THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Trump offered few details about how the United States would oversee Venezuela and for how long, but said its oil industry would “make a lot of money” under U.S. leadership. President Nicolás Maduro and his wife were being taken to New York to stand trial on drug and weapons charges.
President Trump said on Saturday that the United States had captured the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and was taking him to New York to face criminal charges, the stunning culmination of a monthslong campaign by his administration to oust the authoritarian leader. The United States would “run” the country until a proper transition of power could be arranged, the president said hours later, raising the prospect of an open-ended commitment.
Mr. Trump offered few details about how the United States would oversee Venezuela, saying only that an unspecified “group” would do so. It was not clear whether that would involve an occupying military force, although Mr. Trump said he was not afraid of “boots on the ground.”
Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and told him she was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. But Ms. Rodríguez earlier denounced the U.S. operation on state television, calling it a “brutal attack.”
While Mr. Trump said little about how the United States would be “running” Venezuela, he insisted it “won’t cost us anything” because American oil companies would rebuild the energy infrastructure in Venezuela, which holds vast reserves of oil. » | Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager | Anatoly Kurmanaev reported from Venezuela, and Tyler Pager from West Palm Beach, Fla. | Saturday, Jan 3, 2026
So America is going to run Venezuela, eh? What a sick joke! America can't run its own country yet, still less run Venezuela as well. If Trump could run America properly, there wouldn't be millions upon millions of Americans homeless, and there wouldn't be millions upon millions of Americans unable to afford healthcare or, in many cases, enough groceries for adequate nutrition without having to go to foodbanks. It would be better for Trump to learn how to run his own country first, before embarking on these imperialist, colonising adventures. — © Mark Alexander
