Why Did Marco Rubio Gut the State Department Reports on Human Rights?*
He doesn’t want to be lecturing other countries for the same things the administration is doing
Former President Jimmy Carter, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his tireless commitment to human rights throughout the world, delivered his Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 6, 1978. His declaration is a welcome reminder of what should be our shared humanity in the face of the growing attacks on all manner of human rights in the United States and the administration’s willingness to overlook such violations elsewhere.
As Mr. Trump begs and grovels for the prize, he may want to consider his violation and deprivation of human rights likely does not send the Nobel Committee the right message. (As for Trump’s embarrassing debacle in Alaska — another failed effort to curry favor with the Nobel Committee — I don’t know how diplomatizing is supposed to work, but I don’t think that was it.)
There was even a time in the not so distant past when the Republican Party was a champion of human rights here and across the globe, or at least its members claimed to be on paper.[i] Now? Not so much. And only when it is useful to informing Trump’s so-called “America first” political narrative.
Under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974, the U.S. Department of State must submit annual reports on human rights practices — the Human Rights Report — “on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the U.S. Congress.” Aside from raising general awareness of human rights conditions throughout the world, the reports inform policymakers, support human rights organizations and defenders, promote accountability, and monitor the progress of human rights conditions. The reports are intended to be comprehensive and objective.
The State Department typically issues its annual report shortly after the end of the year on which it is reporting. This time the State Department didn’t get around to issuing its 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices until August 12, 2025. These reports cover a broad range of internationally recognized human rights, which include freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, right to a fair trial, promotion of democracy, and workers’ rights and labor practices.
Historically, the reports have also addressed discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people, women, and persons with disabilities, corruption in government, violence against citizens in war-torn countries, maltreatment and violence against and disappearances of children, other horrific violence, death, destruction, mass killings, unjust detentions, rape and other forms of gender-based violence, human trafficking, violence against religious minorities, political prisoners, and ethnic cleansing. See, e.g., 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
Absent a significantly diluted human rights report, I anticipated the administration’s duplicity — “do as I say, not as I do” — would leap from its pages. The process of politicizing the report, as one fully expects from this administration, is well under way in Rubio’s State Department. The State Department cut two-thirds of the content, deleted material widely regarded as fundamental rights, and watered down or altogether ignored criticism of countries that are working with Trump in his violation of human rights at home.
NPR reported, “The State Department released its long-awaited reports on international human rights Tuesday, and they drastically reduce the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Trump deems worthy of criticism.” (Emphasis added.)
Al Jazeera reported, “This year’s Human Rights Report from the US Department of State shows a visible effort by the Trump administration to purposefully fail to fully capture the alarming and growing attacks on human rights in certain countries around the globe.” (Emphasis added.)
According to the report, for example, “There is no credible reports of significant human rights abuses,” for countries like El Salvador and Hungary. Violations of freedom of peaceful assembly in China are out.
Why doesn’t this administration want to report on human rights violations in some of the countries where they are happening? Because it is engaged in certain of the human rights abuses and in some instances would be blabbing on coconspirators.
Trump was only getting warmed up during his first administration. A timeline of his human and civil rights violations and abuses during his first term is linked in this note.[ii]
Anyone paying attention is aware Trump has ended asylum and targeted immigration, including enforced disappearances based on pretext and without due process, family separations, arrests, abuse of children, and detentions in inhumane conditions in concentration camps.
Anyone paying attention is aware Trump has attacked free expression, the right to peacefully assemble, the right to protest, and the right to the press, including by attacking and arresting student protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights by speaking out for the human rights of others, including Palestinians.
Anyone paying attention is aware Trump has undermined the rule of law, including disregarding court orders, threatening judges, attacking law firms and lawyers, abusing executive power by, among other things, invoking emergency powers where no emergencies exist, appropriating congressional authority, and undermining the separation of powers and checks and balances and, critically, turning the Department of Justice into a personal goon squad to target his political enemies and, literally, decimate the rule of law.
Anyone paying attention is aware Trump has attacked and undermined the fourth estate, including targeting journalists, suing media organizations, pulling funding that supports free press here and globally, and abusing power through the Federal Communications Commission to undermine the role of the media in analysis, discussion, debate, and dissent, which are crucial to identify human rights violations and defend human rights.
Anyone paying attention is aware Trump has sustained attacks against rights of women and members of the LGBTQ communities, fostering a dangerous climate for members of these communities, attempting to erase transgender people’s existence under the law, and undermining sexual and reproductive rights for all people.
