Secretary of State Marco Rubio posed in a tracksuit aboard Air Force One Tuesday – the same outfit worn by deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro when he was captured in January.
Rubio had arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to board President Donald Trump’s flight to China wearing a suit, only to make the unusual costume change after take-off.
“Secretary Rubio rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One!” posted White House Communications Director Steven Cheung on X, alluding to Maduro.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized from their presidential palace on January 3 when U.S. special forces swept into Caracas in a surprise attack and took them on to New York to answer narco-terrorism charges.
The leader was photographed blindfolded, handcuffed and wearing a grey jumpsuit inside a U.S. military plane en route to the Big Apple.
Rubio opposed the leftist leadership of Venezuela and Cuba, from which his family fled to Florida after Fidel Castro’s revolution of 1959.
Cheung’s photograph was subsequently picked up by the official White House account on the same platform – which had already reposted a map of Venezuela marked out as the 51st state taken from Trump’s Truth Social page – turning it into a video.
Captioned “Full circle moment,” the clip featured footage of Rubio quoting the Notorious B.I.G. during a press briefing and showing off his leisurewear with the rapper’s track “Hypnotize” played over the top.
How Rubio’s sartorial choice will sit with Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who last year appealed to American air travellers to dress more formally for flights, remains to be seen.
“People dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly,” Duffy complained in November.
“Help people out, be in a good mood, dress up, bring civility back to travel. And I think everyone’s experience is going to be that much better.”
In addition to Trump and Rubio, other well-known faces on the flight to Beijing were Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, as well as Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump.
The president said on Truth Social that other CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Blackrock’s Larry Fink and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, were also joining his entourage.
Film director Brett Ratner, who shot Amazon’s widely-derided documentary Melania, was also reportedly on board and said to be hoping to scout locations for Rush Hour 4, a movie franchise Trump is particularly keen to see resuscitated despite stars Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker getting on in years.
Trump’s visit to the rival superpower in November 2017 was the last time an American president set foot in China and his last in-person encounter with Xi Jinping was in October at the APEC summit in Busan, South Korea.
Their latest meeting will reportedly include a state banquet and visit to the historic Temple of Heaven complex.
