Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday and openly disagreed with the intelligence community's assessment that the notorious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua is not acting as a proxy for Nicolás Maduro's government. He instead agrees with the FBI, which came to the opposite conclusion in a recent assessment.
"The intelligence community are "wrong," Rubio told "Face the Nation's" Margaret Brennan.
"In fact, the FBI agrees with me that they are. We, the FBI, agrees that not only is Tren de Aragua exported by the Venezuelan regime, but in fact, if you go back and see a Tren de Aragua member, all the evidence is there, and it's growing every day, was actually contracted to murder an opposition member, I believe, in Chile a few months ago."
Watch:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he disagrees with a recent National Intelligence Council assessment which contradicts President Trump’s assertions that the gang Tren de Aragua is operating under the direction of the Venezuelan regime, telling @margbrennan, "They're wrong."… pic.twitter.com/fH8XokG1GP
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) May 18, 2025
"They're wrong." The question of whether the Maduro government controls Tren de Aragua is at the center of a clash over the Trump administration's ability to continue to deport suspected gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
"I agree 100% with the FBI’s finding," Rubio says, which assesses some coordination between TdA members and Venezuelan government officials.
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The former Florida senator continued:
"So one of the warnings out there by the FBI is not simply that Tren de Aragua are a terrorist organization, but one that has already been operationalized, to murder ... an opposition member in another country."
In early April, the National Intelligence Council determined in a memo that "the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with [Tren de Aragua] and is not directing [Tren de Aragua] movement to and operations in the United States."
As we reported, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired two top officials from the National Intelligence Council Tuesday for politicizing intelligence, and although this memo was not given as a reason, it likely played a role.
As I wrote about the firings at the time:
Former Hawaii Rep. and current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—who left the Democrat party in October ’24 to become a Republican and join the Trump train—continues to make her mark as she on Tuesday fired the top officials leading the National Intelligence Council because she alleges they are fierce Dem partisans.
Whistleblowers describe the officials as "radically opposed to Trump" who go out of their way to block his agenda.
Rubio is convinced that he and the FBI are right, and the memo was wrong.
Rubio added that "there's no doubt in our mind, and in my mind, and in the FBI's assessment that this is a group that the regime in Venezuela uses, not just to try to destabilize the United States, but to project power, like they did by murdering a member of the opposition in Chile."
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