The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, posed for a photograph on the presidential plane, heading to China, with the sports clothing worn by the former president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, during his capture on January 3 by the US Armed Forces. “Secretary Rubio wearing the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One!“, with the image of Rubio aboard the AF1 heading to Beijing for the meeting of President Donald Trump with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
The image of Rubio wearing the full gray sweatshirt and lying on one of the doors of the presidential plane has quickly gone viral on social networks, mainly by Republican activists and White House officials. The clothing is the same model that Maduro was wearing when he was captured in Caracas and transferred to the United States, according to the photographs released by Trump at the beginning of the year on his Truth Social account.
The image of Maduro with the clothing was the subject of thousands of publications, memes and jokes on social networks and was even used as a costume at parties around the world. Rubio, 54, has been mentioned, in polls and by local media, along with Vice President JD Vance, as two of the most visible Republican options for the 2028 presidential elections.
At the beginning of 2026, Trump was consulted on the issue and assured that both (Rubio and Vance) are “great leaders”, although he highlighted that one is more “diplomatic” than the other, in reference to the Secretary of State. Prior to Maduro’s capture in January, Rubio was one of the most critical US officials of his government, describing it as “illegitimate” and defending Washington’s use of military force to achieve his arrest in the Venezuelan capital.
