Trump says US will 'run' Venezuela until a political transition is secured

President Donald Trump announced Saturday at Mar-a-Lago in Florida that the United States will temporarily assume the administration of Venezuela after a successful operation that led to the capture of former dictator Nicolás Maduro.

According to the U.S. president, the goal is to ensure a "safe, proper and judicious" political transition in Venezuela. The statement was made during a press conference in which the president defended the measure against Cártel de los Soles and Maduro as exceptional.

"We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump said. He added: "We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and repeat the same situation that we had for many years."

As Trump explained, the decision responds to the need to avoid a power vacuum and to prevent the country from falling back under structures that Washington considers criminal. Therefore, Trump confirmed that the United States will deploy troops in Venezuelan territory to guarantee control, preserve internal order and secure strategic facilities during the transition period.

Trump, in addition, detailed that the American delegation will be in charge of a team headed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will act in coordination with Venezuelan political actors, including some from the regime who are willing to collaborate. "We will run it properly, we will run it professionally," the president said, stressing that the White House is not seeking an indefinite occupation, but will be in the country for a while.

According to him, the administration will remain in the hands of a board appointed by his government, which will operate while the necessary political conditions for a transfer of power are established.

The president said that the ultimate goal is to allow Venezuela to regain institutional stability and move towards a real democratic process. "We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela," Trump said, adding that this goal includes "many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It’s their homeland."

The president assured that Venezuelans will be able to feel free again in their homeland, affirming that Washington will guarantee security and stability during the transition.

During the press conference, Trump also confirmed that Delcy Rodríguez, vice president of the regime and a central figure of power in Caracas, "is willing to collaborate" with the transition process. According to the president, Rodríguez did not have many alternatives and there are now ongoing talks to facilitate the temporary administration of the country, in a context in which Washington continues to consider the government that emerged from the 2024 election as illegitimate and stolen from candidate Edmundo González, backed by opposition leader María Corina Machado.

However, in the current context, the U.S. is accepting cooperation that will allow for an orderly exit, Trump commented.

The statements came after months of growing political-military tension between Washington and Caracas, which finally exploded on Saturday with the operation that led to the capture of Maduro. Trump said it was an action executed with "overwhelming U.S. military power, from air, land and sea," According to the president, "No other nation in the world could pull off an operation like this."

The president also made it clear that the intervention had no human costs for the United States. "Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of equipment was lost," said Trump, who confirmed that he followed the operation live and described that Venezuelan forces were "completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated."

In parallel, he warned that the United States is prepared to capture or attack officials who refuse to yield and remain loyal to Maduro, considering that any attempt at resistance will be treated as a direct threat to the transition process. The message appeared to be directed at the rest of the regime's leadership that did not negotiate a clean exit. Diosdado Cabello, the regime's No. 2, is also under indictment for drug trafficking in the U.S., as is General Vladimir Padrino López. Both men condemned the attack in Venezuelan territory. 

On the political and economic front, Trump announced that U.S. companies will invest millions of dollars to rebuild Venezuelan infrastructure, recover the oil industry and restore the country's productive capacity, with the aim of guaranteeing the well-being of the population after years of economic collapse and a socialist dictatorship that provoked the largest migratory exodus in the world.