‘We are going to run the country’: Trump says U.S. will govern Venezuela until there’s a ‘proper transition’

By NBC News' Alexandra Marquez, Tom Winter, and Chloe Atkins

(NBC) - President Donald Trump on Saturday said that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela following a U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to new leadership, Trump said during a press conference in Florida.

The U.S. president added that he didn’t want a new leader to take over in the wake of Maduro’s capture that would result in “the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”

“So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about,” Trump added. “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”

Trump’s remarks came after he announced early Saturday morning in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. had conducted strikes on Venezuela and captured Maduro and Flores.

In a phone interview with Fox News, the president confirmed that the Venezuelan president and first lady were en route to New York, where he said Maduro had been indicted. The Venezuelan leader could appear in court as early as Monday.

The U.S. action was a stunning culmination of months of increased threats from Trump and his administration toward the Venezuelan leader. Carried out without congressional authorization, it immediately received pushback and questions from lawmakers. And it now leaves the future of Venezuela uncertain.

In his remarks, Trump did not clarify what it would mean for the U.S. to “run” Venezuela but said that U.S. oil companies were prepared to make major investments in the country.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he said.

The U.S. president added that the U.S. military was prepared to strike Venezuela again if needed.

“We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so. So we were prepared to do a second wave if we need to do so,” Trump added.

After questions from reporters about whether the U.S. running Venezuela will involve military personnel on the ground, the president said, "We’re not afraid of boots on the ground."

"We don’t mind saying it, but we’re going to make sure that that country is run properly. We’re not doing this in vain," he added.

Trump said that it wouldn't cost the U.S. anything to "run" Venezuela, pointing to the country's oil production.

"It won’t cost us anything, because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial," Trump said.

Later, he added to reporters, "We’re going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela, and it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country."

Minutes before he spoke, Trump posted on Truth Social a photo appearing to show Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima wearing an apparent blindfold and holding a bottle of water. Trump also posted a video of the U.S. strikes on Venezuela set to the song “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The military operation, which officials said had been planned for months and took several hours, is the latest move in the Trump administration’s agenda to crack down on drugs entering the U.S. It comes just weeks before the first anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration.In a post on X, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Venezuelan leader would “face the full wrath” of the U.S. justice system.

The charges against Maduro, in an indictment unsealed Saturday, include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

In the indictment, federal prosecutors alleged that Maduro “is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

They also allege that Maduro and other members of the Venezuelan government sold passports, provided protection and enabled the sale and transportation of hundreds of tons of illegal drugs through their ports, including drugs from several recognized Mexican drug cartels.

In his remarks, Trump said he had seen the evidence against Maduro that was gathered for the indictment, and he blamed the Venezuelan leader for drug trafficking and crime in the U.S.

“I’ve seen what we have. It’s both horrible and breathtaking that something like this could have been allowed to take place for many years after his term as president of Venezuela expired,” the U.S. president said. “Maduro remained in power and waged a ceaseless campaign of violence, terror and subversion against the United States of America, threatening not only our people, but the stability of the entire region.”

Maduro was first indicted, alongside 14 others in 2020, during Trump’s first administration, in the Southern District of New York. The Venezuelan leader first came to power in 2013 and was sworn in to a third term as president one year ago, despite evidence that Maduro did not win the preceding presidential election.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the planning told NBC News on Saturday that the U.S. president approved the military and law enforcement actions in Venezuela more than a week ago.

Trump told Fox News in the phone interview that the strike was slated to happen four days ago, “but the weather was not perfect.”

“We had, you know, very good, a little bit few more clouds than we thought, but it was good,” he added. “We waited four days. We were going to do this four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, and then all of a sudden it opened up, and we said go.”

In remarks Saturday after Trump’s, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine confirmed that military forces waited over a week for the weather to clear up.

“Weather in Venezuela is always a factor this time of the year, and over the weeks through Christmas and New Year’s, the men and women of the United States military sat ready, patiently waiting for the right triggers to be met and the president to order us into action,” Caine told reporters.

“Last night, the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world could maneuver through,” he added.

Caine said that Trump gave the order to go at 10:46 p.m. ET on Friday night and military forces arrived at Maduro’s compound by 1:01 a.m. ET on Saturday morning. By 3:29 a.m. on Saturday morning, Caine said, the military forces were back over water with Maduro and Flores.

Vice President JD Vance was also involved in the military operations, according to a spokesperson.

The vice president "joined several late night meetings via secure video conference with National Security principals leading up to the operation," the spokesperson said.

And, Vance "briefly met" with the president in West Palm Beach on Friday to discuss the strikes.

In a statement after the strikes, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, celebrated, writing, "Venezuelans, the hour of freedom has arrived."

