Clearly, there was little planning for what would transpire after the illegal invasion and abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
On Sunday night, January 4, 2026:
“And don’t ask me who’s in charge, because I’ll give you an answer, and it’ll be very controversial.”
“What does that mean?” a reporter asked.
“It means we’re in charge,” the Trump said.
On Sunday morning, January 4, 2026, in a testy exchange later on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’, Rubio complained that people were “fixating” on Trump’s declaration at a news conference in Florida on Saturday that the US government would run Venezuela. He added that “it’s not running — it’s running policy, the policy with regards to this.”
Rubio said on CBS that the US naval force that Trump massed in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela over recent months — “one of the largest naval deployments in modern history, certainly in the Western Hemisphere” — would remain in place to enforce the quasi blockade, with the aim of “paralyzing that portion of how the regime, you know, generates revenue.”
Source:
Edward Wong, NYT: Trump says US is ‘In Charge’ of Venezuela, while Rubio stresses coercing it
