Donald Trump to 'run Venezuela' as President Maduro charged with drug and weapons offences

Donald Trump has said America will 'run Venezuela' as its President, Nicolás Maduro, has been charged with drug and weapons offences.

He confirmed earlier today (3 January) that the US had made a 'large-scale strike' on the country and captured Maduro along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown out.

Trump said this operation was done 'in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement' and US Attorney General Pam Bondi went on to say the couple would face 'the full wrath of American justice on American soil'.

Having shared an image of Maduro on Truth Social, the US president has now told a press conference in Mar-a-Lago in Florida: “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition."

He confirmed the 'large-scale attack'. (WhiteHouse/X)

Trump continued: “We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years, so we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.

“And it has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country, it’s their homeland.”

He went on to add that the US is 'ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so' but added that it's 'probably not necessary'.

"The first wave if you’d like to call it that, the first attack was so successful, we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually," he said.

Maduro and Flores were captured. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)

Trump also said that American oil companies will 'go in, spend billions' and begin 'making money' for Venezuela.

Sir Keir Starmer has since made it clear that the UK was not 'involved in any way' in the US operation in Venezuela.

Bondi said earlier on social media that Maduro had been charged with: "Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machine Guns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machine Guns and Destructive Devices against the United States."

She did not clarify what Flores has been charged with. "A huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers," Bondi added.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has urged citizens to remain calm, saying: "The world needs to speak out about this attack."