Top United States diplomat Marco Rubio has laid out the foreign policy priorities under President Donald Trump, saying that the administration is focused on advancing Washington’s interests across the world.In a two-hour briefing to reporters on Friday, the US secretary of state reiterated Trump’s hard line against Venezuela and defended cuts to foreign aid programmes.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listRubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also expressed outrage against “mass migration” into the US, echoing Trump’s stance.In addition to his diplomatic duties, Rubio also serves as the White House national security adviser and the chief of the now-gutted US Agency for International Development (USAID).Here are five key takeaways from the state secretary’s wide-ranging media briefing:Maduro cannot be trustedRubio suggested that further talks with Venezuela would be futile because President Nicolas Maduro cannot be trusted to live up to his commitments.“He’s never kept any of the deals he’s made in the past, which makes it difficult to consider making one in the future,” Rubio said of Maduro.The top diplomat kept hammering accusations that Maduro has used the Venezuelan government to lead a campaign of narcotics trafficking and “terrorism”.Trump has made similar allegations, accusing the Venezuelan president of masterminding a flood of drugs and criminals into the US.He has also portrayed Maduro as a cartel leader, in charge of groups like the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Those assertions, however, have been contradicted by the US intelligence community, which found no evidence that Maduro contr …
