Trump says US will 'run' Venezuela until 'safe transition can take place'

US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will run Venezuela until a "safe, proper, and judicious transition" can take place, following an overnight military operation that captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

"We're going to run the country until we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition," Trump said during a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. "We can't take a chance when somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind."

The operation took place in the capital, Caracas, in what Trump described as the "dead of night," with the city's lights largely turned off "due to a certain expertise that we have." 

Trump said Maduro and his forces "were waiting for us" in "what's called a ready position,” but "were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated."

The US president described the military action as "one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and confidence in American history," comparing it to other operations, including "the attack on Soleimani, the attack on al-Baghdadi, and the obliteration and decimation of the Iran nuclear" facilities in an operation known as "Midnight Hammer."

"No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday," Trump said. "All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military, working with US law enforcement, successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark, and it was deadly."

Trump revealed he watched the entire operation unfold. "If you had seen what I saw last night, you would have been very impressed," he said. "It was an incredible thing to see."

The president said the operation involved extensive military assets. "We had many helicopters, many planes, many, many people involved in that fight," he said, adding that no American casualties occurred, though some service members were injured when a helicopter was hit during the attack.

"Not a single American service member was killed, and not a single piece of American equipment was lost," Trump stated.

Trump posted a photo on his Truth Social platform showing Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima. The Venezuelan leader is expected to briefly stop at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to New York.

The president confirmed that Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug and weapons charges. He said they are currently on a ship heading to New York, with a final decision to be made between New York and Miami or Florida, where they will face charges in Manhattan federal court.

Trump said the military was prepared to launch "a second wave, a much bigger wave" if necessary. "We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it's probably not," he said. "The first attack was so successful, we probably don't have to do a second."

The president linked Maduro to drug trafficking, stating that "97% of the drugs coming in by sea" come mainly from Venezuela, with "each boat killing an average of 25,000 people." 

He also accused Maduro of sending "savage and murderous gangs, including the bloodthirsty prison gang Tren de Aragua, to terrorise American communities nationwide," referencing incidents in Colorado where "they took over apartment complexes."

Trump mentioned 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungarry from Houston, who he said was "kidnapped and murdered" by members of the Venezuelan gang and "left dead under a bridge."

The president claimed that Maduro's regime "emptied their prisons, sent their worst, most violent monsters into the United States," including people from "mental institutions and insane asylums."

Trump also announced that the US would send large American oil companies to Venezuela. "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," he said.

He claimed that Venezuela had "unilaterally seized South American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars," calling it "one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country."

"We built Venezuela's oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us," Trump said. "They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it."

The president also mentioned recent domestic security achievements, stating that Washington, D.C., which "was one of the most unsafe cities anywhere in the world," now has "no crime" and "we haven't had a killing" in "six, seven months." He said crime in Memphis, Tennessee, is "down 77%" and in New Orleans, it's "almost nothing already after two and a half weeks."

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the operation at the press conference. "Finally, a commander in chief the world respects," he said, adding that "no other country on planet Earth" could have carried out such an operation. "This is America first. This is peace through strength."
Trump warned that the US embargo on Venezuelan oil "remains in full effect" and that "the American armada remains poised in position." 

"What happens to Maduro can happen to them, and it will happen to them, if they aren't fair to their people," he said, addressing other Venezuelan political and military figures.

The president invoked the Monroe Doctrine, saying "we superseded it by a lot" with what he called "the Trump Doctrine." "Our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, will never be questioned again," he said.

Whilst answering Journalist questions present in Florida, he said that he will be working with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and others in a special team alongside the Vice President of Venezuela, who he claimed is ready to do what is right to make "Venezuela great again."