Trump says he's prepared to send more US troops to Venezuela if interim president doesn't cooperate

 

Trump says he's prepared to send more US troops to Venezuela if interim president doesn't cooperate

 

He told NBC News he anticipated having to launch a second military incursion into the country but insisted that the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela.

 

By Jacob Wendler

01/05/2026 07:53 PM EST

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/05/trump-more-us-troops-venezuela-00712023

 

President Donald Trump reiterated Monday that he is prepared to send more troops into Venezuela if interim President Delcy Rodriguez stops cooperating with the U.S.

 

In an interview with NBC News, Trump said Rodriguez was cooperating in the wake of the U.S. military strike on Venezuela’s capital that led to the capture of the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, on Saturday. He added that his administration initially anticipated having to send in American forces again following the operation, but that he currently does not believe a second attack will be necessary.

 

Still, he insisted that the U.S. is “at war with people that sell drugs,” not with Venezuela. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty on Monday in Manhattan federal court to drug trafficking charges.

 

His comments echoed remarks to the press aboard Air Force One Sunday night, when he said: “If they don’t behave, we will do a second strike.”

 

Trump told NBC that his administration would decide soon whether or not to lift sanctions on Rodriguez — she was sworn in Monday as interim president — who has been sanctioned by the Treasury Department along with several other members of Maduro’s inner circle since 2018.

 

Trump had threatened on Sunday that Rodriguez would “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” if she refused to cooperate with the U.S. Rodriguez had earlier called the attack “an atrocity that violates international law” and insisted that Maduro remains the country’s leader.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed those comments in a Sunday interview on ABC’s “This Week,” telling host George Stephanopoulos: “We’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences.”

 

Trump called Rubio’s relationship with Rodriguez “very strong” in the interview with NBC, but he denied speculation that she had been working with U.S. officials in the lead-up to the attack. He also named Rubio as one of several administration officials who will help run the country temporarily before it holds new elections, which he said will not happen within the next 30 days.

 

Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller will also help with the effort, Trump said.

 

U.S. officials have made at least three demands of Rodriguez, telling the Maduro ally that they expect her to crack down on drug flows, kick out operatives of countries or networks hostile to the U.S., and stop selling oil to U.S. adversaries, two people familiar told POLITICO, granted anonymity to discuss highly sensitive internal deliberations. The U.S. expects her to eventually oversee a free election and step aside, the people said.