More than two weeks after the U.S. attacked Venezuela and kidnapped Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, Trump isn\u2019t running the country, but he seems to be getting much of what he wants.<\/b>
\nJust over two weeks ago, the U.S. invaded Venezuela, abducted Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife and threw them in a Brooklyn jail, and then President Donald Trump said a bunch of wild stuff \u2014 including announcing that the U.S. was going to run the country and take its oil. A week ago, he shared a fake Wikipedia page on social media which said he was the \u201cacting president of Venezuela.\u201d He\u2019s not; interim president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez is, but so far it seems Trump is getting much of what he said he wanted. Below is a look at how Trump\u2019s big intervention is playing out thus far.
.
Is Trump running Venezuela?<\/p>\n

No. But he\u2019s clearly wielding a lot of leverage on its new leader.
.
Rodr\u00edguez appears to be playing along \u2014 and consolidating her power<\/p>\n

Since the U.S. ousted Maduro, the former vice president has been working to meet the Trump administration\u2019s demands \u2014 while at times publicly denouncing what the U.S. has done \u2014 and all the while working to consolidate her control over the regime and country. Per Bloomberg:
[Rodr\u00edguez] has seamlessly moved into the role of acting president. She has chaired meetings with senior officials, greeted international envoys, welcomed the press at Miraflores Palace and met privately with diplomats. But beneath the continuity, the bedrock of Chavismo \u2014 Venezuela\u2019s brand of socialism \u2014 is beginning to shift as Rodr\u00edguez quickly moves to consolidate authority and unite the fractured ruling coalition. There are some subtle changes. Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s days start earlier, her public remarks are far more concise and the marathon speeches that defined Maduro\u2019s rule are gone. Public officials are now allowed back on X.
Other moves are far more consequential, including a reshaping of the cabinet and security apparatus and the release of dozens of political prisoners. Decisions on senior personnel are being received positively by the Trump administration, according to one person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing sensitive deliberations.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have repeatedly said that Rodr\u00edguez has been doing what the administration tells her. Trump has called her a \u201cterrific person\u201d and last week told Reuters that she \u201chas been very good to deal with.\u201d He also said that he thinks she\u2019s \u201ceventually\u201d going to come to the White House, and that \u201cI\u2019ll go to their country too.\u201d
In her state of the union speech Thursday, Rodr\u00edguez called for opening the country\u2019s oil sector to foreign investment.
The regime has also moved to reopen the U.S. embassy in Caracas and has already hosted a U.S. delegation. At the same time, Rodr\u00edguez and other regime officials have been trying to have it all ways, signaling willing partnership and shared opportunity with Trump and the U.S., while also insisting they are just as anti-imperialist as they ever were.
On Thursday, Rodr\u00edguez met in Caracas with CIA director John Ratcliffe, the most senior Trump administration official to visit the country since the invasion. His high-profile visit was reportedly intended to further signal the administration\u2019s support for Rodr\u00edguez as the country\u2019s interim leader. (Ahead of the Maduro operation, a CIA assessment indicated that Rodr\u00edguez would be the best choice to take over and maintain stability in the country.)
Here\u2019s what Freddy Guevara, the former vice president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, who has been living in exile for the past four years, recently told Reveal about Rodr\u00edguez and her grip on power:
I know her and I know her brother. I was involved, as I said, in negotiation processes and they were both in there. And I have to tell you that they are not moderate at all, they are super radical, and they believe they are smarter than everyone. I am sure that what they\u2019re trying to do is to convince Trump or the Trump administration to allow them to have kind of a Saudi Arabia or China in Latin America. Which means international investments, but no political freedom for example. I think that\u2019s her plan A.
I think their plan B is to outsmart Trump and figure it out, how to survive and buy time, make small concessions enough to not get them out of power.
.
Is the U.S. taking Venezuela\u2019s oil?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely already taking some of it.
The U.S. has tracked down and seized six \u201cdark-fleet\u201d oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude and has redirected at least a few of them to U.S. ports. The blockade is working, the Wall Street Journal reports:
The oil-tanker crackdown has had a significant impact on Venezuela\u2019s oil exports. In the month of January, crude loadings have fallen to about half of normal levels, according to shipping-analytics provider Kpler. The only ships that are loading crude at Venezuela\u2019s ports are tankers bound for the U.S. and those transporting oil to Venezuelan refineries, the company said.
U.S. officials have said that they are working with the Venezuelan government, and that the U.S. would receive Venezuelan crude that is backed up in onshore facilities and floating tankers that serve as oil storage and then sell it. Many of those barrels have been blocked from going to China or other markets because of the U.S. blockade of dark-fleet oil tankers.
Trump has announced that Venezuela is going to handing over some 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil \u2014 which could be worth nearly $3 billion \u2014 and that the U.S. will then sell the oil and split the money with Venezuela. He also suggested the U.S. military would be sent in to secure the oil, though there are currently no American servicemembers on the ground there, and Trump officials are reportedly looking into using private military contractors instead.
Last week, the Department of Energy announced that the U.S. had completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, for $500 million. According to the Financial Times, Vitol trader John Addison, a Trump campaign megadonor, bought $250 million worth. The other $250 million sale was to the trading house Trafigura.
Trump also announced that U.S. oil companies were going to sink at least $100 billion into rebuilding Venezuela\u2019s oil sector, but that hasn\u2019t happened yet. He hosted a White House summit with oil executives on January 9 and the response was lukewarm. Exxon CEO Darren Woods told Trump that Venezuela was currently \u201cuninvestable\u201d and ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance expressed some strong reservations, as well. Trump later attacked Woods for \u201cplaying too cute\u201d and said he was \u201cinclined to keep Exxon out\u201d of the country as a result. Only the CEO of Chevron, which is the only American oil company already operating in Venezuela, indicated that the company was ready, willing, and able to quickly ramp up its production.
As for the others, Trump can\u2019t force private companies to invest.
Nonetheless, as the reports, there are several companies, individuals, and industries who seem likely to cash in, including smaller firms.
.
Venezuela has released political and foreign prisoners<\/p>\n

