Marco Rubio turned heads aboard Air Force One on Tuesday after arriving at Joint Base Andrews in a suit, then changing into a Nike tracksuit once on board as he traveled with President Donald Trump to China.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted a photo on X and wrote, “Secretary Rubio rocking the Nike Tech ‘Venezuela’ on Air Force One!” The image showed Rubio in a Nike tracksuit identical to the one worn by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when he was captured and transported to the U.S. in January.
The White House did not leave the moment there. Its official X account followed with a video set to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize,” using photos of Rubio and Maduro in matching tracksuits and opening with Rubio’s line from a January press conference: “Now, if you don’t know, now you know.” The post turned a wardrobe change into a pointed political message aimed well beyond the plane.
The flight carried more than just Trump and Rubio. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk, Sean Hannity, Jensen Huang, Eric Trump and Lara Trump were also aboard Air Force One for a trip that marked the first U.S. presidential visit to China in almost nine years. The last one came during Trump’s first term in November 2017.
That timing gives the image extra bite. Rubio was joining Trump for a visit that includes talks, a banquet and a stop at the Temple of Heaven, even as the source says he was traveling despite being sanctioned by the government. The White House framed the tracksuit as a joke, but the choice of outfit linked a routine photo op to Venezuela’s president and to the administration’s own showmanship.
Trump has repeatedly treated protocol and pageantry as part of the message, and this flight fit that pattern. Asked about Iran, he said, “I wouldn’t say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control,” then added, in another context, that a country was “a friend.” On Tuesday, though, the sharper message came from the tracksuit and the comparison it invited. Rubio’s clothing did what the trip’s formal schedule could not: it gave the White House a viral image with a political edge.
