Trump says US is now in control of Venezuela situation after developments

President Donald Trump said the United States was now in control of Venezuela after the arrest of longtime leader Nicolás Maduro, outlining a plan to run the country, rebuild its economy and delay elections until what he described as a recovery was underway.

Trump made the remarks during a meeting with reporters as questions mounted over who would govern Venezuela after the fall of the United States. military operation led to Maduro’s arrest early Saturday.

“Don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it will be very controversial,” Trump told a reporter.

He was then asked to clarify, to which Trump replied: “That means we are in charge. »

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Trump was also asked if he had spoken directly with Venezuela’s new vice president sworn in Delcy Rodríguez in a context of uncertainty about the functioning of the new government and the role that the United States plays.

Although Trump said he had not spoken personally with Rodríguez, he suggested that coordination was already underway between U.S. officials and the new leadership.

During the battle, Trump repeatedly described Venezuela as a failed state that cannot immediately transition to democratic rule, arguing that the country’s infrastructure and economy had been devastated by years of mismanagement.

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He compared Venezuela’s collapse to what he said would have happened to the United States if it had lost the election, using the comparison to emphasize his argument for intervention.

“We have to do one thing in Venezuela. Bring it back. It’s a dead country right now,” Trump said. “It’s a country that, frankly, we would have been if I had lost the election. We would have been Venezuela on steroids.”

Trump said Venezuela’s reconstruction would focus on restore its oil industrywhich he said had been withdrawn in the United States under previous administrations, leaving infrastructure in ruins and production crippled.

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He emphasized that U.S. oil companies — not U.S. taxpayers — would fund the rebuild, while the U.S. would oversee the broader recovery.

“The oil companies are going to come in and rebuild this system. They’re going to spend billions of dollars, they’re going to take the oil out of the ground, and we take back what they sell,” Trump said. “Remember, they stole our property. It was the greatest theft in the history of America. No one has ever stolen our property like them. They took our oil. They took the infrastructure. And all of that infrastructure is rotten and dilapidated.”

Trump said the elections will not take place until the country is stabilized, arguing that rushing a vote in a collapsed state would repeat past failures.

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He said the United States would handle Venezuela’s recovery processnotably by combating inflation, loss of income and the collapse of infrastructure.

“We’re going to handle everything,” Trump said. “We will manage it, fix it. We will have elections at the right time.”

When asked whether the Venezuela operation was motivated by oil interests or amounted to regime change, Trump rejected both characterizations and instead presented the effort as part of a broader security doctrine.

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He linked the intervention to long-standing U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere, citing historical precedent.

“This is about peace on Earth,” Trump said. “We have to have peace, this is our hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it was implemented.”

Trump later criticized previous presidents for failing to enforce this doctrine, arguing that his administration had reinstated it as a guiding principle.

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“And other presidents, many of them, have lost sight of that,” Trump added. “I didn’t. I didn’t lose sight of it. But it really is. It’s peace on Earth.”

Trump said the U.S. role in Venezuela would ultimately focus on rebuilding the country while caring for displaced Venezuelans by years of economic collapse.

He added that this includes Venezuelans currently living in the United States, many of whom have been forced to flee.

“We are going to cherish a country,” Trump said. “We are going to take care, most importantly, of the people, including Venezuelans who live in our country and who have been forced to leave their country, and they will be very well taken care of.”

Trump made clear that his comments on Venezuela were part of a broader foreign policy perspective, using the group to issue warnings about instability elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere and abroad. He suggested that the United States was prepared to respond forcefully to threats that he said could endanger American security interests.

Trump has singled out Colombia, describing it as a growing security problem and accusing its leaders of enabling large-scale drug trafficking into the United States.

“Colombia is also very sick, run by a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States, and he’s not going to do that for very long,” Trump said.

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Asked if that meant U.S. action, Trump said, “That sounds good to me.”

Trump also addressed the ongoing protests in Iran, warning that the United States is closely monitoring the situation and would respond if the Iranian government resorts to violence against protesters.

“We are monitoring this very closely,” he said. “If they start killing people like they have done in the past, I think they will be hit very hard by the United States.”