Venezuela Live Updates: Trump is said to indicate that US oversight of Venezuela could last more than a year
In a new interview with The New York Times published Thursday, President Donald Trump said that “only time will tell” how long the United States will retain control of Venezuela’s oil extraction industry — suggesting that American involvement there will extend beyond a year.
Asked by the Times whether it would take three months, six months, a year or even longer, Trump told them: “I would say much longer than that.”
Military personnel carry a coffin during the funeral of soldiers killed in the US operation in Venezuela in Caracas on January 7, 2026.
Maxwell Briceno – Reuters
“We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,” Trump said. “We will use the oil, we will take the oil. We will lower oil prices, and we will give money to Venezuela, which they desperately need.”
After Trump announced that the United States would receive between 30 and 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil, he admitted to the Times that it would take years to revive Venezuela’s oil sector. “Oil will take some time,” he added.
He said the United States “gets on very well” with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, but did not say whether he had spoken to her himself.
“Marco [Rubio] He said: “You talk to her all the time. I will tell you that we are in constant communication with her and the administration.”
Trump did not make any commitments regarding when the elections would be held or what might prompt him to send American forces.
The Times asked whether he would send US troops if the Venezuelan government denied him access to the country’s oil or if Caracas refused to expel Russian and Chinese employees.
“I can’t tell you that,” Trump said. He added: “I don’t really want to tell you this, but they treat us with a lot of respect. And you know, we get along very well with the management that’s there now.”
– ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
