President Donald Trump on Saturday announced plans for the United States to “run” Venezuela until a “safe transition can take place” after U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro at his home in Caracas overnight on Friday.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday morning. Trump added that his administration is “not afraid of boots on the ground.”
“We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level,” Trump said. “Actually we’re not afraid of it, we don’t mind saying it.”
Trump spoke glowingly of the performance by U.S. military units who he said provided a “spectacular assault” against Venezuela forces and accused Maduro of waging a “ceaseless campaign of violence, terror, and subversion against the United States of America.”
The president was flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine. Trump said his team was prepared to launch a “much bigger second wave” but that it hadn’t been necessary.
Speaking after the president, Hegseth said Maduro “effed around, and he found out.”
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