President Donald Trump announced the United States will “run” Venezuela until the time allows for a “judicious transition” just hours after American forces captured the country’s now-former dictator, Nicolás Maduro, in operation “Absolute Resolve.”
Trump made the announcement during a highly anticipated press conference at Mar-a-Lago while flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said.
He added that an eventual transition “has to be judicious because that’s what we’re all about.”
“We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It’s their homeland,” he said.
Trump emphasized that the risk of a Maduro-like figure gaining power now cannot be taken.
“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind…we’re not going to let that happen,” the president said.
He reiterated, “We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place… We‘re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
“We’re not afraid of boots on the ground,” Trump said at the presser.
Trump announced the capture of Maduro, who administration officials say was the head of the Cartel of the Suns, and his wife, Cilia Flores, early Saturday morning on Truth Social, and subsequently shared a picture of Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima in American custody.
The United States “carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” as part of the operation to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump said in his early morning Truth Social post. Trump’s message followed a series of explosions that took place in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
The president emphasized in his press conference that no U.S. forces were killed and no equipment was lost.
“Not a single American servicemember was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost. We had many helicopters, many planes, many, many people involved in that fight,” he said.