President Donald Trump signaled an extended American involved in Venezuela after the U.S. military captured Nicolas Maduro to face drug charges in New York.
In comments to reporters on Saturday, Trump said U.S. officials would be in charge and didn’t shy away from putting troops in the country.
“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe proper and judicious transition,” he said.
Trump also suggested the U.S. would use Venezuela’s oil wealth to pay for the mission and reimburse American companies that operated there previously but whose assets were nationalized by the socialist regime.
In addition, he predicted U.S. energy companies would spend billions of dollars to rebuild the country’s oil infrastructure and boost extraction. At the same time, Trump added that the U.S. oil embargo on Venezuela will remain in effect.
