Trump takes questions on Maduro capture, what's next

[0:00] Mr. President, you said that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela, so who's in power right now? [0:09] Well, we're going to be running it with a group, and we're going to make sure it's run properly. [0:13] We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. [0:17] It'll be paid for by the oil companies directly. [0:20] They will be reimbursed for what they're doing, but it's going to be paid. [0:26] And we're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. [0:29] As you know, it was just a minor flow. [0:31] It was actually a minor flow for what they have. [0:33] But we're going to run it properly, and we're going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of. [0:37] We're going to make sure the people that were forced out of Venezuela by this thug are also taken care of. [0:43] Mr. President, does the U.S. running the country mean that U.S. troops will be on the ground? [0:51] How will that work? [0:52] Well, you know, they always say boots on the ground. [0:54] So we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have. [0:57] We had boots on the ground last night. [0:59] We had a very high level, actually. [1:01] We're not afraid of it. [1:02] We don't mind saying it. [1:04] But we're going to make sure that that country is run properly. [1:07] We're not doing this in vain. [1:09] This is not – this is a very dangerous attack. [1:11] This is an attack that could have gone very, very badly. [1:14] It could have gone very badly. [1:15] We could have lost a lot of people last night. [1:17] We could have lost a lot of dignity. [1:20] We could have lost a lot of equipment. [1:22] The equipment is less important. [1:23] But we could have lost a lot. [1:26] And we're going to make sure that this is proper. [1:28] We're there now. [1:30] We're ready to go again if we have to. [1:32] We're going to run the country right. [1:34] It's going to run very judiciously, very fairly. [1:39] It's going to make a lot of money. [1:40] We're going to give money to the people. [1:42] We're going to reimburse people that we're taking advantage of. [1:46] We're going to take care of everybody. [1:48] It's very important. [1:49] We couldn't let them get away with it. [1:51] You know, they stole our oil. [1:53] We built that whole industry there. [1:57] And they just took it over like we were nothing. [1:59] And we had a president that decided not to do anything about it. [2:02] So we did something about it. [2:04] We're late, but we did something about it. [2:06] Yeah, please. [2:07] Mr. President, can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? [2:11] Are you going to designate a U.S. official to coordinate? [2:13] Yes, yes. [2:13] Can you just unpack that? [2:14] It's all being done right now. [2:15] We're designating people. [2:17] We're talking to people. [2:17] We're designating various people, and we're going to let you know who those people are. [2:21] Mr. President, what's the group you mentioned that would run Venezuela? [2:25] Well, it's largely going to be, for a period of time, the people that are standing right [2:29] behind me. [2:30] We're going to be running it. [2:31] We're going to be bringing it back. [2:33] It's a dead – you know, I talk about a dead country. [2:36] A year and a half ago, we were a dead country. [2:38] Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. [2:40] We're a country doing better than any country anywhere in the world, and it required leadership. [2:47] Venezuela has a lot of bad people in there, a lot of bad people that shouldn't be leading. [2:52] We're not going to take a chance that one of those people take over for Maduro. [2:56] So you can look at – and others. [3:00] We have fantastic people, including people in the military. [3:03] So we're going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be put [3:07] back on track, make a lot of money for the people, and give people a great way of life, [3:12] and also reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of Venezuela. [3:19] You said earlier today that you weren't going to back Machado to come back and be [3:23] the opposition leader in your Fox & Friends interview, and then you also mentioned the [3:27] vice president of Venezuela. [3:28] Are you going to work with the vice president of Venezuela, or how do you foresee the relationship [3:32] going? [3:32] Well, I understand she was just sworn in, but she was, as you know, picked by Maduro. [3:37] So Marco's working on that directly. [3:39] He just had a conversation with her, and she's essentially willing to do what we think is [3:45] necessary to make Venezuela great again. [3:48] Very simple. [3:48] Mr. President, so Colombian President Gustavo Petro, you know, a couple weeks ago you said [3:54] he's got to watch his ass. [3:56] And today he said he's not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of [4:00] this operation. [4:01] So just what your message is about that. [4:02] Well, he has cocaine mills. [4:04] He has factories where he makes