WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and that America needs to nurse the country back to health before elections are held.
“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 during an interview. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health.”
Trump’s comments come after U.S forces captured the nation’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a surprise raid on Saturday and charged them with drug trafficking.
After the controversial move, Trump clarified that the U.S. is at war with the people who sell drugs and not the country.
President Trump posted a photo of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro following his capture. (Truth Social)
“We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country,” Trump said.
In his first comments on the raid on Saturday, Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela until “a safe, proper, and judicious” transition can be made.
However, he told the network that 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 help oversee America’s involvement.
“It’s a group of all. They have all expertise, different expertise,” Trump said before ultimately stating he was the person in charge.
Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as the president on Monday. She initially condemned Trump and called for Maduro’s “immediate release,” but later shifted her tone and requested an “agenda of cooperation” with the U.S.
During an arraignment hearing in New York on Monday, Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.
“I’m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country,” Maduro told 92-year-old federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein through a translator, according to the New York Times.
Maduro’s capture triggered sharp criticism from foreign governments and lawmakers about whether Trump needed congressional approval.
According to the administration, the operation to seize Maduro was a brief, targeted mission, not a war, invasion, or prolonged military deployment, and therefore did not require advance authorization from Congress.
Trump seemingly avoided the question when NBC News asked if Congress “knew,” stating he didn’t want to get into it, “but people knew.”
“We have good support congressionally,” the president said. “And Congress knew what we were doing all along, but we have good support congressionally. Why wouldn’t they support us?”
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Editor’s note: The National Desk’s Emma Withrow contributed to this article.