Dave Rubin’s Direct Message clip dropping a privately recorded Marco Rubio moment should wake every patriotic American up — Rubio bluntly warned European Union officials to stay out of U.S. actions against Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessels, and Dave made sure the country heard it. What the clip shows is not brinksmanship for show; it’s a Secretary of State telling allies that meddling with America’s right to defend its citizens will have consequences.

This isn’t theoretical bravado. The administration has already ordered precision strikes on boats in the Caribbean that were allegedly carrying huge loads of cocaine and fentanyl headed for our shores, an escalation the White House says was necessary to protect American lives. Rubio publicly defended those operations, flatly saying “we blew it up” and promising they will continue if traffickers keep treating our hemisphere like a narco-highway.

Predictably, Europe reacted with moralizing lectures while demanding American hardware and protection when convenient, then wringing hands when the United States actually uses force to stop poison coming to our children. Rubio called out that rank hypocrisy — the same governments that lean on U.S. deterrence for their security suddenly get sanctimonious when America defends its own people in our own neighborhood. That double standard is intolerable and should be called out at every turn.

Of course Brussels and some NATO capitals tried to posture as defenders of international law, with reports that the UK even stepped back from some intelligence sharing and French officials criticized the strikes as dubious under international rules. Let them bluster; meanwhile Washington is treating cartel networks as narco-terrorists that export death and chaos into American communities, and that reality demands action — not lecturing from elites who have sheltered behind U.S. strength for decades.

Conservatives should be unapologetically behind leaders who choose American lives over political correctness and international scolding. When Washington acts decisively to stop the flow of fentanyl and coke — and when a senior official like Rubio tells Europe to back off — it’s because our leaders are finally treating narco-trafficking as the existential threat it is. We need more of that backbone, not more milquetoast hand-wringing from globalist bureaucrats.

Let Europe decide whether it stands with us or against us; the message from Rubio is crystal clear and it should be: protect your own streets, stop exporting virtue-signaling, and don’t obstruct America’s effort to keep deadly drugs off our highways. If Brussels wants to lecture, fine — but don’t be surprised when Washington answers in the only language cartels and their state sponsors understand: strength.