Trump says US now in control of Venezuela situation after developments
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President Donald Trump said the United States was now in control of Venezuela following the arrest of longtime leader Nicolás Maduro, outlining a plan to govern the country, rebuild its economy and postpone elections until what he called a recovery.
Trump made the remarks during a banter with reporters at a time when questions are mounting about who will rule Venezuela after a U.S. military operation led to Maduro’s arrest early Saturday.
“Don’t ask me who’s responsible because I’m going to give you an answer and it’s going to be very controversial,” Trump told a reporter.
When asked for a statement later, Trump replied, “That means the responsibility is on us.”
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Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez addresses the media in Caracas, Venezuela, on March 10, 2025. (Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
Trump was also asked if he had spoken directly with Venezuela’s newly sworn-in Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, due to uncertainty about how the new government operates and what role the United States plays.
Although Trump said he had not met with Rodríguez personally, he suggested that coordination was already underway between U.S. officials and the new leadership.
During the gig, Trump repeatedly portrayed Venezuela as a failed state unable to immediately transition to democratic rule, arguing that the country’s infrastructure and economy were devastated by years of mismanagement.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro greets his supporters at a rally in Caracas on December 1, 2025. (Pedro Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He compared Venezuela’s collapse to what he claimed would happen if the United States lost the election, and used this comparison to underscore his argument for intervention.
“We have to do only one thing in Venezuela. We have to bring it back. This is a dead country right now,” Trump said. “Frankly, it’s the country we would have been if I had lost the election. If we had been on steroids, we would have been Venezuela.”
Trump said Venezuela’s reconstruction will focus on revitalizing the oil industry, which was taken away from the United States under previous governments, where infrastructure has decayed and production has been disrupted.
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A coast guard boat of the Venezuelan Navy operates off the Caribbean coast on September 11, 2025. (Juan Carlos Hernandez/Reuters)
He emphasized that American oil companies, not US taxpayers, would fund the reconstruction, while the US would oversee the broader recovery.
“Oil companies are going to come in and rebuild this system. They’re going to spend billions of dollars, they’re going to get the oil out of the ground, and we’re going to buy back what they sold,” Trump said. “Remember, they stole our property. This was the biggest theft in the history of America. Nobody stole our property like they did. They took away our oil. They took away the infrastructure. And all that infrastructure is rotten and rotten.”
Trump said elections would not be held until the country stabilized and argued that rushing the vote in a collapsed state would be a repeat of past failures.
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
He said the United States would manage Venezuela’s recovery, including combating inflation, loss of income and infrastructure collapse.
“We will manage everything,” Trump said. “We will make this work, we will fix it. We will make an election at the right time.”
When asked whether the operation in Venezuela was motivated by oil interests or amounted to regime change, Trump rejected both characterizations and instead portrayed the effort as part of a broader security doctrine.
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President Donald Trump shared a photo of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was captured on the USS Iwo Jima ship after the attack on Venezuela on Saturday, January 3, 2026. (Donald Trump via Truth Social)
He invoked historical precedent, attributing the intervention to longstanding U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere.
“This is about peace in the world,” Trump said. “You have to have peace, this is our hemisphere. It was very important when the Monroe Doctrine was made.”
Trump criticized past presidents for failing to implement the doctrine, arguing that his administration restored it as a guiding principle.
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“And most other presidents have missed that,” Trump added. “I haven’t lost it. I haven’t lost my sight. But it really is. This is peace on Earth.”
Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrive at the West 30th Street Heliport for the arrival of captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in New York on Saturday, January 3, 2026. (Stefan Jeremiah/AP Photo)
Trump said the U.S. role in Venezuela will ultimately focus on rebuilding the country while caring for Venezuelans displaced by years of economic collapse.
Among them are Venezuelans now living in the United States, many of whom they say were forced to flee.
“We will value a country,” Trump said. “More importantly, we will take care of the people living in our country, including Venezuelans who have had to leave their country, and they will be very well cared for.”
Trump made clear that the comments about Venezuela were part of a broader foreign policy outlook, using the joke to warn of instability elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere and abroad. He suggested that the United States was ready to respond forcefully to threats that he said could endanger American security interests.
Trump singled out Colombia, describing the country as a growing security problem and accusing its leadership of enabling large-scale drug smuggling into the United States.
“Colombia is also very sick, it’s run by a sick man who likes to produce cocaine and sell it to the United States, and he won’t be able to do that for a very long time,” Trump said.
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Asked if this meant US action, Trump replied: “Sounds good to me.”
Trump also touched upon the ongoing protests in Iran, saying that the United States is closely monitoring the situation and will respond if the Iranian government uses violence against demonstrators.
“We’re watching very closely,” he said. “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they will be hit very hard by the United States.”
