U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio mounted a vigorous defense on Wednesday of President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize a military operation that removed then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, using his first public hearing since the raid to outline the administration’s broader foreign policy posture on issues ranging from Greenland to NATO, Iran and China.
Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio sought to calm concerns from U.S. allies unsettled by Trump’s confrontational language and assertive moves abroad, including repeated demands that the United States take control of Greenland. Lawmakers from both parties offered sharply contrasting views of the administration’s approach, with Republicans largely supportive and Democrats openly wary.
Rubio tagged the January 3 operation in Venezuela as a necessary response to what he described as a serious national security threat in the Western Hemisphere. He told senators the action had made the United States safer and said the U.S. was now working with interim authorities in Caracas to stabilize the country after years of turmoil.
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“We’re not going to have this thing turn around overnight, but I think we’re making good and decent progress,” Rubio said. “We are certainly better off today in Venezuela than we were four weeks ago, and I think and hope and expect that we’ll be better off in three months and six months and nine months than we would have been had Maduro still been there.”
The former Florida senator said the new leadership was cooperating with the United States and would soon begin to experience tangible benefits. At the same time, he distanced himself from language in his prepared testimony that suggested further military action could be on the table if Venezuela’s leaders failed to comply fully with Trump’s demands.
“I can tell you right now with full certainty, we are not postured to nor do we intend or expect to have to take any military action in Venezuela at any time,” Rubio said, according to AP’s report. “I think it would require the emergence of an imminent threat of the kind that we do not anticipate at this time.”
Rubio also detailed plans to ease restrictions on Venezuela’s oil sales. He said sanctioned crude exports would be permitted under a system in which revenues are placed in a U.S. Treasury controlled account and released only after Washington approves monthly Venezuelan budgets. The funds, he said, would be earmarked for basic state functions such as policing and health care.
Most Republican senators applauded the operation and its aftermath, while Democrats expressed deep skepticism. They pressed Rubio on whether the intervention could embolden China in Taiwan, further destabilize Ukraine amid Russia’s war, or strain ties with NATO allies following Trump’s threats against Denmark over Greenland and his criticism of the alliance.
Rubio dismissed those concerns, saying tensions within NATO over Greenland were easing and that negotiations were underway to address Trump’s demands. While Trump has argued that U.S. control of Greenland is essential to counter Russian and Chinese influence, Rubio noted that the president had recently pulled back from imposing tariffs on European countries that sent troops to the Danish territory in a show of unity.
“I think we’re going to get something positive done,” Rubio said.
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He rejected claims that Trump was weakening NATO, repeating a long standing U.S. complaint that member states need to spend more on defense.
“NATO needs to be reimagined,” Rubio said. “I just think this president complains about it louder than other presidents.”
On China, Rubio argued that Beijing’s ambitions toward Taiwan were driven by long term strategy rather than reactions to events elsewhere. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s objective of reunification would proceed regardless of developments in Venezuela or other global flashpoints.
“The situation on Taiwan is a legacy project” that Chinese President Xi Jinping has made “very clear that that’s what he intends to do and that’s going to be irrespective anything that happens in the world,” Rubio said.
Addressing Iran, Rubio said there was no active plan to launch military strikes despite renewed threats from Trump. He cautioned that any attempt to change Iran’s government would demand far more deliberation than the operation against Maduro.
He pointed to the recent arrival of an aircraft carrier and accompanying warships in the Middle East as a defensive measure.
He said the buildup is “to defend against what could be an Iranian threat against our personnel.”
Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho provided additional details about the Caracas operation, saying it involved roughly 200 U.S. troops and a brief firefight.
“This military action was incredibly brief, targeted and successful,” Risch said, adding that international assistance may be needed to help Venezuela restore democratic elections.
”Venezuela may require U.S. and international oversight to ensure these elections are indeed free and fair,” he said.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee’s top Democrat, questioned whether the intervention had delivered meaningful change, noting that many of Maduro’s senior allies remain influential and that Venezuela’s economic crisis continues.
“We’ve traded one dictator for another, so it’s no wonder that so many of my constituents are asking, why is the president spending so much time focused on Venezuela instead of the cost of living and their kitchen table economic concerns?” she asked. “From Venezuela to Europe, the United States is spending more, risking more and achieving less.”
Rubio closed the hearing by offering his strongest endorsement yet of democratic restoration in Venezuela, even as critics argue the administration’s priorities remain centered on oil and U.S. security interests.
“What’s the end state? We want a Venezuela that has legitimate democratic elections,” Rubio said, noting that he met opposition leader María Corina Machado at the State Department after the hearing.
He also faced pointed questions from Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey about working with interim leaders who previously served under Maduro. Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, is now acting president.
U.S. officials have said their demands include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to American companies, granting preferential access to production, directing oil revenue toward purchases of U.S. goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.
Rodríguez and her press office did not immediately respond to Rubio’s remarks. She said Tuesday that her government and the United States “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication.” So far, she has appeared to accept Trump’s conditions and has moved to release prisoners jailed under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
The State Department said it plans to send additional diplomatic and support staff to Caracas as part of preparations for a possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy, which has been closed since 2019.
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A full normalization of relations, however, would still require the U.S. to reverse its recognition of the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate governing body.
