by Misty Severi
One of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s top advisers, who helped advise him on Venezuelan and Cuban policies, announced Tuesday that he is leaving the State Department after a year and a half there.
State Department Director of Policy Planning Jeremy Lewin said he is leaving the administration for the private sector and described working for President Trump as “the privilege of a lifetime.”
“President Trump has put decades of post-Cold War malaise behind us—permanently transforming U.S. foreign policy to put Americans first, keep them safe, and drive peace and shared prosperity in key regions,” Lewin posted on X. “I look forward to supporting the Administration as a private citizen.”
Lewin (pictured above) played critical roles in shaping the administration’s foreign policy, particularly in normalizing relations between the U.S. and Venezuela after Nicolas Maduro’s ousting in January, according to Axios.
María Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela, returned to the country for the first time in almost a year. Rubo told reporters this week that acting Venezuela President Delcy Rodríguez said she was welcome to return.
“Weeks and weeks ago, we spoke to the interim authorities and just said, ‘Look, our expectation is that she’s a Venezuelan; she belongs in her country. That’s the country she’s from. She should be allowed to return. She should be allowed to return unperturbed,’” he said, according to The Associated Press.
The director, who is getting married soon, also led the bilateral U.S.-Cuba talks in Havana with Raul Castro’s grandson, Raulito Castro, and helped implement the State Department’s sanctions against the island’s government.
Lewin additionally was instrumental in the Department of Government Efficiency and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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Misty Severi is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
Background Photo “State Department Building” by AgnosticPreachersKid. CC BY-SA 3.0.
