Trump allies have a new nickname for Marco Rubio — and it’s ominous

In an administration dominated by ultra-MAGA loyalists, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a holdover from the GOP's pre-MAGA era. Other Donald Trump appointees encountered strong resistance from Senate Democrats, while traditional conservative Rubio enjoyed their unanimous support during his confirmation vote. But according to MS NOW's Zeeshan Aleem, Republicans have an ominous new nickname for Rubio that speaks volumes about the Trump administration's Venezuela policy.

"Rubio's control over Venezuela on behalf of Trump is so total and so outmoded that other officials in the Trump administration have reportedly started calling him 'viceroy,'" Aleem writes in an MS NOW opinion column. "We're back in the colonial era."

According to Aleem, Rubio now has so much influence in Venezuela that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez consults him when making decisions.

Earlier this year, U.S. forces on orders from President Trump overthrew and captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and transported him to the United States — where he is still being held in a federal detention center. But Trump left Venezuela's leftist government in place, choosing Maduro ally Rodríguez to serve as acting president.

"After the U.S. military detained then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January," Aleem explains, "Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined a three-part plan for Venezuela: stabilization, recovery, and transition to democracy. But what the U.S. is doing to Venezuela counts as nothing but colonization. An astonishing report by The New York Times, based on interviews with more than a dozen officials and people close to governments in Washington and Caracas, details the imperial overhaul of Venezuela's government and economy after Trump's ouster of Maduro. The U.S. isn't just setting up an economically advantageous policy regime to access Venezuela's oil, but is now directly controlling much of Venezuela's state revenue."

After overthrowing Maduro, Trump warned Rodríguez that she could be removed from power as well. And Rodríguez, according to Aleem, is frequently consulting Rubio in order to avoid that fate.

"According to the Times, Rubio is administering the application of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and determining who in the country can do business with the world without getting hit by penalties," Aleem explains. "He's helping set up U.S. access to Venezuela's oil resources, while boxing out European companies. He's constantly issuing edicts by text message directly to Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, who has turned to him for sign-off on major political appointments, including the minister of defense. When Venezuela issued a moderately critical statement of the U.S. for bombing Iran, the Trump administration quickly and successfully pressured Rodrigeuz's administration to rescind it…. This arrangement is reprehensible. The U.S. is systematically stripping Venezuela of its right to self-determination."