The Trump administration does not want Venezuela to hold new elections in the next 30 days, US President Donald Trump told NBC News, arguing the country needs to be stabilised and rebuilt before voters can return to the polls.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump said in the NBC News interview. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have, we have to nurse the country back to health.”
The comments came two days after US forces, in what Trump described as Operation Absolute Resolve, captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. NBC News said Maduro was prosecuted in New York hours before the interview on charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation.
What Trump is ruling out right now: an immediate election timetable
Trump’s core message to NBC News was that a rapid transition to elections is not feasible because Venezuela’s basic conditions are too damaged for a credible vote.
He did not set an alternative date, but framed the delay as necessary for logistical and institutional recovery — a position that effectively pushes any near-term democratic handover down the road.
The rebuild pitch: oil infrastructure first, with subsidies on the table
Trump told NBC News that Washington is exploring ways to rebuild Venezuela’s economy, with oil production and energy infrastructure positioned as the early engine.
He floated subsidising oil companies to restore Venezuela’s energy system, with companies spending upfront and then being reimbursed by the US government or through revenue. Trump said such a project could take less than 18 months, adding, “I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money.”
That outline sketches a familiar trade-off: speed and capacity from major energy firms, paired with political risk and large public costs.
“Not at war with Venezuela,” Trump says, but frames it as a war on cross-border crime
Despite the military operation that led to Maduro’s capture, Trump insisted to NBC News that the US is not at war with Venezuela.
“No, we’re not,” he said. “We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country.”
The framing matters because it attempts to place the operation in the category of counter-narcotics and border security rather than conventional warfare, a distinction that can shape legal arguments, alliances, and public support.
Who runs the US Venezuela file now: Rubio, Hegseth, Miller, Vance
In the roughly 20-minute interview with NBC News, Trump named senior officials who will oversee US involvement in Venezuela: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller, and Vice President JD Vance.
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