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Trump says US ‘will run’ Venezuela until ‘safe’ transition

03 January 2026
This content originally appeared on Barbados Nation News.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival for meetings at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., December 29, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

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President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States (US) will “run” Venezuela until a political transition can occur, after the shocking US military operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from the country.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told a press conference, adding that US forces were ready to conduct a second, “much bigger” wave of strikes if necessary.

He also announced that he would allow American oil companies to head into Venezuela to tap its massive crude reserves after a US military operation to seize the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro.

“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. (AFP)

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