US strikes in Venezuela
2026-01-03. Last updated 2026-01-16. These are personal notes, subject to change. None of this is legal advice.
Summary
Quotes are from Trump unless otherwise specified. Notes are not comprehensive, there was a lot of rambling.
- JD Vance not present
- “We’ve done some other good ones”
- Afghanistan was “an embarrassment”
- “We’re a respected country again”
- Trump says US “will run Venezuela,” says newly sworn in Venezuela president (Maduro’s VP) will “do anything to make Venezuela great again, … [she] said ‘we’ll do whatever you need.’ ”
- “We’re gonna run it until such time as a proper transition can take place”
- “The oil business has been a total bust”
- “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies … fix the very broken infrastructure”
- “It’s gonna make a lot of money”
- To the people of Venezuela: “You’re gonna have some of the riches that have been stolen from you”
- We’re gonna have a team working with the people of Venezuela
- “We were prepared to do a second wave”
- “We assumed a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not … we’re prepared to do … a much bigger wave”
- “Everyone’s coming back to us”
- “Tariffs are—they’ve made our country rich, and they’ve made our national security strong, stronger than ever before”
- “Other presidents may have lacked the courage or whatever to protect America”
- Trump repeats threat: President of Colombia should “watch his ass”
- Maduro will be brought to “New York”
- “They stole our oil”
- “We have tremendous energy in that country, it’s very important that we protect it”
- “Cuba is a failing nation … we want to help the people in Cuba”
- Rubio: Maduro’s security team was full of Cubans
- Rubio: “If I lived in Havana and I was part of the government I’d be concerned”
- No contact with opposition leader Machado
- She doesn’t have the support or respect within the country
- Trump: “It won’t cost us anything, because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial”
- Pardoned convicted president of Honduras for drug trafficking
- “I endorsed … the man who won in Honduras”
- “The man that I pardoned … was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump”
- “We’re gonna have a presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil”
- “That wealth is going to [Venezuela] and also to the United States of America in the form of reimbursement”
- “Unless it’s a bad question, in which case I’ll go one way”
- “[Putin and I] never spoke about Maduro”
- “He’s killing too many people” (Trump RE Putin)
- “I thought one of the easier ones would be Russia Ukraine, it’s not, they both have done some pretty bad things”
- “That’s Biden’s war, it’s not my war”
- “30,000 mostly soldiers were killed this last month”
- “I got NATO to pay 5% instead of the 2% that they weren’t paying”
- “The United States is … probably making money on that” (RE sending military equipment)
- “It’s all a deal … life is a big deal”
- “That war has become a bloodbath”
My thoughts
This is just Afghanistan again :(
Also… can Trump read?? He’s really struggling here.
2026-01-16: Fix typos