If there’s one beneficiary of Saturday’s strike on Venezuela, it seems to be Marco Rubio.
The 54-year-old secretary of state’s odds of gaining the presidency in 2028 have almost doubled, according to crypto-based prediction site Polymarket.
Rubio’s odds were sitting at around 4 percent for the past month but have risen to 7 percent at the time of writing, with the growth appearing in the hours after former president Nicolás Maduro was captured.
This places him ahead of his boss, President Donald Trump’s lowly 3 percent chance—a figure shared with Kamala Harris—but still lagging far behind current vice president JD Vance, who leads the pack at 31 percent.
Rubio has been gaining a lot of credit for the successful capture of Maduro without American losses. However, it’s understood that civilians may be among the dozens of Venezuelan deaths, according to a report from The New York Times.
After the operation in Venezuela, Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago press conference that the U.S. would “run” the country during the transition, with many assuming that the Spanish-speaking Rubio would be at the helm, given his current role and his communications with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.
Sources told the Washington Post that could be the case, with Rubio having been heavily involved in the mission.
“Rubio and the president are working hand in glove on this,” one source said, explaining that Trump and Rubio “were really running this thing.”
On the Sunday morning talk show circuit following the strike, Rubio further bolstered his role in the Venezuela operation by serving as a leading talking head about the invasion. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rubio was cornered by host Kristen Welker about who would be in charge of the country in Maduro’s absence.
“Obviously, I’m very involved in this,” Rubio said, while declining to identify his role in any coming transition directly. “Well of course, I think everyone knows I’m pretty involved on politics in this hemisphere. Obviously, as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, I’m very involved in all these elements.”
Whether the military action in Venezuela might serve as a stepping stone to the U.S. presidency remains to be seen. Reports suggest that Rubio may at least have won the support of Trump as his successor—if he ever agrees to step down.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump privately pitted Rubio and Vance against each other last year, and even hinted that the former Florida senator was winning in his eyes.
“Which one of you is going to be at the top of the ticket?” a White House insider claimed Trump asked the duo, before musing: “I used to think it would be Vance-Rubio, but maybe it will be Rubio-Vance.”
Back in May, Trump also mentioned Rubio when asked about Vance’s odds. Calling Vance a “fantastic, brilliant guy,” Trump spontaneously added: “Marco is great. There’s a lot of them that are great.”
