Trump says U.S. will govern Venezuela until there's a 'proper transition': 'We are going to run the country'

Trump said that the U.S. will "run" Venezuela in the wake of a U.S. military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro

The Trump administration launched a major military attack on Venezuela on Saturday morning, bombing facilities and capturing leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife and flying them to the United States to face charges. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will temporarily “run” Venezuela and work to tap the country’s massive oil reserves.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to new leadership, Trump said at a news conference in Florida. He didn’t provide more detail about how the U.S. would control Venezuela, saying a group of officials would be named to oversee it.

Trump said he didn’t want a new leader to take over in the wake of Maduro’s capture who would result in “the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”

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“We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind,” he said.