own hands Saturday, switching to fluent Spanish to deliver President Donald Trump’s agenda directly to a dozen Latin American leaders at the Shield of the Americas Summit.
“We don’t need an interpreter for this one,” Rubio told Trump before addressing the room in Spanish, as shown in the video shared by The White House. The moment went viral across social media. Trump looked on with approval as his top diplomat assumed translation duties.
The exchange set the tone at Trump National Doral in Miami. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed Rubio to the podium and told the president, “I only speak American,” PJ Media reported from the scene. Rubio responded by joking that he speaks Cuban, according to a social media post cited by PJ Media. (RELATED: Everything Is Coming Up Marco Rubio)
Reporter Sarah Anderson, who attended the event, noted warm personal rapport between Rubio and the attending heads of state. The secretary of state told the group that alliance with America “is a good thing. It’s reciprocated,” per the State Department feed cited by PJ Media.
President Trump Delivers Remarks to the Shield of Americas Summit https://t.co/9nl7pUDQVq
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 7, 2026
Trump signed a proclamation creating the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition before departing for Dover Air Force Base to receive the remains of six U.S. troops killed in the Iran conflict, Fox News reported. The White House framed the 12-nation gathering as a historic push to dismantle drug cartels and counter foreign interference across the Western Hemisphere.
With Trump headed to Delaware, Rubio ran a working lunch and introduced Kristi Noem in her new capacity as Special Envoy. He told leaders they would “see a lot of her” and that Noem would engage with each country “at a personal level and on a daily and weekly and monthly level,” according to the State Department’s official transcript.
Saturday’s event added yet another responsibility to Rubio’s expanding portfolio. Trump tapped the secretary of state to oversee the Shield of the Americas initiative alongside Noem just days before the summit.
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