In a live phone interview with Fox and Friends, President Trump said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are heading to New York to face prosecution.
He said the couple was placed aboard the U.S. warship Iwo Jima and headed to New York, where they are facing multiple charges.
Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima. pic.twitter.com/omF2UpDJhA
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 3, 2026
The U.S. carried out major strikes in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and captured Mr. Maduro. The removal of the country’s president represents the most significant U.S. intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama and the capture of its leader, Manuel Noriega, in January 1990.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi announced on social media that the two have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Mr. Maduro has 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 U.S, she said.
SEE ALSO: U.S. captures Maduro after ‘large-scale’ military strikes in Venezuela, Trump says
Mr. Maduro was indicted in March 2020 on “narco-terrorism” conspiracy charges in the same district.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Ms. Bondi said.
The U.S. is now deciding Venezuela’s next steps, Mr. Trump said Saturday on Fox News.
As the U.S. can not leave it up to chance for who takes over next, the U.S. will be heavily involved, he said.
When asked if he would throw his support behind opposition leader María Corina Machado, the U.S. president said, “Well, we’re going to have to look at it.”
After Mr. Machado was voted to be the opposition figure for the 2024 presidential election, the Venezuelan government, controlled by Mr. Maduro’s administration, barred her from running. Mr. Trump called the election of Mr. Maduro a disgrace.
SEE ALSO: FLASHBACK: Trump versus Maduro: Why the White House is fixated on Venezuela
For Mr. Trump, removing Mr. Maduro is part of a longstanding effort to install new leadership in Caracas.
For months, the U.S. has waged a war on drugs campaign against the Venezuelan government. This has involved dozens of strikes on alleged drug boats moving narcotics from Venezuela to the U.S. and seizing at least one tanker allegedly moving illicit oil from Venezuela.
More recently, the U.S. military conducted its first strike on Venezuelan land, hitting a dock that the U.S. alleged was involved in drug trafficking.
When asked what he would say to the people who wake up concerned about prolonged military involvement in Venezuela, Mr. Trump said, “We’re saving lives.”
He claimed that drugs coming into the U.S. have virtually stopped, and such an operation sends a signal that the U.S. will not be pushed around anymore.
Mr. Trump justified the U.S. operation in Venezuela “because it’s a war.”
“We had to do it because it’s a war,” he said Saturday morning. “We’re losing 300,000 people a year. We don’t lose that much in a war,” he said, referencing the number of people who have died due to drugs.
Government statistics show the number of drug overdose deaths per year is closer to the 100,000 to 110,000 range.
Mr. Trump said that the U.S. military waited four days for the operation, and “all of a sudden it opened up, and we said go,” he said when speaking about the weather.
Mr. Maduro was in a highly guarded “fortress” with steel doors, which the U.S. military made a copy of the one they infiltrated.
He was attempting to get into a safety space before he was “bumrushed,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “we were prepared.”
The U.S. president believes that no one was killed and no aircraft was left, applauding the organization of the operation.
Mr. Trump said that the U.S. was prepared to complete a second wave of attacks, but the first was so lethal and powerful that it wasn’t necessary.
Vice President J.D. Vance said on social media that the president offered several off-ramps to the Venezuelan president. Mr. Trump said, “You have to give up, you have to surrender,” but in the end, he said the U.S. had to do something “much more surgical, much more powerful.”
As for what is to become of Mr. Maduro’s loyalists, Mr. Trump said, “if they stay loyal, their future is bleak,” adding that the Venezuelan president was a dictator the people hated.
The U.S. president said that the Venezuelan people are happy with the U.S. operation and are waving American flags in the street. “The people have no love for him,” he said of Mr. Maduro.
When it comes to the future of Venezuela’s oil industry, the U.S. will be “very much involved,” he said.
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company that currently operates in Venezuela, says it is focused on the safety and well-being of its employees.
“We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations,” a company spokesperson said.
He said that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and others will give more details at a “pretty open news conference” at 11 a.m.
“Our country is hotter than it’s ever been before,” Mr. Trump said at the conclusion of his interview.
