President Trump said on Saturday that the United States will “run” Venezuela following a U.S. military operation resulting in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. BREAKING: President Trump Says the U.S. has “CAPTURED” President Maduro of Venezuela! “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a press conference. “So, we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” he continued. “So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela,” he added. Check it out: President Trump on Venezuela: "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition." pic.twitter.com/nUS9VSUkE7 — CSPAN (@cspan) January 3, 2026 NBC News has more: Trump’s remarks came after he announced early Saturday morning in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. had conducted strikes on Venezuela and captured Maduro and Flores. In a phone interview with Fox News, the president confirmed that the Venezuelan president and first lady were en route to New York, where he said Maduro had been indicted. The U.S. action was a stunning culmination of months of increased threats from Trump and his administration toward the Venezuelan leader. Carried out without congressional authorization, it immediately received pushback and questions from lawmakers. And it now leaves the future of Venezuela uncertain. In his remarks, Trump did not clarify what it would mean for the U.S. to “run” Venezuela but said that U.S. oil companies were prepared to make major investments in the country. “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. The U.S. president added that the U.S. military was prepared to strike Venezuela again if needed. “As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time,” Trump said. Footage below: JUST IN: President Trump says large United States oil companies are going to go into Venezuela and extract oil. "As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time." "We're going to have our very large United States oil… pic.twitter.com/xVcnCucL4i — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 3, 2026 CBS News shared further: A Republican senator said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had indicated that Maduro would face criminal charges in the U.S., where he was indicted years ago, and that Rubio “anticipates no further action in Venezuela.” The Trump administration has long accused Maduro of drug trafficking and working with gangs designated as terrorist organizations, which Maduro denies. The strikes follow months of U.S. military buildup in the region, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and numerous other warships positioned in the Caribbean. In recent weeks, the U.S. has seized two oil tankers off Venezuela, launched deadly strikes on more than 30 boats the administration says were carrying drugs, and struck what President Trump called “the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.”