Trump Plans to "Run" Venezuela with US Oil Giants, Till New President Get Elected
A profound shift in American foreign policy was codified late Saturday as President Donald Trump announced that the United States intends to assume direct administrative control over Venezuela following the military extraction of Nicolás Maduro. In a move that bypasses traditional diplomatic transitions, the administration declared it would "run the country" indefinitely to prevent a power vacuum. This strategy effectively sideline’s Venezuela’s established opposition figures, including MarÃa Corina Machado, whom Trump dismissed as lacking the necessary internal respect to govern, signaling a preference for a US-led interim authority over a localized democratic handover.
The core mechanism of this intervention is not merely military but industrially corporate. Trump explicitly outlined a plan to deploy major US oil companies as the primary engines of reconstruction. The strategy frames the Venezuelan oil sector nationalized under previous socialist administrations as "stolen" American property that must be reclaimed and repaired. By tasking US energy giants with fixing broken infrastructure, the White House aims to monetize Venezuela’s vast reserves immediately to fund the country’s stabilization, effectively merging foreign aid with corporate profit generation in a model that critics warn resembles colonial resource extraction.
Despite the swift capture of Maduro, who faces drug trafficking charges in New York, the logistical reality of "running" a sovereign nation remains fraught with peril. The US is relying on the coerced cooperation of the current Venezuelan Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, who Trump claims has acquiesced to US demands. However, her public statements condemning the operation as "barbaric" suggest a volatile disconnect between Washington’s narrative and the situation on the ground. Without a full scale invasion force which Trump denied is currently planned the US is attempting to govern via air superiority and economic leverage against a potentially hostile entrenched bureaucracy.
This operation, described by the President as an assault unseen since "World War Two," invokes the Monroe Doctrine to justify unilateral hegemony over the Western Hemisphere. The deployment of over 150 aircraft, including F-22s and B-1 bombers, serves as a stark warning to other adversarial regimes in the region, specifically Cuba. However, the lack of Congressional authorization has drawn sharp rebukes from domestic leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer, who warn that managing a hostile state without a credible transition plan risks plunging the US into an endless geopolitical quagmire reminiscent of past nation-building failures.