‘Have to nurse the country’: Trump rules out Venezuela election in next 30 days; denies US at war

US President Donald Trump on Monday said Venezuela will not hold new elections within the next 30 days and that the country must first be stabilised following the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Speaking to NBC News, Trump insisted the United States is not at war with Venezuela, even as it deepens its involvement in the Latin American country."We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote," Trump said. The MAGA chief added, "No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health."His comments came two days after US armed forces seized Maduro and his wife in Caracas and flew him to New York, where he was questioned on his alleged crimes, including narco-terrorism and cocaine importation.

Maduro pleaded not guilty and said he remains Venezuela’s leader, even as vice president Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in on Monday as his successor and interim president.Trump said US could help rebuild Venezuela’s oil and energy sector and potentially subsidise oil companies involved in restoring infrastructure. "I think we can do it in less time than that, but it'll be a lot of money," Trump added. The US president added: "A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue."

Trump clarified that US is not fighting a war with the Venezuelan state. "No, we’re not," Trump said when asked if the US was at war with Venezuela. He said instead that America is at war with drugs: "We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country."Trump said a group of senior officials would oversee US involvement, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, vice president JD Vance and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller. The GOP leader also said the US could carry out another military operation if cooperation breaks down. "We’re prepared to do it," he said. "We anticipated doing it, actually."Despite criticism from some allies over the lack of congressional authorisation for the invasion, Trump said he did not need approval to act again. "We have good support congressionally," he said.Moreover, the POTUS said he remains confident in his political support: "MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I’m doing. MAGA loves everything I do."