U.S. President Donald Trump, who previously demanded a Nobel Peace Prize, has been making headlines for ordering raids in Venezuela, which eventually led to the “capture” of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Since then, Trump has been claiming that the U.S. would now run Venezuela until the situation there stabilizes.
However, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took no liking to the idea and slammed Trump for suggesting the same. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Jeffries said, “Donald Trump claims that he’s gonna run Venezuela. He’s done a terrible job running the United States of America.”
He then added, “Life hasn’t gotten better for the American people over the last year; life has gotten worse. He promised to lower the high cost of living. Costs haven’t gone down. They’ve gone up. The health care system is broken. Donald Trump refuses to do anything about it.”
He continued, “So, the notion that he’s going to run Venezuela and make life better for the Venezuelan people, of course, is belied by the facts as to what he’s done as president here in the United States of America.”
View this post on Instagram
Besides Trump’s claims about running Venezuela, another concerning aspect of these attacks is the fact that Congress was not notified about this, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio accepted on NBC’s Meet the Press.
However, he had his defense ready, as he said, “It wasn’t necessary because this is not an invasion. We didn’t occupy a country. This was an arrest operation. This was a law enforcement operation. He was arrested on the ground in Venezuela by FBI agents, read his rights, and removed from the country.”
Rubio also added, “You can’t congressionally notify something like this for two reasons. Number one, it will leak. It’s as simple as that. And number two, it’s an exigent circumstance. It’s an emergent thing. You don’t even know if you’re going to be able to do it.”
Jeffries, on the other hand, did not agree with this logic and thoroughly condemned the actions of the U.S. He said, “Well, there’s been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken, in terms of there being an imminent threat to the health, the safety, the well-being, the national security of the American people.” He then added, “This was not simply a counternarcotics operation — it was an act of war.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana also offered comments on the situation, saying, “Nicolas Maduro is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans after years of trafficking illegal drugs and violent cartel members into our country — crimes for which he’s been properly indicted in U.S. courts and an arrest warrant duly issued — and today he learned what accountability looks like” as CBS News reported.
The Latin American countries, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and Uruguay offered a joint statement that said, as reported by Reuters, “We express our deep concern and rejection of the military actions carried out unilaterally in the territory of Venezuela, which contravene fundamental principles of international law. Such actions set an extremely dangerous precedent for regional peace and security and for the rules-based international order, in addition to endangering the civilian population.”
9 months before the 2024 election, Trump said he wanted Venezuela to collapse so he can take them over for oil, and now he’s bombing Caracas on the first full moon of 2026. This was never about drugs. It was always about oil.pic.twitter.com/se7limfQDi
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) January 3, 2026
The statement further added, “We reiterate that the situation in Venezuela must be resolved exclusively by peaceful means, through dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in all its expressions, without external interference and in accordance with international law.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry also offered a statement, saying, “This morning, the United States committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela. This is deeply concerning and condemnable.”
With tensions rising between the U.S. and Venezuela, and different countries getting involved, it now remains to be seen how the Trump administration further handles the situation.
