This is a developing story.
President Trump said the U.S. will run Venezuela until a “proper transition can take place,” as he defended Saturday’s military strikes that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
“We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place,” Trump told reporters from Mar a Lago. “So we’re going to stay until such time as we’re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
Trump’s remarks cap a dramatic few hours that began with reports of explosions in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, the scale of which became apparent only when the president said Maduro and his wife had been captured. Trump later told Fox & Friends that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being brought by boat to New York where they’d stand trial.
He said U.S. oil companies would head to Venezuela to operate in their oil reserves, and the military is set to attack again if necessary to secure the effort.
“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, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” he said.
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