For months, Trump has hinted at taking action in Venezuela, telling NBC News last month, “I don’t rule it out,” when asked about going to war with Venezuela.

Days before that interview, the U.S. president announced a blockade of all “sanctioned” oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

Last month, the U.S. also seized two oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela and the U.S. military continued its strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea.

On Friday, just a day before he was captured, Maduro said in an interview on Venezuelan state television that he would be open to working with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking.

“The U.S. government knows, because we’ve told many of their spokespeople, that if they want to seriously discuss an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we’re ready,” the Venezuelan president said.

In an interview with Politico in early December, Trump reiterated claims that Maduro was overseeing a campaign to send drug dealers and criminals to the U.S. illegally and blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for allegedly allowing them in.

“[Maduro] sent us millions of people, many from prisons, many drug dealers, drug lords, uh, mental institution ... people in mental institutions. He sent them into our country, where we have a ... where we had a very stupid president,” Trump said at the time.

On Saturday morning, Democratic lawmakers criticized the Trump administration for launching strikes on Venezuela, specifically pointing to the fact that the White House did not seek approval from Congress for the military action.

“Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, but I have seen no evidence that his presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without Congressional authorization,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement Saturday.

In a separate statement, Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said, “Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”

And in a post on X, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., wrote, “Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., slammed the military operation in a post on X, writing, “Trump’s actions are completely illegal and unconstitutional. His apparent justification of these acts as a mere law enforcement action is laughable and ignores the reality of the regime change he has just conducted without congressional authorization. This grave abuse of power that has put American troops in harm’s way and threatens wider conflict in the region.”

In the phone interview on Fox News late Saturday morning, Trump pushed back on Democrats’ criticism, calling them, “weak, stupid people.”

“As far as last night is concerned, it was really genius. What they did is genius, and the Democrats, maybe they’ll take a shot, you know? They’ll take a shot. All they do is complain,” the president added. “They should say, ‘You know what, we did a great job.’ ... They do say, ‘Oh, gee, maybe it’s not constitutional.’ You know, the same old stuff that we’ve been hearing for years and years and years.”

During the press conference in Florida, Secretary of State Marco Rubio added, “This is not the kind of mission that you do congressional notification.”

“On a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night, we watch them monitor that for a number of days. So it’s just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, ‘Hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.’”

Trump added that congressional leaders were not notified in part because “Congress has a tendency to leak.”

Some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill defended his decision to execute the strikes and capture Maduro without congressional authorization.

“Today’s military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote in a post on X.

The Trump administration informed top lawmakers on the Senate and House intelligence committees about the U.S. military action to capture Maduro after the operation was underway, three sources with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The Republican chairs and the Democratic ranking members on the congressional intelligence committees were notified about the operation, the sources said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement Saturday that he had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and is expecting further briefings next week when the Senate returns from the holiday recess.

“I spoke to Secretary Rubio early this morning, and I look forward to receiving further briefings from the administration on this operation as part of its comprehensive counternarcotics strategy when the Senate returns to Washington next week,” Thune said.

In early November, a bipartisan group of senators voted in favor of a measure that would have required congressional approval for all future military action by the Trump administration in Venezuela. The measure fell short of the 50 votes needed for passage.

The effort behind that measure came after the Trump administration began to publicize declassified videos of the military conducting kinetic strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea.

One of those strikes, conducted in early September, faced renewed scrutiny later last year after reports emerged that it was a “double tap” strike in which a second strike was conducted after the first strike yielded survivors.

In early December, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the “double tap” strike was conducted in the “fog of war“ and that he “didn’t personally see survivors,” after the first strike.

In October, Trump said the strikes were part of his administration’s fight against drug cartels but stopped short of saying he’d need a declaration of war to continue striking the boats.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK, we’re gonna kill them. You know, they’re gonna be like, dead,” he said at the White House at the time.

Trump spoke about these claims again on Saturday, telling reporters in Florida, “The Maduro regime emptied out their prisons, sent their worst and most violent monsters into the United States to steal American lives, and they came from mental institutions and insane asylums. They came from prisons and jails.”

In October, the U.S. president confirmed that he had authorized covert action by the CIA in Venezuela, but did not specify what the action was.

A source with knowledge of the matter said Saturday that the CIA had a small, clandestine team on the ground in Venezuela starting in August that was able to provide “extraordinary insight” into Maduro’s movements, which made capturing him “seamless.”

Near the end of his press conference today, Trump called the situation in Cuba "similar" to that of Venezuela, responding to a question about potential military involvement with that nation.

"Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years," he said.

The president added, "I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation, and we want to help the people. It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba."

Rubio also spoke about the island nation, adding, "If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned.