U.S. President Donald Trump gave an hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he gave a briefing on the Jan. 3 attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, and answered a number of media questions. The following are some revealing excerpts:
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This was one of the most stunning and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history. If you think about it, this was one of the good ones like the attack on Soleimani, the attack on al-Baghdadi and the obliteration and decimation of the Iran nuclear sites just recently in an operation known as Midnight Hammer, all perfectly executed….
We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. 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….
We cannot take a chance of somebody else taking over Venezuela that does not have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. We have had decades of that. We are not going to let that happen. We are there now and what people do not understand but they understand as I say this, we are there now and we are going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place….
We are going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country. We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so. So, we were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so….
In addition, Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars. They did this a while ago but we never had a President who did anything about it. They took all of our property. It was our property. We built it. We never had a President that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 miles away. We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive and skill. And the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations. And they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country. Considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies. We did not do anything about it. I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people and drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere. That’s what they did. Furthermore, under the now deposed dictator Maduro, Venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives….
All of these actions were in gross violation of the principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries. Not anymore. All all the way back to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine was a big deal. We have superseded it by a lot. They now call it the “Donroe” doctrine, I don’t know. It is the Monroe Doctrine. It was very important but we forgot about it. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again. It won’t happen. In conclusion, for decades other administrations have neglected or even contributed to these growing security threats in the Western Hemisphere. Under the Trump administration, we are reasserting American power in a very powerful way. In our home region….
These extremely successful operations should serve as a warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives. Importantly, the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect. The American armada remains poised and positioned and the United States retains all military options until demands have been fully satisfied. All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them and it will happen to them if they are not just, fair, even to their people….
Question: Who is in power right now in Venezuela?
Trump: We are going to be running it with a group and we will make sure it is run properly. We will rebuild the oil infrastructure. It will cost billions of dollars and be paid for by the oil companies directly. They will be reimbursed for what they are doing. We are going to get the oil flow in the way it should be. It was a minor flow for what they have. We are going to run it properly….
Question: Mr. President, will U.S. troops be on the ground? How will that work?
Trump: we are not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level actually. We are not afraid of it. We do not mind saying it.… They stole our oil. We built that industry. They just took it over like we were nothing. We had a President that decided not to do anything about it. We did something about it….
