(NewsNation) — Bill O’Reilly believes Venezuela’s oil is not essential for the United States after that country’s President Nicolás Maduro was captured.

Following the military operation Saturday, President Donald Trump said Venezuela’s oil was under U.S. control.

“We are 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 said.

Speaking to Leland Vittert on Monday’s “On Balance,” O’Reilly played down the importance of the move.

“All I can tell you is, the oil doesn’t matter. Venezuelan oil doesn’t matter (to) the United States. We don’t need it,” he said.

“The only justification, as far as the American public is concerned, to get rid of Maduro is the narcoterrorism designation of the group that he took massive amounts of money from, the Cártel de los Soles.

“Once that happened, then President Trump had a legal authority to use military action against anybody associated with that cartel.”

O’Reilly believes a temporary government, likely made up primarily of the military, will be installed before elections are held in Venezuela.

He also rebuked criticism from the Democratic Party for the operation.

“This is what gets me about the opposition to Trump coming from the Democratic Party. How were you going to solve the drug cartel problem that has been harming this nation for decades?”