President Donald Trump has revealed that the United States is going to take over Venezuela after capturing its autocratic leader Nicolas Maduro.
In a wild press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump also revealed plans to seize the country’s oil reserves and warned “we’re not afraid to have boots on the ground” as part of the takeover.
The president looked exhausted and slurred his words as he sought to explain why he ordered the attack. At times, his eyes appeared to close after he handed over the podium to his acolytes.
Declaring that he was going to “Make Venezuela Great Again,” he told reporters that the U.S. would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
He added: “As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place.”
“We’re going to have our very large United States put up companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, to go in, spend billions of dollars to fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.
The comments—made by a president who came to office largely opposed to prolonged overseas conflicts—are likely to spark a backlash from parts of Trump’s “America First” MAGA base.
But Trump said the move was justified because Maduro was an illegitimate leader whose nation had “stolen” America’s oil.
His comments came hours after Maduro and his wife were captured overnight as strikes took place in the capital of Caracas.
Hours later, the president posted a photo of the leader on board the USS Iwo Jima in handcuffs and a blindfold.
The U.S. has been ramping up the pressure on the country for months, assembling a massive military presence in the Caribbean, intercepting two Venezuelan oil tankers, and killing dozens of people in lethal strikes on alleged drug boats.
But experts have long believed that escalating pressure from the U.S came down to an oil-based power grab.
The president also did not go to Congress to authorize his strike, as he was meant to do, which has enraged Democrats.
“This is insane. What the hell are we doing?” Congressman Seth Moulton told CNN.
“We’ve got a lot of problems in America today, and invading, occupying, running Venezuela does not solve any of them. This is illegal, unjustified, it’s not in our national interest. And there seems to be no plan whatsover for what happens next.”
It is not exactly clear how the U.S plans to run Venezuela, which has a population of about 30 million and holds about 17 per cent of the world’s oil.
Trump suggested his national security officials would be involved—namely Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine—particularly with respect to securing oil.
The group would work with the people of Venezuela to run Venezuela for this uncertain period of time, Trump claimed, but did not elaborate on who those Venezuelans would be.
He also claimed Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, had spoken to Rubio and told him she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary.” But hours earlier, Rodríguez denounced the U.S. operation on state television.
Trump added that it would be “very tough” for Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado - who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize and dedicated it to Trump - to lead the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” he said, but “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Asked how running Venezuela was “America First,” Trump replied: “Because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability, and we want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy. It’s very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves to be back in the world.”
But MAGA firebrand and former Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene hit out at the intervention, writing on X: “Regime change, funding foreign wars, and American’s tax dollars being consistently funneled to foreign causes, foreigners both home and abroad, and foreign governments while Americans are consistently facing increasing cost of living, housing, healthcare, and learn about scams and fraud of their tax dollars is what has most Americans enraged.”
Others, including Elon Musk, praised the president.
“Congratulations, President Trump!,” he wrote. “This is a win for the world and a clear message to evil dictators everywhere.”
Maduro was taken into U.S. custody with his wife, Cilia Flores, just hours after reports of multiple explosions ringing out across Caracas surfaced overnight on Saturday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the pair will face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, among other charges.
Republican Thomas Massie wrote on X: “If this action were constitutionally sound, the Attorney General wouldn’t be tweeting that they’ve arrested the President of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law.”
