US Secretary of State Marco Rubio caused a stir on Tuesday when he changed into a grey Nike tracksuit aboard Air Force One, the same style worn by deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro after his capture in January. Rubio, who boarded the presidential flight in a suit, changed into the leisurewear after take-off.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted a photo on X with the caption: “Secretary Rubio rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One!” The post was later turned into a video by the official White House account, featuring Rubio quoting the Notorious B.I.G. and set to the rapper’s track “Hypnotize”.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized from their presidential palace on 3 January by US special forces and flown to New York to face narco-terrorism charges. Photographs showed Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed in a grey jumpsuit aboard a US military aircraft.
Rubio, whose family fled Cuba after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, has long opposed leftist governments in Venezuela and Cuba. His sartorial choice may irk Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who last year urged air travellers to dress more formally.
The flight to Beijing carried President Donald Trump, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, Fox News host Sean Hannity, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Trump’s son Eric Trump with his wife Lara. Other CEOs, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Blackrock’s Larry Fink and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, also joined the entourage.
Film director Brett Ratner, who shot the documentary *Melania*, was reportedly aboard hoping to scout locations for *Rush Hour 4*. Trump’s visit marks the first by a US president to China since 2017; his meeting with President Xi Jinping is expected to include a state banquet and a visit to the Temple of Heaven.