On January 8, the Venezuelan regime announced that would free a \u201csignificant number\u201d of political prisoners \u2014 which is something it has been pressured to do by Trump in the aftermath of the invasion. The regime says it has since released more than 400 people, but according to the Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal, as of Saturday it had only released 139 of the at least 863 political prisoners it was holding at time of the invasion.
The regime also released several U.S. citizens who were imprisoned in the country, as well as a number of other foreign citizens.
.
But it has not closed its notorious El Helicoide prison<\/p>\n

El Helicoide in Caracas is considered one of Latin America\u2019s worst prisons, where countless Venezuelans, including thousands of political prisoners, have been held and subject to extreme overcrowding, systemic torture, and other documented human rights abuses.
On January 6, President Trump said that \u201cthey have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they\u2019re closing up.\u201d But there are so far no signs that the Venezuelan regime is moving to do that.
.
Democracy doesn\u2019t seem to be a big priority, and the Venezuelan opposition is still on the outside<\/p>\n

Though people like Marco Rubio have indicated that Venezuela making a transition to real democracy remains a U.S. goal, nobody is putting forward an actual timeline for that. Trump has said he\u2019s a \u201cbig fan\u201d of democracy, but he has also made it more than clear that what he most cares about is pliant leadership and unfettered access to Venezuela\u2019s oil. He has also basically endorsed interim president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez.
Venezuelan opposition figures like Mar\u00eda Corina Machado don\u2019t appear to be included in any concrete U.S. plans thus far, though Rubio has said that the administration expects Venezuela to grant amnesty for all opposition members, which would mean Machado and others would be able to freely return to the country.
Machado continues to warn against allowing Rodr\u00edguez and other Maduro regime officials to remain in power, while also insisting that she believes there will be a democratic transition and that\u2019s she\u2019s ready to lead the country if given the opportunity. At this point, it\u2019s not clear if she or other opposition figures will get that chance.
.
Trump finally got a Nobel Peace Prize \u2026 medal<\/p>\n