cocaine. [4:06] And, yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. [4:10] He's making cocaine. [4:11] They're sending it into the United States. [4:13] So he does have to watch his ass. [4:15] Mr. President, did you notify any members of Congress in advance? [4:20] Marco, do you want to talk about that? [4:21] Because you weren't involved in it. [4:23] Sure. [4:23] We called members of Congress immediately after. [4:25] This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. [4:28] It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. [4:32] We watched and monitored that for a number of days. [4:33] So it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, hey, we may [4:37] do this at some point in the next 15 days. [4:39] But it's largely a law enforcement function. [4:41] Remember, at the end of the day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives [4:46] of American justice. [4:47] And the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job. [4:50] Now, there are broader policy implications here. [4:53] But it's just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the [4:56] mission. [4:57] Mr. President, I could add one thing to that. [5:00] Congress has a tendency to leak. [5:04] This would not be good. [5:05] If they leaked, General, I think it would have been maybe a very different result. [5:10] But I have to say, they knew we were coming at some point, you know. [5:13] We had a lot of ships out there. [5:14] They sort of knew we were coming. [5:15] Mr. President, Mr. President. [5:17] But Congress will leak, and we don't want leakers. [5:20] Mr. President, Mr. President. [5:22] You were one of the only people to watch this all play out live. [5:26] What was Maduro doing when the U.S. forces entered what I assume would be his home? [5:30] And also, was there any point where the U.S. was considering if Maduro pushed back or resisted [5:35] killing Maduro? [5:36] It could have happened. [5:38] It could have happened. [5:39] He was trying to get into a safe place. [5:41] You know, the safe place is all steel. [5:43] And he wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast. [5:48] They went through the opposition so fast. [5:50] And there was a lot of opposition. [5:52] You know, people were wondering, do we get him by surprise? [5:54] Sort of surprised, but they were waiting for something. [5:57] It was a lot of opposition. [5:59] There was a lot of gunfire. [6:00] You saw some of it today. [6:02] But he was trying to get to a safe place, which wasn't safe because we would have had [6:07] the door blown up in about 47, I think 47 seconds, they say, on average. [6:13] Regardless of how thick the steel was, it was a very thick door. [6:17] It was a very heavy door. [6:18] But he was unable to get to that door. [6:20] He made it to the door. [6:22] He was unable to close it. [6:23] So where is Maduro going to be in the time being right now? [6:29] Do you know his exact way of that? [6:30] Well, eventually, ultimately, in the near future, he's going to be brought to New York. [6:33] And where is he going to be held? [6:35] Where is he going to be held in New York? [6:36] That's going to be up to the officials that do these things. [6:39] Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, the U.S. [6:42] has something of a mixed track record of ousting dictators without necessarily a plan for what [6:47] comes afterwards. [6:47] Did that weigh on your decision-making? [6:49] Well, that's why we had different presidents. [6:50] But with me, that's not true. [6:52] With me, we've had a perfect track record of winning. [6:56] We win a lot. [6:57] And we win if you look at Soleimani, you look at al-Baghdadi, you look at the Midnight Hammer. [7:03] Midnight Hammer was incredible. [7:06] Right now, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. [7:08] We have essentially peace in the Middle East because of that. [7:11] If we weren't successful with Midnight Hammer, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. [7:16] So with me, you've had a lot of victory. [7:20] You've had only victories. [7:21] You've had no losses. [7:22] Yeah. [7:22] Mr. President, how long do you expect the U.S. to run Venezuela? [7:26] And how soon do you want the Venezuelan people to hold elections? [7:29] So I'd like to do it quickly, but it takes a period of time. [7:32] You know, we're rebuilding. [7:33] We have to rebuild their whole infrastructure. [7:35] The infrastructure is rotted. [7:38] It's actually very dangerous. [7:39] It's, you know, blow-up territory. [7:41] Oil is very dangerous. [7:42] It's a very dangerous thing to take out of the ground. [7:45] It can kill a lot of people. [7:47] It has killed a lot of people doing just that. [7:50] The infrastructure is old. [7:52] It's rotted. [7:53] Much of it is stuff that we put there 25 years ago, and we're going to be replacing it. [7:58] And we're going to take a lot of money out so that we can take care of the country. [8:02] Are you saying that, Secretary Rubio? [8:06] Mr. President, China, Russia, and Iran have interests in Venezuela. [8:11] How does this operation