Donald Trump appears to make Marco Rubio uncomfortable after reading private note out loud

Donald Trump just appeared to 'blindside' US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by reading a note out loud that was reportedly meant to be private.

On Friday (9 January), the US president, 79, met with oil executives at the White House in hopes of securing 100 billion dollars in investments to revive Venezuela’s ability to tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum fully.

Since the American military raid to capture former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, Trump has now portrayed the move as a newfound economic opportunity for the US, seizing tankers carrying Venezuelan oil.

He said the US is taking over the sales of 30 million to 50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil and will be controlling sales worldwide indefinitely.

The roundtable press conference took place on Friday afternoon with more than a dozen oil executives, including leaders from Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhilips.

And those watching along picked up on quite the awkward moment involving Rubio, 54.

Trump awkwardly put Marco Rubio on the spot during a televised press conference (SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

While the Republican leader was asking a question, the Secretary of State subtly handed him a written note.

Trump then announced: "Marco just gave me a note," before reading exactly what it said out loud, which was: " Go back to Chevron. They want to discuss something."

The world leader added: "Go ahead, I'm going back to Chevron Marco. Thank you, Marco," and patted him on the shoulder.

Rubio simply smiled awkwardly, and Trump seemed to realise his mistake once it was too late, as the Chevron representative questioned: “Was there a question, Mr President?”

Trump then turned to Rubio and put him on the spot, asking: "Go ahead, Marco, what are you saying here?”

One social media user shared a clip of the awkward moment on Twitter, writing: "Marco Rubio hands Trump a note that was meant to be private and then Trump reads it aloud."

Someone questioned: "Why would he read it aloud if it was meant to be private?"

While a second Twitter user added: "That's the crazy part. Any normal person handed a note in that situation would assume it's private otherwise he would have just said it."

"Bro Trumps is better than every movie you can watch at the moment. No one can tell what happens next," joked someone else.

A fourth person agreed: "why read it aloud in the first place" and a fifth quipped: "That was pretty funny. Then the pat on the back haha."

However, others argued that the note wasn't intended to be private at all, writing: "the note was so marco didn't have to interrupt the president" and "Who said it was meant to be private?"

While someone else penned: "He should whisper it into his ear next time if he has a secret to say."

Tyla has contacted the White House for comment.