Anyone paying attention is aware that in a blatant attack on racial justice, Trump has marginalized Black and other racialized communities, forcing closure of DEI programs in public and private organizations and attacking and defunding universities that embrace racial equity.
For details on the forgoing, see President Trump’s Attacks on Human Rights, Cruelty and Chaos (Amnesty International) (“When we look at the cumulative effect of the Trump administration’s actions, it amounts to a sweeping attack on human rights and the systems that uphold them,” Paul O’Brien, Executive Director of Amnesty International, USA); see also See also Trump Administration Civil and Human Rights Rollbacks 2025 (Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights).
Amnesty International explained:
“With the release of the U.S. State Department’s human rights report, it is clear that the Trump Administration has engaged in a very selective documentation of human rights abuses in certain countries.
“In addition to eliminating entire sections for certain countries — for example discrimination against LGBTQ+ people — there are also arbitrary omissions within existing sections of the report based on the country.
“We have criticized past reports when warranted but have never seen reports quite like this. Never before have the reports gone this far in prioritizing an administration’s political agenda over a consistent and truthful accounting of human rights violations around the world — softening criticism in some countries while ignoring violations in others. The State Department has said in relation to the reports less is more. However, for the victims and human rights defenders who rely on these reports to shine light on abuses and violations, less is just less.
“Secretary Rubio knows full well from his time in the Senate how vital these reports are in informing policy decisions and shaping diplomatic conversations, yet he has made the dangerous and short-sighted decision to put out a truncated version that doesn’t tell the whole story of human rights violations. This sends a chilling message that the U.S. is willing to overlook some abuses, signaling that people experiencing human rights violations may be left to fend for themselves.
“Failing to adequately report on human rights violations further damages the credibility of the U.S. on human rights issues. It’s shameful that the Trump Administration and Secretary Rubio are putting politics above human lives.”
(Emphasis added.)
In Trump’s efforts to consolidate power in himself, destroy free and fair elections, undermine the rule of law, destroy peaceful assembly and free speech, assault immigrants, undermine due process, attack the judiciary, and reduce rights of women, racialized communities, members of LGBTQ+ communities, and disabled persons, I’m curious what other countries’ comprehensive, objective human rights reports would say about Trump and his administration.
Or do they stand in fear of his retribution?
*My brother the talented fiction writer and novelist, Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, deserves considerable credit for offering both substantive and technical suggestions to https://medium.com/@richardvanwagoner His second novel, The Contortionists, which Rob himself narrates for the audio version, is a psychological page-turner about a missing child in a predominantly Mormon community. It is a literary masterpiece.
[i] See, e.g., Republican Platform 2016, the last platform this party had before Trump took it over and destroyed American exceptionalism as a “refuge,” “defender” and “exemplar of liberty for the world to see.”
At one point, the party, on paper at least, “denounce[d] bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance . . . oppose[d] discrimination based on race, sex, religion, creed, disability, or national origin and support[ed] statutes to end such discrimination.” On “Advancing Human Rights, the party “of Lincoln” declaration continued:
“To those who stand in the darkness of tyranny, America has always been a beacon of hope, and so it must remain. Radical Islamic terrorism poses an
existential threat to personal freedom and peace around the world. We oppose its brutal assault on all human beings, all of whom have inherent dignity. The Republican Party stands united with all victims of terrorism and will fight at home and abroad to destroy terrorist organizations and protect the lives and fundamental liberties of all people. Republicans have led the way in promoting initiatives that have protected and rescued millions of the world’s most vulnerable and persecuted. Standing up for repressed religious groups, prisoners of conscience, women trafficked into sexual slavery, and those suffering from disease or starvation is not just consistent with American values. It advances important security and economic interests as well. A Republican administration will never say, as Hillary Clinton did as Secretary of State in 2009, that raising human rights concerns ‘can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis.’
“The United States needs a radical rethinking of our human rights diplomacy. A Republican administration will adopt a ‘whole of government’ approach to protect fundamental freedoms globally, one where pressing human rights and rule of law issues are integrated at every appropriate level of our bilateral relationships and strategic decisionmaking. Republican policy will reflect the fact that the health of the U.S. economy and environment, the safety of our food and drug supplies, the security of our investments and personal information in cyberspace, and the stability and security of the oceans will increasingly depend on allowing the free flow of news and information and developing an independent judiciary and civil society in countries with repressive governments such as China, Russia, and many nations in the Middle East and Africa.”
Republican Platform 2016 at Preamble and 52–53.
[ii] The Trump Administration Human Rights Tracker (Columbia Human Rights Law Review) (first Trump administration).