affect your relationships with them when it comes to the oil and drugs? [8:15] And Russia, well, Russia, when we get things straightened out. [8:20] But in terms of other countries that want oil, we're in the oil business. [8:25] We're going to sell it to them. [8:26] We're not going to say we're not going to do that. [8:27] In other words, we'll be selling oil, probably in much larger doses, [8:32] because they couldn't produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad. [8:35] So we'll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, [8:38] many of whom are using it now. [8:41] But I would say many more will come. [8:43] Are you saying that, Mr. President, are you saying that... [8:48] Mr. President, thank you. [8:50] What is your message to the people of Venezuela today? [8:53] Of course, the civilian population specifically, they have a lot of questions. [8:57] What is your message to the people of Venezuela? [8:58] I think you're going to have peace, justice. [9:01] You're going to have some of the riches that you should have had for a long period of time [9:06] who was stolen from you, but you're going to have peace and you're going to have safety. [9:09] You're going to have justice. [9:10] You're going to have a country. [9:11] You're going to have a real country. [9:12] You're going to have potentially a great country. [9:14] You know, if you go back 20 years, maybe even a little longer ago, [9:17] that was a great country, and they destroyed it. [9:20] Remember I said that if we lose this election, [9:24] the United States will be Venezuela on steroids. [9:28] That's what would have happened. [9:29] Had we lost the election, the 2024 election, we suffered so badly. [9:34] When you look at the border from 2020, what they did, [9:38] what Joe Biden's administration did to our country should never be forgotten. [9:43] But if we had to go through another year of that, we wouldn't have. [9:45] We would be exactly where Venezuela was in terms. [9:49] I used to say, if they win, we're going to be Venezuela on steroids, [9:53] and that's what would have happened. [9:55] President, thank you. [9:56] Are you saying that Secretary Hegseth and Rubio are going to be running Venezuela, [10:00] and will you be sending in U.S. military troops to provide? [10:03] That's a team that's working with the people of Venezuela to make sure that we have Venezuela right. [10:08] Because for us to just leave, who's going to take over? [10:11] I mean, there is nobody to take over. [10:13] You have a vice president who's been appointed by Maduro, [10:17] and right now she's the vice president, and she's, I guess, the president. [10:20] She was sworn as president just a little while ago. [10:23] She had a long conversation with Marco, and she said, [10:25] we'll do whatever you need. [10:29] I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn't have a choice. [10:34] We're going to have this done right. [10:36] We're not going to just do this with Maduro, [10:37] then leave like everybody else, leave and say, you know, let it go to hell. [10:41] If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back. [10:45] We'll run it properly. [10:47] We'll run it professionally. [10:48] We'll have the greatest oil companies in the world [10:50] going and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, [10:54] use that money in Venezuela. [10:56] And the biggest beneficiary are going to be the people of Venezuela. [10:59] And also, I can't stress this strongly enough, [11:03] the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States, [11:07] and frankly, some want to stay and some probably want to go back. [11:10] Yeah. [11:10] So what's being done to protect Americans in the country, [11:15] and were any of the detained Americans... [11:16] Well, right now, they're very protected because nobody's going to mess with us. [11:20] They're very protected. [11:21] The people of... [11:21] And we let them know that. [11:23] You better not touch one of them. [11:25] Are you concerned that bad elements of the Maduro regime will remain in place? [11:30] Well, we know who they are. [11:32] We're on them. [11:33] And they're acting much differently now than they would have acted two days ago. [11:38] And what do you think about... [11:38] Okay, wait behind you, please. [11:39] Mr. President, why is running a country in South America America first? [11:44] Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. [11:47] We want to surround ourselves with stability. [11:50] We want to surround ourselves with energy. [11:53] We have tremendous energy in that country. [11:55] It's very important that we protect it. [11:57] We need that for ourselves. [11:58] We need that for the world. [11:59] And we want to make sure we can protect it. [12:01] Is there a message here for Cuba on Diaz-Canel? [12:06] Well, Cuba's an interesting case. [12:08] Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. [12:11] That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. [12:14] The people there have suffered for many, many years. [12:17] And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a [12:22] failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation. [12:25] And we want to help the people. [12:27] It's very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to [12:30] also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country. [12:35] Do you want to say something about that, Marko, please? [12:37] Well, I mean, I just gave you a statement a few minutes ago about, you know, when the [12:41] president speaks, you should take him seriously. [12:43] Suffice it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster. [12:45] It's run by incompetent, senile men, and in some cases, not senile, but incompetent nonetheless. [12:53] It has no economy. [12:54] It's in total collapse. [12:55] And by the way, you know, they were, you know, all the guards that helped protect Maduro, [13:00] this is well known, their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans. [13:03] I mean, they basically, it's amazing. [13:04] This poor island took over Venezuela in some cases. [13:08] One of the biggest problems that Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence [13:11] from Cuba. [13:11] They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. [13:14] So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned at [13:17] least a little bit. [13:18] Are you cutting off the oil flow to Cuba from Venezuela? [13:21] Well, the president already announced a week ago that anything that's sanctioned, [13:25] that's sanctioned oil, it's not going to be allowed to get there. [13:27] So that's an... [13:28] The answer is yes. [13:34] Mr. President, is the U.S. aware of the location of opposition leader Machado, and have you [13:39] been in contact with her? [13:41] No. [13:41] We haven't. [13:43] Mr. President, on Monday... [13:48] Oh, I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. [13:51] She doesn't have the support within, or the respect within the country. [13:54] She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect. [13:56] Mr. President, is it possible that the U.S. ends up administrating Venezuela for years, [14:01] you know, in a situation... [14:02] Well, you know, it won't cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground [14:06] is very substantial, so it's not going to cost us anything. [14:08] So the U.S. isn't going to dedicate the money to... [14:09] We will. [14:10] Well, we want safety there. [14:12] We want to be surrounded by countries that aren't housing all of our enemies all over [14:17] the world. [14:17] That's what was happening, and you don't want to have that. [14:20] But we're going to be rebuilding, and we're not spending money. [14:26] The oil companies are going to go in. [14:27] They're going to spend money. [14:28] We're going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. [14:33] A lot of money is coming out of the ground. [14:35] We're going to get reimbursed for all of that. [14:37] We're going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend. [14:39] So it's going to be a very important... [14:43] It's going to be a very important... [14:44] This is a very big evening that took place last night. [14:48] We have to be surrounded by safe, secure countries. [14:52] And we also have to have energy. [14:54] Very important. [14:55] We have to have energy that's real energy, not where they're getting 4% and 5% of the [15:00] energy out of the ground. [15:02] You take a look. [15:02] It was such a disaster. [15:04] So what's going to happen with Venezuela, I think, over the next period of a year [15:08] is going to be a great thing. [15:10] And the people of Venezuela will be the biggest beneficiaries. [15:13] Mr. President, thank you. [15:18] What did you last speak to Maduro about when you spoke? [15:22] Well, I don't want to get into the conversations, but I did have conversations with him. [15:26] And I said, you've got to surrender. [15:31] And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did. [15:36] Mr. President, can you explain... [15:38] You said that Maduro is responsible for drug trafficking. [15:42] You recently pardoned the former president of Honduras who was convicted of many drug [15:46] trafficking. [15:47] Can you explain how these two situations are different? [15:48] And would you ever pardon Maduro? [15:50] I endorsed, as you know, the winning president, the man who won in Honduras. [15:54] I endorsed the man who won in Chile. [15:57] I endorsed the man who won in Argentina. [16:00] And we are doing very well with that whole group. [16:03] What the man that I pardoned was, if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden [16:09] administration treated a man named Trump. [16:11] That didn't work out too well for them. [16:13] This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. [16:17] He was the head of the country. [16:18] He was persecuted very unfairly. [16:20] And there are a number of them. [16:22] And we felt that it was a very unfair situation that happened to him. [16:26] He's also a party member of the man who won. [16:28] So obviously the people liked what I did. [16:31] And