Donald Trump addressing the media on Saturday, January 3, 2026. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
During a press conference on Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that he intends to govern Venezuela and threatened a possible second attack.
This press conference comes after the US conducted military strikes against Venezuela in the early hours of Saturday, January 3. Several hours later, it was confirmed that the US had illegally abducted President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.
“We are going to run the country until a proper transition can take place… We’re going to have our very large US 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,” Trump said.
Trump assured that they are ready to launch a “second and much larger attack if we need to do so… We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not… The first attack was so successful, so we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave—a much bigger wave, actually.”
US Launches Military Strikes Against Venezuela; President Maduro and Cilia Flores Kidnapped
He then reiterated plans to steal Venezuelan oil. This was agreed upon by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who stated that Trump was “deadly serious about getting back the oil that was stolen from us, and deadly serious about re-establishing American deterrence and dominance in the Western Hemisphere.”
Trump also reported that President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores are on a ship en route to New York and will be “prosecuted” in courts in Miami and New York.
He also said he did not know where the far-right Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado was. “I think it’d be very tough for her to be the leader,” he said during the briefing. “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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