President Donald Trump said the United States will run Venezuela until a “proper transition can take place.”
Addressing reporters at Mar a Lago, Trump defended Saturday’s military strikes that resulted in the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
“We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.
“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,” he said.
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 said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were being brought by boat to New York where they would 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.
Trump said there were some U.S. injuries sustained during the operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, but no fatalities.
“This is something that gee, I don’t know, is amazing and to have a few injuries but no death on our side was really amazing,” Trump said.
Trump said that he watched the “extremely complex” operation unfold “like I was watching a television show.”
While defending the operation, Trump said, “You know what, we did a great job with stopping drugs from coming into this country, and nobody’s been able to do it until we came along.
“But they should say, ‘great job.’ They could 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.”
