President Trump said in an interview on Monday that the U.S. needs to “nurse Venezuela back to health” before the country holds an election.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told NBC News. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health.”
Trump told the network he was open to the U.S. supporting oil companies to help build up Venezuela’s infrastructure, which he said could take less than 18 months.
“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” the president said. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.”
Trump sent shockwaves around the world on Saturday when the U.S. carried out a mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife. The pair was brought to the U.S., where they were charged with federal drug trafficking charges.
Trump said over the weekend that the U.S. would be running Venezuela for the time being. The president told NBC News that a group of U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Vice President JD Vance, would lead the U.S.’s involvement in the South American country.
“It’s a group of all. They have all expertise, different expertise,” Trump said, but told the network that he was ultimately the person in charge.
His comments come after Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as the country’s president on Monday. Trump said in the interview that Rodriguez was cooperating with his administration but that there was no communication with her prior to the attack. The president noted Rubio has been speaking with Rodriguez “fluently” in Spanish and that the two have a “strong” relationship.”