US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has laughed off comparisons between his grey Nike tracksuit and the outfit worn by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro after his capture by American forces. Rubio was photographed wearing the outfit aboard Air Force One on the way to Beijing, with White House communications director Steven Cheung sharing the image and joking that the secretary was “rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’”.
The post prompted a wave of memes across pro-Trump social media, with the New York Post headlining the image “Maduromaxxing”. Asked by NBC’s Tom Llamas whether he had known about the comparison in advance, Rubio replied: “No, no, no. There’s no context. It’s a nice suit.” When pressed that it was the same style worn by Maduro, he added: “He copied me, because I had it before [him].”
The official White House account later joined in, sharing a video of Rubio quoting Biggie Smalls’ line “if you don’t know, now you know” before displaying side-by-side images of Rubio and Maduro over the rapper’s 1994 track “Juicy”. Maduro was pictured blindfolded and handcuffed after his capture on January 3 at his compound in Caracas, and has been transported to the US to face drug trafficking charges.
Rubio was part of Donald Trump’s delegation for a short visit to China, which included the US president’s first summit with Xi Jinping of his second term. Trump was greeted with a rendition of “Y.M.C.A” during the state ceremony and invited Xi to Washington. The delegation also included Elon Musk, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, while Vice President JD Vance was notably absent.
Vance spent the week in Maine and in an interview with a “looksmaxxing” streamer, as other officials discussed broadening US-Chinese economic ties. The White House said the Strait of Hormuz and the conflict with Iran were also discussed. Rubio’s standing within the administration has risen, and he came within 20 points of Vance in a straw poll of attendees at this year’s CPAC gathering in Texas on who should carry the MAGA mantle in 2028.
