The State Department will sharply restrict its commentary on the legitimacy of foreign elections to “rare” occasions, according to a new directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that continues the Trump administration’s turn away from promoting democracy abroad.
In an official cable to diplomatic and consular posts on Thursday, Mr. Rubio said that public comments on foreign elections “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noting shared foreign policy interests.”
Such messages, the agency memo added, “should avoid opining on the fairness or integrity of an electoral process, its legitimacy, or the democratic values of the country in question.” The directive applied to the department’s domestic offices and foreign posts, Mr. Rubio said.
The New York Times obtained the text of the cable, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
It has long been standard practice for the U.S. government to call out foreign elections tainted by fraud, intimidation and other tactics. Doing so puts pressure on corrupt or unethical governments, encourages democratic opposition movements and bolsters America’s moral standing, diplomats say.
Like it had done in previous administrations, the State Department under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. criticized foreign votes frequently, including what it called a “pantomime election” in Nicaragua, “election fraud” in Belarus and “democratic backsliding” after a disputed vote in the Republic of Georgia.
So did Mr. Rubio, as a Republican senator from Florida known for his outspoken criticism of anti-democratic practices abroad. Mr. Rubio dismissed Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election as “a complete fraud,” co-sponsored a 2020 Senate resolution demanding that President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus hold “a free, fair, and transparent election that adheres to international standards” and called Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was a “tyrant” who “stole an election.”
Mr. Rubio has muted such talk since he joined the Trump administration, although in a Friday statement celebrating the release of American prisoners from Venezuela he said that the United States “continues to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
His Thursday cable cited President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy vision, which has narrowed traditional definitions of the U.S. national interest. Mr. Trump says the United States should work with countries based on shared interests, treating disputes over a nation’s political freedoms as needless distractions.
Mr. Trump has also aligned himself with strongmen in countries like Turkey and Hungary, with no apparent concern for their crackdowns on civil society and their manipulation of elections. In his first term, Mr. Trump ignored explicit instructions from staff members not to congratulate Mr. Putin after the Russian president won an election widely considered marred by fraud.
The cable said that a bureau or diplomatic post wanting to issue a statement condemning an election for reasons such as “violence during voting or sham election” must seek guidance from senior department officials, and that permission would be “rare.”
A State Department spokesman said in a statement that the United States would “celebrate” democratic values in other countries, but that Mr. Trump intended to pursue international partnerships on the basis of strategic interests.
The president’s downgrading of democracy comes as critics say that Mr. Trump himself has demonstrated authoritarian tendencies, including verbal attacks on the judicial branch, threats to prosecute his political rivals and talk of seeking a third term in defiance of the Constitution.
While Mr. Trump rarely comments on voting procedures in other countries, he has not been shy about applying pressure on legal proceedings involving foreign leaders. Mr. Trump has denounced a corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Earlier this week, he threatened to impose huge tariffs on Brazil for its prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro over his attempt to stage a coup after losing Brazil’s 2022 election.
The cable was in keeping with concern among senior Trump officials that many rank-and-file diplomats oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda and may work to undermine it.
“DO use messaging on elections to advance a U.S. foreign policy goal; DON’T use it to promote an ideology,” it said, directing officials to draft potential election-related messages in line with Mr. Trump’s agenda. “Put another way: Would the president say it?”
“DON’T use euphemisms to try and bypass this guidance,” the cable added.
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
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