He\u2019s always wanted a Peace Prize and surely believes invading a sovereign country and snatching its head of state is the kind of thing that makes him deserve one. The Nobel committee might never agree with that, but the last Peace Prize winner sort of does. Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, who Trump has repeatedly indicated he doesn\u2019t support to lead the country, met the president at the White House on Thursday and presented him with her medal in \u201crecognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.\u201d
All Machado apparently got in return was a Trump-branded swag bag.
.
Americans have very mixed feelings about Trump\u2019s intervention<\/p>\n

As our own Ed Kilgore explained last week:
A Reuters-Ipsos poll immediately after the strike on Caracas showed a third of Americans supported it, a third opposed it, and a third had no opinion. A CBS poll a day later that forced yes-or-no reactions showed 48 percent approval and 52 percent disapproval of the action. An Economist-YouGov survey a week after the attack showed 40 percent of Americans supporting and 45 percent opposing the use of \u201cmilitary force to remove\u201d Maduro. And most recently, Quinnipiac showed 47 percent supported Trump\u2019s \u201cdecision to remove\u201d Maduro and 45 percent opposed it. In every case, polls predictably showed high Republican and low Democratic support for the incursion, with independents in the middle but leaning toward opposition.
Prospects for more aggressive and enduring U.S. intervention in Venezuela were a lot less popular. CBS showed 62 percent of Americans wanted little or no U.S. \u201ccontrol over Venezuela\u201d going forward, with only 11 percent favoring \u201ca lot\u201d of control. Economist-YouGov showed 56 percent of Americans (and 62 percent of independents) opposed an \u201cinvasion\u201d of Venezuela. And Quinnipiac showed 73 percent of respondents opposed the deployment of U.S. ground troops in Venezuela.
.
Cuba may soon be plunged into darkness, by U.S. design<\/p>\n

The New York Times\u2019 Frances Robles reports Cuba needs 100,000 barrels of oil per day to keep the country\u2019s power on, and has long been reliant on Venezuela for oil and trade. The country is already in the midst of one of its worst economic crises in decades, and with Trump vowing that Cuba will no longer receive any Venezuelan oil or money, the country faces a potentially devastating crisis. Per Robles:
From diesel to operate buses to gasoline for cars to jet fuel to power airplanes, oil is in short supply in Cuba. A nation already enduring prolonged blackouts could come to a grinding halt as reserves run out, the country plunges into darkness and its economy craters, according to energy experts and economists who follow Cuba closely. \u2026
At its peak, Venezuela sent its ally some 100,000 barrels a day. More recently, that number had dropped to about 35,000 barrels a day, experts say. \u201cIf Cuba loses that, the impact is basically going to be catastrophic,\u201d said Jorge R. Pi\u00f1on, a former oil executive who is now a researcher for the energy institute at the University of Texas. \u201cThe chain of events is that the Cuban economy literally collapses, there is no food in the markets, the trains are not moving, the buses are not moving,\u201d he said.
Cuba also gets some of its oil from Mexico, and so far the Trump administration isn\u2019t trying to block those shipments, but it may not be enough. Trump has also repeatedly threatened Cuba\u2019s government, warning them to \u201cmake a deal, before it\u2019s too late.\u201d
.
Trump\u2019s \u2018Donroe Doctrine\u2019 has otherwise shifted to Greenland<\/p>\n

Trump is now apparently all in on his plan to reassert U.S. dominance over the Western Hemisphere, and he has renewed and expanded his threats of seizing Greenland, prompting sharp pushback from Denmark, European leaders, Greenlanders, and American poll respondents.More Politics<\/p>\n