Every country has ‘stupid people’: Rubio’s guide to diplomatic evasion and racial deflection

It is rather comical when a US Secretary of State travels halfway across the globe to India, stands at a joint diplomatic podium in New Delhi, and accidentally says something which gives the impression that he is throwing his own boss under the metaphorical bus!

During his visit to New Delhi in May 2026, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was directly confronted by an Indian journalist about racist remarks and anti-Indian rhetoric coming from the United States. Responding to the concerns, Rubio asserted that “every country has stupid people” and emphasised that the US remains a welcoming country for immigrants.

The question, posed during a joint press conference with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, followed controversies surrounding a social media post on April 22, 2026, by President Donald Trump. Trump had drawn severe international backlash for resharing a transcript and audio from a podcast by radio host Michael Savage on ‘Truth Social’, which referred to countries like India and China as “hellholes” and accused immigrants of exploiting the US immigration system.

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The remarks sparked immense debate and were widely condemned by advocacy groups, who labelled the rhetoric as racist and xenophobic. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officially condemned the remarks as “uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste”, stating they do not reflect the reality of US-India relations. Following the diplomatic friction, the US Embassy stepped in to contain the fallout, clarifying that President Trump views India as a “great country” and considers Prime Minister Narendra Modi a very good friend.

It was against this background that the Indian journalist explicitly asked Rubio about racist comments from Americans aimed at Indian-Americans. While acknowledging the issue needs to be taken seriously, he stated: “I’m sure there are stupid people here; there are stupid people in the United States who make dumb comments all the time.” Rubio later amplified his remarks by emphasising that “people say stupid stuff all the time on social media”.

Rubio was trying to push back against the idea that the US is structurally intolerant. Many, though, saw it as insensitive for America’s top diplomat to brush off racial discrimination as merely “stupid” online comments. Rubio called the United States “the most welcoming country in the world for immigration”. While noting that he takes such remarks seriously, he emphasised that the US is deeply enriched by immigrants who assimilate and contribute significantly to American life. He referenced his own background as the son of Cuban immigrants. While noting that he takes such remarks seriously, he emphasised that the US is deeply enriched by immigrants who assimilate and contribute significantly to American life.

The hilarity of the situation lies in the glaring proximity in time, for just weeks before Rubio’s trip, the Internet had been ablaze with the news that President Trump had reposted far-right rhetoric that casually referred to India as a “hellhole” and labelled certain immigrants as “gangsters with laptops”. Therefore, when the Indian journalist pressed him on this exact brand of vitriol, Rubio’s defensive reflex was to dismiss the perpetrators as “stupid people”. The tragic irony, of course, is that one of the loudest, most prolific, and most heavily amplified purveyors of these exact sentiments is the Commander-in-Chief himself.

Marco Rubio’s off-the-cuff diplomatic defence — that “every country has stupid people” — was certainly not an intentional slight against Donald Trump. However, keeping in mind Trump’s recent highly publicised social media post, Rubio unwittingly provided an unintended roadmap connecting the American President to the global pool of stupid people.

The US State Department initially posted the text and video clip of the exchange between Rubio and the Indian journalist on its official account on X (formerly Twitter). The clip triggered massive political and diplomatic speculation on social media. Observers were quick to point out that the Indian journalist’s question about “endorsements” of anti-India rhetoric likely referred to the recent social media repost by President Donald Trump, in which he shared a clip from talk-radio host Michael Savage referring to India as a “hellhole”. Not surprisingly, the US State Department deleted the viral post and clip featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s “stupid people” remarks.

One can only imagine the frantic, behind-the-scenes panic in the State Department as the realisation dawned on them that, in a single exasperated breath, “Little Marco” unknowingly categorised the rhetoric of “The Donald” as nothing more than the senseless babbling of a stupid person. It is a masterpiece of unintentional insubordination.

While Rubio is steadfast in his defence of the American dream, his statements over the years have acknowledged that the United States is not entirely free of racial hurdles. He has historically conceded that racial discrimination in America has a long, troubled history, and while the country has made immense progress from the days of segregation, there is still work to be done to achieve perfect equality. In remarks made during his 2015 presidential campaign, Rubio spoke about a “painful, complicated” history of discriminatory practices. He noted that this history directly contributed to a lack of economic mobility and damaged relationships between minority communities and law enforcement.

Ultimately, Secretary Rubio’s ‘diplomatic masterstroke’ in Delhi unintentionally transformed political damage control into an involuntary roast of his own boss. The attempt to dismiss online racism as the ramblings of “stupid people” was a Freudian slip — especially since the very comments in question were enthusiastically amplified by the President himself. It is a Shakespearean tragedy performed as a slapstick comedy, for in trying to distance America from its fringe elements, Rubio inadvertently dragged someone who occupies its very centre stage.

(The writer is a retired Indian diplomat and had previously served as ambassador in Kuwait and Morocco and as Consul General in New York. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)