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President Donald Trump predicted that U.S. involvement with Venezuela could be a years-long venture, rather than a short-term one.
In the early hours of Saturday, U.S. forces arrested dictator Nicolás Maduro in a daring overnight operation. Trump announced the move in a Truth Social post, saying that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been “captured and flown out of the country” after the U.S. “carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela.”
Following the operation in Venezuela, Trump said the U.S. would “run” the South American nation, without going into details about what that would entail.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said.
WHITE HOUSE SAYS US WILL SHAPE VENEZUELA’S FUTURE AS TRUMP EMBRACES ‘AMERICAN DOMINANCE’
President Donald Trump speaks as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth look on during a press conference following a U.S. strike on Venezuela where President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 3, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/File Photo/Reuters)
The president told The New York Times on Wednesday that he anticipated the U.S. would be running Venezuela and extracting oil from its reserves for years following the historic operation that ended with the arrest of Maduro. The deposition of Maduro sparked conversations about control over Venezuela’s oil. Venezuela holds more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, nearly quadruple those of the U.S.
Trump announced on Tuesday that Venezuela would be turning over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “high-quality,” sanctioned oil to the U.S. He said the oil will be sold at market price, and he will control the proceeds to ensure it is “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” The president also added that the oil would be transported…
