A day after President Donald Trump said the United States would be “running” Venezuela following the removal of Nicolas Maduro, secretary of state Marco Rubio on Sunday sought to dial back those remarks, stressing that Washington does not plan to govern the country “day to day”.
In an interview with CBS News, Rubio said the US role would be limited to enforcing an existing “oil quarantine” and using it as leverage to push for changes in Venezuela, particularly in its oil sector and drug trafficking. Follow US attacks Venezuela live updates
Rubio’s comments, made across television interviews, appeared aimed at easing concerns that the US was embarking on another prolonged foreign intervention or nation-building effort.
Trump’s comments on Saturday, delivered repeatedly at a Florida news conference, suggested Washington would temporarily control Venezuela, sparking unease among Democrats and sections of his own Republican base wary of overseas interventions.
Rubio clarifies Trump’s stance
Rubio offered a narrower interpretation, saying the president was referring to continued enforcement of sanctions already in place.
“And so that’s the sort of control the president is pointing to when he says that,” Rubio said on CBS News. “We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking.”
He said the blockade on sanctioned oil tankers, some of which have been seized by the US, would remain a key pressure point.
Trump repeats ‘run the country’ claim
Trump, however, stood by his broader framing over the weekend. On Saturday, he had told reporters, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
Pointing to his national security team, including Rubio and defence secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump said governance would be handled for a period by “the people that are standing right behind me. We’re gonna be running it we’re gonna be bringing it back.”
The White House declined to add to Trump’s remarks when contacted by the Associated Press.
‘This is not the Middle East’: Rubio
Rubio pushed back against comparisons with past US interventions, arguing critics were misreading Trump’s intent.
“The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan,” Rubio said. “This is not the Middle East. And our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.”
During the CBS show, he also indicated that the US would give the current leadership in Caracas time to act, saying, “We’re going to judge everything by what they do, and we’re going to see what they do.”
While not ruling out a US military presence, Rubio said existing US “force posture” was sufficient to intercept drug boats and sanctioned oil shipments.
Trump warns interim leader Delcy Rodriguez
Meanwhile, Trump also reportedly issued a fresh warning to Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez.
“If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” Trump told The Atlantic in a brief telephone interview, after US forces seized and jailed former president Nicolás Maduro.
