By Robbie Gramer and Juan Forero
With Nicolás Maduro out of power, the Trump administration is racing to assemble an interim governing structure for Venezuela -- one that would repair a battered oil industry and stabilize a country ruled for years by a group that plundered its riches and facilitated trafficking across its territory.
The U.S. military operation to depose Maduro was quick, precise and decisive, but what comes next is riven with risks and the potential for blunders, current and former U.S. officials said.
President Trump made the prospect of setting up a transitional government in Venezuela appear relatively easy, telling reporters on Saturday that billions in oil money would be used to rebuild the industry and make Venezuelans rich. He said he would personally oversee the next stage in the country's history after Maduro was unseated in an audacious nighttime raid by American commandos. Otherwise, Trump offered few details.
"We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he told reporters Saturday. "And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about. We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela."
Though he and other U.S. officials he tasked with working on Venezuela's transition didn't say it, administering a country of 28 million twice the size of California will be enormously complicated. Maduro's allies have already sharply condemned his capture and made moves to reassert control in the wake of the U.S. military operation, casting early doubts on whether the U.S. could govern the country without further military intervention.
U.S. and Colombian officials have said Venezuela's regime is supported by armed cocaine-trafficking groups -- including those made up of battle-hardened former Colombian guerrilla fighters -- along with an army that military experts said has well over 100,000 troops. And though polls show Venezuelans wanted Maduro out, a substantial number of people -- perhaps millions -- have remained with the regime, polling shows.
The lack of details about what comes next led some U.S. officials to question why there was no detailed plan in place well before deposing Maduro.
The U.S. engaged in a costly 20-year nation-building experiment in Afghanistan that ended in failure and has had a checkered past of fomenting violence and instability by toppling other leaders in Latin America during the Cold War. Other episodes of American intervention, such as the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, led to a quick transition to a democratic administration.
Trump administration officials, however, say they are confident this venture will be different.
A senior official said Trump's national-security team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, homeland security adviser Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, are working through a post-Maduro governance structure for Venezuela. Trump said it may involve "boots on the ground," with the U.S. military "prepared to do a second wave" to take control, but added that won't likely be needed.
The president has yet to divulge details on what the transitional government would look like, whether the U.S. would foot the bill for major economic reconstruction in Venezuela, and when or how more U.S. troops would be deployed to the country. Officials at the Pentagon and other military headquarters were still assessing how long U.S. forces would remain in the region, defense officials said Saturday. Other U.S. officials said there are no current plans to deploy additional servicemembers or to ask Congress for money for Venezuela.
Some Democratic lawmakers have also vocally condemned Trump. "I lived through the consequences of an illegal war sold to the American people with lies," Sen. Ruben Gallego, (D., Ariz.), a former Marine who deployed to Iraq, wrote on social media. "We swore we would never repeat those mistakes. Yet here we are again. The American people did not ask for this, Congress did not authorize this, and our service members should not be sent into harm's way for another unnecessary conflict."
Current and former U.S. diplomats said the time and cost of the U.S. overseeing Venezuela will depend on Trump's long-term goals. That could entail rebuilding Venezuela's economy and transitioning it to a fully functioning democracy, or the more limited goal of securing the country's oil infrastructure.
The more ambitious plan could take years and billions of dollars of investment, as well as significant diplomatic spadework with wealthy foreign countries and international financial institutions to right-size Venezuela's economy. Even a more limited goal of overseeing Venezuela's oil infrastructure is fraught with risks: If U.S. troops were deployed to protect oil infrastructure, they could be targeted by hard-liner elements of the former Maduro regime or other criminal networks in the country and drag the U.S. deeper into conflict in the country.
The U.S. hasn't said whether it has rooted out other remnants of Maduro's regime -- particularly the country's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and Defense Minister Vladimir Lopez, both of whom can call on militias and gangs as well as the armed forces to fight back against the U.S. should it deploy more forces to the country.
"The worst-case scenario would be that parts of the military adhere to the U.S. plan, while others resist, and the situation develops into a sort of internal armed conflict," said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank.
Who will run Venezuela after the transition remains an open question.
Trump didn't mention Edmundo Gonzalez, the 76-year-old former diplomat who handily beat Maduro in the July 2024 presidential election, according to elections monitors. Maduro claimed he won and later drove Gonzalez into exile. Trump also cast doubt on whether María Corina Machado, Venezuela's main opposition leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has the legitimacy to lead the country.
"I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country," he said.
Trump said in his press conference that he could work with Venezuela's vice president, Delcy Rodríguez. Yet hours later, she sharply condemned the capture of Maduro and demanded the U.S. free him.
"The only president of Venezuela is President Nicolás Maduro," she said, flanked by Cabello, Lopez and other officials, presenting what appeared to be a united front against the American incursion.
She called the U.S. operation against Maduro "barbaric" and said the regime was ready to defend Venezuela. "Never again will we be slaves, never again will we be a colony of any empire," she said.
Write to Robbie Gramer at robbie.gramer@wsj.com and Juan Forero at juan.forero@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Venezuela's defense minister is Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who is also called Vladimir Padrino. "After Maduro Ouster, Trump Takes On the Risks of Governing Venezuela," at 9 p.m. Jan. 3, incorrectly called him Vladimir Lopez.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 04, 2026 15:14 ET (20:14 GMT)
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