U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gestures as he speaks to the media on the day of a briefing for the House of Representatives on the situation in Venezuela, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Jan. 7, 2026. (Credit: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he expected the United States to run Venezuela and tap into its oil reserves for years after toppling Nicolas Maduro.
Trump told the New York Times "only time will tell" how long the U.S. would demand direct oversight of the South American country.
But when asked whether that meant three months, six months or a year, Trump told the paper: "I would say much longer."
The American leader's assertion of U.S. dominance over oil-rich Venezuela comes despite its interim leader Delcy Rodriguez saying there is no foreign power governing Caracas.
U.S. special forces snatched president Maduro and his wife on Saturday in a lightning raid and whisked them to New York to face trial on drug and weapons charges.
The Trump administration had since said it would dictate decisions to Venezuela's leaders and control the country's oil sales "indefinitely."
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