After launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a remarkable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president announced that US forces had successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Then Trump said a team that included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be taking control of the beleaguered nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he said.
What exactly "running the country" actually means is unclear, but the pledge represents an abrupt change of course for the president, rife with contradictions and daunting obstacles.