one of the reasons that was done is because of the fact that the party in power felt very [16:37] strongly that that man was treated very badly. [16:40] I studied it very quickly. [16:41] And then I studied it in great detail. [16:43] I went to a lot of the people standing behind me, and they felt that that man was persecuted [16:48] and treated very badly. [16:50] That's why I gave him a pardon. [16:52] Mr. President, you referenced boots on the ground earlier. [16:55] Can you just sort of button this up? [16:56] Do you envision the U.S. military having a presence in Venezuela as the U.S. runs that country? [17:01] Well, no, we're going to have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil, because we [17:06] have to have – we're sending our expertise in. [17:09] So you may need something, not very much. [17:11] But no, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground, and that [17:17] wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used [17:21] to be in Venezuela. [17:23] And it goes also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement for the damages [17:28] caused us by that country. [17:30] So I want to thank you all very much. [17:32] Thank you. [17:32] Do you have one? [17:33] Yes, please. [17:34] You were so nice before. [17:35] I'm going to give you the final question. [17:37] Go ahead. [17:37] Thank you, Mr. President. [17:37] Unless it's a bad question, in which case I'll go one word. [17:41] It's about who? [17:41] It's about Putin, if you want to. [17:42] About Putin. [17:43] It's always nice to talk about Putin. [17:45] You had a phone call with him on Monday. [17:48] Did he talk at all about Maduro? [17:49] Did you all talk about this? [17:50] No, we didn't. [17:51] We never spoke about Maduro. [17:52] Are you mad at him right now? [17:53] I mean, there's this intelligence. [17:54] I'm not thrilled with Putin. [17:56] I'm not thrilled with Putin. [17:58] He's killing too many people. [18:00] There was that intelligence. [18:01] I thought that would be so. [18:03] I settled eight and one quarter war. [18:06] You know what the one quarter was? [18:07] Thailand and Cambodia. [18:10] I did it again. [18:11] They broke out. [18:13] And I did it in about five hours. [18:16] And I settled it. [18:17] I'm giving myself one quarter. [18:18] So I'm up to now eight and one quarter. [18:20] In other words, I settled the war, but then they broke out. [18:23] They had a pretty bad breakout over the last four days. [18:26] I got him to go back to peace. [18:29] So I only give one quarter. [18:30] I thought the easiest one would be, one of the easier ones would be Russia, Ukraine. [18:35] It's not. [18:36] And they both have done some pretty bad things. [18:41] And look, that's Biden's war. [18:43] That's not my war. [18:44] But I want to stop the lives. [18:45] Did you see where last month, 30,000, this last, it was 27, 27,000 the month before. [18:53] 30,000, mostly soldiers, were killed this last month. [18:59] 30,000. [19:00] I want to stop that. [19:02] You know, I got NATO to pay 5% instead of the 2% that they weren't paying. [19:08] They weren't paying two, and now they pay five. [19:10] And we send them a lot of munitions. [19:12] We send them a lot of things, missiles and various other things, a lot. [19:16] And they pay. [19:17] The United States is not losing money. [19:19] We're probably making money on that. [19:21] It's the last thing I care about. [19:23] I just want to stop all those people. [19:25] We're losing 25,000, 30,000 human beings that come from two places that are very far away. [19:31] But if I can stop, because it's something I've been pretty good at doing, deals, I guess. [19:37] It's all a deal. [19:38] Life is a big deal. [19:39] But if I can stop that war and stop 30,000 young people, in addition to the fact that people [19:46] are being killed in Kiev, people are being killed in other cities, you know, a much smaller [19:50] number, but they're being killed, viciously killed. [19:53] So I'm not happy about it. [19:55] I thought that would be something that would get solved. [19:58] We have Mr. Whitcoff here. [19:59] I think that we're making progress. [20:01] But that's a war that should have never happened. [20:04] If I were president, it would have never happened. [20:06] Putin says it. [20:07] Everybody says it. [20:08] If I were president, that would have never happened. [20:10] But I inherited that war. [20:13] That was Joe Biden, Zelensky, and Putin. [20:16] I came into the situation, and it's a mess. [20:20] And I will say this. [20:21] I watched an operation last night that was so precise, that was so brilliant. [20:26] I mean, it was incredible. [20:28] If we had our people, like this general and our people involved, that war would not have [20:35] gone on very long. [20:36] That I can tell you. [20:37] That war, to use an old term, that war has become a bloodbath, and we want it to get [20:45] stopped. [20:45] Thank you very much, Mr. President. [20:47] Thank you very much, Mr. President. [20:47] Can you talk about your conversation with the Vice President?