Trump says US will 'run' Venezuela after Maduro ouster

The US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas took months of planning, General Dan Caine said.

"The word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise  it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere," Caine told a joint news conference with President Donald Trump.

Speaking earlier at the same news conference, Trump said he observed the operation at his Mar-a-Lago estate, "literally like I was watching a television show."

He described it as a very complex maneuver and praised the units involved: "If you would have seen the speed, the violence ... it was an amazing thing."

Trump called it an "extremely successful operation," adding that it "should serve as a warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives."

President Donald Trump announced that major US oil companies will enter Venezuela following the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro.

Speaking at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, he said they would "spend billions of dollars."

"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," Trump told a press conference.

After the president's address, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Trump was "deadly serious about getting back oil that was stolen from us."

President Donald Trump has shared an image on his Truth social feed that he says shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in custody aboard the US warship USS Iwo Jima.

Trump said the Venezuelan leader is en route to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.

President Donald Trump said the United States would run Venezuela after it "captured" President Nicolas Maduro, as it launched surprise airstrikes on multiple targets in the country.

"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he said.

"We are there now...we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place," he said a news conference.

He claimed the US presence was already in place, though there were no immediate signs that the they were running the country.

A travel warning for the whole of Venezuela has been issued by the German Foreign Ministry and Germans in the country have been told to stay put in a safe spot.

The decision came after a crisis meeting was held. The ministry said it was "in close contact" with the embassy in Caracas.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the German government was watching the situation in the country.

"We call on all parties not to do anything that could lead to an intensification of the situation, and to look for ways to find a political settlement," the spokesperson said.

Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said that her opposition colleague Edmundo Gonzalez should assume the presidency.

Gonzalez competed against Nicolas Maduro in the latest 2024 race and was declared the true winner of the election by the opposition and international observers, as well as Washington.

Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, said in a post on X that the opposition will restore order in the country and free political prisoners.

She argued that Maduro was removed from power after refusing a negotiated exit and stressed it was time for "popular sovereignty and national sovereignty" to rule Venezuela.

Gonzalez also said the opposition was ready for Venezuela's "reconstruction."

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Moscow has "strongly" urged Washington to release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

The Russian Foreign Ministry sent its plea in a statement in which it described Maduro as the "legally elected president of a sovereign country."

The Foreign Ministry called for creating conditions to resolve issues between the US and Venezuela through dialogue.

Maduro's 2024 election win was widely contested, with the Venezuelan opposition and the US declaring its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner.

France on Saturday was critical of the US military strikes on Venezuela which led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, warning of "serious consequences to global security."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the strikes undermined international law, stressing Paris' stance that no solution to a country's crisis can be imposed from the outside.

While Barrot said that Maduro "gravely violated" the rights of Venezuelans, he stressed that the military operation that led to his capture "contravenes the principle of non-use of force, which underpins international law."

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply alarmed" by the latest escalation in Venezuela which peaked with the US strikes.

In a statement delivered by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Guterres warned that the US action has "potential worrying implications for the region."

"Independently of the situation in Venezuela, these developments constitute a dangerous precedent," Guterres said, stressing the importance of fully respecting international law, including the UN Charter.

"He’s deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected," Dujarric said.

Guterres called on all actors in Venezuela to engage in "inclusive dialogue."

After capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and bringing him to the US to face an indictment, Washington intends to be "involved" in Venezuela's future as well as the oil-rich country's oil industry, US President Donald Trump said.

"We can't take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off," Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News, on the topic of Venezuela's future.

He added, touching upon Venezuela's oil, that the US has "the greatest oil companies in the ‍world, the biggest, the greatest, ​and we're going to be ⁠very ​much involved in it."

The US president said Maduro was captured from a highly guarded "fortress," adding that no deaths were reported on the US side.

"You know, that we had nobody killed was amazing," he said, adding that a "couple of guys were hit, but they came back and they're supposed to be in pretty good shape."

Meanwhile, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernandez told The Associated Press that the Venezuelan president and his wife were at their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation when they were captured.

"That's where they bombed," he said. "And, there, they carried out what we could call a kidnapping of the president and the first lady of the country."

Maduro and his wife will be flown to New York, where they have been indicted, Trump said.

"They're on a ship but they'll be heading into New York. The helicopters took them out," Trump told Fox News

Scott Lucas, a professor of American studies at University College Dublin, told DW US President Donald Trump's ultimate goal in Venezuela is "regime change."

"This is an attempt by the Trump administration to exert its power and to try to topple this government in the process," he said of the strikes in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

He also said the operation aligns with Trump's goal to reassert and enforce American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere.

"America dominates it and they could be using Venezuela as an example of this, that what America says goes," Lucas said.

"Do not underestimate the personal motive of Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to just look like tough guys, to just like do something for the sake of appearing to be aggressive," he added.

Lucas says for now, Venezuela's government is still in place, but the reaction of ordinary Venezuelans will be key.

"It's not just about Maduro loyalists, many Venezuelans dislike him but also reject the idea of simply following US demands to remove their government. The real issue is whether they'll rise up against a system that remains even if Maduro is gone," Lucas said.

"I don't want to make a prediction which way it goes. But at this point, I would say that I don't see any evidence that you simply are going to get Venezuela's people to do the Trump administration's bidding and get rid of the government," he added.

He said the priority is maintaining order and security in Venezuela.

"You do have the risk of a complete breakdown of civil breakdown within the country with all the consequences that it means for more than 30 million people who do not want that type of economic and political instability."

US strikes rocked Venezuela's capital early Saturday after months of threats by President Donald Trump against Nicolas Maduro. Trump later confirmed the United States had carried out the strikes and captured the Venezuelan leader.

US Vice President JD Vance hailed on Saturday the US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of its President Nicolas Maduro, calling it a "truly impressive operation."

In a post on X, Vance said US President Donald Trump had offered Maduro "multiple off ramps."

But Trump, Vance said, "was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States."

"Maduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says," Vance added.