Will US troops be deployed to Venezuela after Nicolas Maduro's ‘capture’? Here's what to know so far

President Trump indicated the US may oversee Venezuela following Nicolas Maduro's removal, raising questions about military involvement.

President Donald Trump said that the United States would “run” Venezuela for an undisclosed period following the removal of President Nicolas Maduro. This assertion has raised numerous questions. Among the most pressing concerns is whether this plan would involve the deployment of US military forces to oversee Venezuela's future.

Presidential guard troops stand outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. AP/PTI(AP01_03_2026_000349B) (AP)

Trump said on January 3, “We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. We don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” as reported by Newsweek.

Will US troops be deployed in Venezuela?

On Saturday, Trump said the White House was “not afraid of boots on the ground” and that the US would “make sure that country is run properly,” as reported by Newsweek.

However, in a separate remark, Trump told the New York Post that the US “won't have to do that” if Delcy Rodrigues, Venezuela's vice president and now the country's interim leader, “does what we want."

Despite this, there is little clarity on what the US will do next, beyond the implication that the administration may seek to collaborate with some of Venezuela's current officials. The future of teh US military presence in Venezuela remains equally uncertain, with any observers noting a lack of concrete planning for the next phase, according to Newsweek.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also declined to offer details, avoiding specifics during a Saturday appearance on CBS News. When pressed on whether US troops would be deployed to Venezuela, he said only that Washington would “set the terms,” adding that any US role would be the "exact opposite” of the intervention in Iraq.

Apart from the scarce indication in Trump's remarks about “boots on the ground,” there is little clarity on teh US role in Venezuela. It's unclear what function American troops would serve.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the US had not invaded Venezuela and instead characterized US actions as "a law enforcement operation."

Rubio told NBC's Meet the Press, “We don't have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela. He said US forces were on the ground in Venezuela for hours of Saturday's extraction operation, but emphasized that Trump would retain “optionality.”