Trump Claims U.S. Ready to Take Temporary Control of Venezuela After Maduro Detention

For­mer U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has claimed that the Unit­ed States would take on a tem­po­rary gov­ern­ing role in Venezuela fol­low­ing what he described as the deten­tion of Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro, a state­ment that has trig­gered imme­di­ate glob­al con­cern and diplo­mat­ic back­lash.

Speak­ing at a cam­paign-style ral­ly, Trump said the U.S. would “help sta­bi­lize and rebuild Venezuela until free elec­tions can be orga­nized,” argu­ing that the coun­try has suf­fered years of eco­nom­ic col­lapse, polit­i­cal repres­sion, and human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis under Maduro’s lead­er­ship.

While no offi­cial con­fir­ma­tion has been issued by the White House or the Pen­ta­gon regard­ing any change in U.S. pol­i­cy, Trump assert­ed that Amer­i­can author­i­ties were pre­pared to over­see “crit­i­cal insti­tu­tions and ener­gy infra­struc­ture” to pre­vent fur­ther insta­bil­i­ty and mass migra­tion.

Venezue­lan offi­cials strong­ly reject­ed the remarks, call­ing them “a direct threat to nation­al sov­er­eign­ty” and warn­ing that any attempt at for­eign con­trol would vio­late inter­na­tion­al law. Gov­ern­ment spokes­peo­ple insist­ed that Maduro remains the legit­i­mate pres­i­dent and accused Wash­ing­ton of spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion to jus­ti­fy exter­nal pres­sure.

The Unit­ed Nations and sev­er­al Latin Amer­i­can gov­ern­ments urged restraint, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of dia­logue and peace­ful polit­i­cal solu­tions. Region­al lead­ers warned that even rhetor­i­cal sug­ges­tions of for­eign gov­er­nance could inflame ten­sions and desta­bi­lize an already frag­ile region.

Polit­i­cal ana­lysts note that Trump’s com­ments come amid renewed debate in Wash­ing­ton over how to address Venezuela’s pro­longed cri­sis, includ­ing sanc­tions, migra­tion flows, and the country’s vast oil reserves. How­ev­er, experts stress that any move to place Venezuela under exter­nal admin­is­tra­tion would face major legal and diplo­mat­ic obsta­cles.

For now, inter­na­tion­al observers say there is no ver­i­fied evi­dence that con­trol of the Venezue­lan state has changed, but Trump’s remarks have once again put the coun­try at the cen­ter of glob­al polit­i­cal atten­tion.