Hours after ordering a shocking land strike on Venezuela, President Donald Trump claimed that the US will “run” the South American nation until there’s a “safe, proper and judicious transition.”
Speaking to reporters during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on January 3, 2026, the President said he would “Make Venezuela Great Again.” He further revealed plans to control Venezuela’s oil reserves and “fix” the country’s “badly broken infrastructure.”
“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,” Trump said, per The Daily Beast.
“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 added.
President Trump on Venezuela: “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” pic.twitter.com/nUS9VSUkE7
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 3, 2026
While the President has not revealed how the US plans to run Venezuela, which holds around 17% of the world’s oil and has a population of about 30 million, he suggested that his national security officials would be involved, especially in regards to securing oil.
The group, which will reportedly include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, would work with the people of Venezuela to temporarily run the nation.
Trump further alleged that Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, spoke to the US Secretary of State and was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary.” However, Rodriguez publicly condemned Trump’s actions on TV and said Venezuela “will never again be slaves.”
The 79-year-old also added that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who recently dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to the US President, would also not be fit to lead the Latin American country.
He said, “She’s a very nice woman,” but “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” adding it would be “very tough” for her to run the nation.
When asked how his plan to run Venezuela falls under the “America First” policy, the President 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,” he added.
The United States carried out a large-scale attack on Venezuela overnight and captured President Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Trump says in a statement. pic.twitter.com/Oa7CvMdr6z
— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) January 3, 2026
Donald Trump’s comments came after the US launched a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela in the early hours of January 3. President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by US forces and “flown out of the country.”
They were later taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima and flown to the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba before being transferred to New York State. The pair was later taken to the New York City’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.
The Venezuelan President has long maintained that the US has been using its “war on drugs” agenda to throw him out of the country and take control of Venezuela’s vast resources, especially its oil reserves.
