U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a fresh storm Monday by posting on his platform Truth Social that he has served as Venezuela\u2019s \u201cacting president\u201d since January 2026\u2014an assertion with no formal international recognition that swiftly went viral and drew widespread scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The claim comes nine days after a controversial U.S. military operation in Caracas on January 3, during which Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized and transported to New York to face drug-trafficking\u2013related charges. In the immediate aftermath, Venezuela\u2019s Supreme Court swore in Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez as interim president, a move publicly backed by the country\u2019s military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has already said his administration will \u201cmanage\u201d Venezuela and its oil sector during a transitional period. In an interview with NBC News, he ruled out elections in the next 30 days\u2014\u201cI\u2019m in charge,\u201d he said\u2014arguing conditions are not yet in place for a vote. He floated U.S. subsidies to rebuild Venezuela\u2019s energy infrastructure, suggesting the work could be finished in under 18 months, financed by private oil companies and later repaid through revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NBC reported that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are among the officials helping steer U.S. involvement. Asked who would ultimately be responsible for Venezuela, Trump answered with a single word: \u201cMe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Trump\u2019s post amplified a narrative of direct U.S. stewardship, diplomatic observers noted the declaration does not carry international legal standing, and governments are responding cautiously as questions mount over legitimacy, sovereignty, and the trajectory of Venezuela\u2019s political transition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a fresh storm Monday by posting on his platform Truth Social that he has served as Venezuela\u2019s \u201cacting president\u201d since January 2026\u2014an assertion with no formal international recognition that swiftly went viral and drew widespread scrutiny. The claim comes nine days after a controversial U.S. military operation in Caracas on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7054,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions\/7054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}