WATCH: Trump says U.S. will run Venezuela for foreseeable future

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

The U.S. will run Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” President Donald Trump said Saturday following the strikes that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

U.S. military used power from the “air, land and sea” to launch a “spectacular assault” in strikes on the Venezuelan capital, leading to the capture of VMaduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump said at a Saturday news conference.

Trump briefed the media at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Fla., claiming the Venezuelan military was “completely overwhelmed.”

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump told reporters.

The president said the U.S. remains ready to stage a second larger attack “if we needed to do so.” He added that initially his administration believed a second wave would be necessary, saying the first was “so successful, we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave.”

Trump said the “partnership” with Venezuela “will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent and safe, and it will also make the many people from Venezuela living in the United States extremely happy. They suffered. They suffered, so much was taken from them. They’re not going to suffer anymore.”

The president described Maduro as an “illegitimate dictator” and a “kingpin of a vast criminal network responsible for trafficking colossal amounts of deadly and illicit drugs into the United States, as alleged in the indictment.”

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and his wife would stand trial in the U.S. for their alleged crimes.

Trump reiterated that the Maduro regime flooded the U.S. with deadly drugs and criminals, which he claimed led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Along with drugs, Trump underscored Venezuela’s close ties with American adversaries, adding that the country had acquired “menacing offensive weapons that could threaten us,” indicating some of those weapons were used during the strike in defense of American forces.

“We will secure our borders. We will stop the terrorists, we will crash the cartels, and we will defend our citizens against all threats, foreign and domestic…This extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or danger American lives.”

Trump said the attack and apprehension of Maduro is making the Western Hemisphere safer.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reiterated the president’s warning to America’s adversaries.

“Our adversaries remain on notice,” Hegseth told reporters. “This is America first. This is peace through strength.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, described the military operation and the preparation to carry it out, which involved over 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere.

Caine said the operation had been months in the making, with intelligence studying every detail of Maduro’s life. He said the mission was set in early December.

Caine said the president ordered the mission to move forward on Friday at 10:46 p.m. Eastern time. He said aircraft were launched from 20 different land and sea bases across the Western Hemisphere.

The general said that Maduro and his wife “gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice,” assisted by the U.S. military, then taken to the USS Iwo Jima.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Maduro had been indicted in 2020 and that he is “not the legitimate president of Venezuela” – underscoring that the Biden administration also didn’t recognize him, nor did the European Union.

Rubio repeated claims made by Vice President JD Vance that Maduro had been given multiple opportunities to avoid the outcome.

Rubio defended the decision not to notify Congress before the strike, describing it as “largely a law enforcement function. Remember, at the end of the day, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice, and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job.”

The president was asked who would be running Venezuela. He said some of those people who would be running things are “right behind [him].”

When asked how long the U.S. plans to run Venezuela, he said he would like to do it quickly, although he noted it would “take a period of time.” He said the U.S. will be rebuilding the country, including its infrastructure, which he claims has been in disrepair.

Trump was asked if running Venezuela was part of the America First agenda, which he defended, saying that “we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves.”

The president claimed running Venezuela won’t cost American taxpayers anything, because the oil companies will be paying for it, and that the oil companies will be reimbursing the United States.

Trump said that he told Maduro that he needed to surrender during their last conversation, which he believed he was close to doing, “but now he wished he did.”

The president was also asked about boots on the ground. Trump said there would be few on the ground, but some would be needed.

Trump ended the press conference by being asked if he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding Maduro. Trump said Maduro didn’t come up when he last talked to Putin. However, he said he isn’t “thrilled with Putin. He’s lilling too many people.”