In the early months of President Donald Trump’s second term, some analysts questioned how long Secretary of State Marco Rubio would align with a White House stocked with anti-interventionist voices.
Two years in, after the U.S. operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, Rubio sits near the center of decision-making with an unusual portfolio that also includes national security advisor and head of the National Archives.
The last time a top diplomat also held the national security advisor role was Henry Kissinger, a comparison that underscores the breadth of Rubio’s remit inside the administration.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has long advanced a Cold War–inflected, hawkish view of adversaries in the Western Hemisphere. That record initially looked at odds with Trump’s skepticism toward extended foreign interventions and the presence of anti-interventionists such as Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Following the Venezuela raid, however, Rubio’s policy instincts and the president’s priorities are operating in tandem on sanctions enforcement, tanker seizures and pressure on regimes aligned with Caracas.
A swift rise inside Trump’s circle
Rubio’s consolidation of influence accelerated after Operation Absolute Resolve, the special operations mission that seized Maduro and transferred him to U.S. custody.
Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other senior advisers sat with the president at Mar-a-Lago as the raid unfolded. Vance participated remotely due to heightened security posture in Ohio, according to the vice president’s office. Gabbard, who had previously criticized U.S. intervention in Venezuela, did not play a public role in the run-up to the operation, though officials said she contributed intelligence support.
In on-air appearances following the raid, Rubio clarified the administration’s approach to post-Maduro stabilization.
He described a phased plan that relies on economic leverage, sanctions enforcement and controlled oil sales rather than large troop deployments. The emphasis on coercive financial tools and maritime interdictions mirrored actions taken in the weeks around the operation, including the seizure of multiple dark-fleet tankers suspected of moving sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
A long record on Venezuela policy
Rubio’s current role builds on years of advocacy. In a 2018 interview he argued that U.S. military force should be limited to national security threats but said a case could be made that Maduro’s regime posed a danger to the region and to U.S. interests.
Since then he has pressed for tighter sanctions, targeted designations and support for opposition groups. He kept that focus even as Venezuela’s economy deteriorated and Caracas deepened relationships with Moscow and Tehran.
Maduro appeared to understand Rubio’s influence. In 2025 he warned Trump that Rubio wanted to draw Washington into bloodshed as the United States began airstrikes against narcotraffickers operating in Caribbean corridors.
The attack on illicit networks formed part of a broader pressure campaign that set conditions for the January 2026 raid.
