MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The United States invaded Venezuela early this morning, capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, flying them to a U.S. military base and opening a power vacuum in the Latin American country.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
KELLY: Trump praised the troops who carried out what appears to be a successful mission, but, boy, oh, boy, are there questions about the plans to oversee Venezuela going forward. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is here with me in the studio. Hey, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Start with the operation, how this went down.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, President Trump and his aides described a dramatic overnight operation where U.S. forces knocked out electricity and dismantled Venezuelan air defense systems so that American helicopters could fly into Caracas.
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TRUMP: Air, land and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, General Dan Caine, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was also part of that presser, said more than 150 aircraft from across the hemisphere were involved. Special forces arrived at Maduro's compound by 2 a.m. local time and, within 2 hours, had both Maduro and his wife on an aircraft leaving the country and ultimately heading for the U.S.
KELLY: Yeah, and then among the images we've been tracking, President Trump posted what appears to be Maduro in handcuffs in a gray sweatsuit, eye protection, ear protection. It was something.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, it was really something. I mean, Trump said Maduro actually did his best to get away from U.S. forces, scrambling toward a safe room, but that U.S. forces quickly overwhelmed Venezuelan security.
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TRUMP: There was a lot of gunfire. You saw some of it today. But he was trying to get to a safe place, which wasn't safe because we would have had the door blown up.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump said Maduro actually did get the door open, but he could not get it closed because U.S. forces were just too quick.
KELLY: So many more details still to come on what exactly unfolded at that compound. Meanwhile, the big question, what does it mean? The U.S. is going to run Venezuela.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, I think that is the really, really big question. I mean, there is definitely a case to be made that the U.S. should have a role in a political transition to avoid chaos. But it is such a complicated and costly undertaking. I was talking with Benjamin Gedan, who ran the Venezuela portfolio in the Obama administration, and he was skeptical that Trump was really ready to take on what he described as a country that is basically a, quote, "failed state."
BENJAMIN GEDAN: The country can hardly feed itself, provide medicine, keep the lights on. This will be a monumentally expensive, long-lasting and complicated undertaking. And it's precisely the kind of nation-building that the president and his supporters typically oppose.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, Gedan says the mission appeared to run soon, but it's really just way too early to judge the success of regime change before it's known what actual regime emerges.
KELLY: Yeah, well, and what about who's actually going to be running it in the meantime, like, starting now?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, Trump said the U.S. will assemble a group of leaders, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to help run Venezuela after the Venezuelan leader Maduro was removed and leaving the country basically in a vacuum. But there doesn't seem to be a clear plan on which Venezuelan leader Trump supports.
KELLY: Franco, where in this puzzle does Machado, Maria Corino Machado, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, a leader in the Venezuelan opposition - where does she fit?
ORDOÑEZ: A wildly popular opposition leader - interestingly, though, Trump did not throw his support behind her. Here's what he said about Machado.
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TRUMP: Well, I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump said she is a very nice woman but that she just doesn't have the backing of the people - some strong, profound statements about the opposition leader.
KELLY: Let me turn you to oil and how oil fits into this because President Trump had a lot to say about the oil reserves, how they're going to foot the bill for everything going forward in Venezuela. How do you read the significance of that?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, it's very significant. I mean, we didn't hear much talk about reestablishing democracy in Venezuela during this presser. Frankly, we didn't hear that that much talk about drug trafficking, either, the...
KELLY: Which was the initial premise for all of this, we were told - going after drug boats. Go on.
ORDOÑEZ: Exactly. The focus today was largely on oil. Venezuela, of course, has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. And let's be clear, U.s. involvement in the Venezuelan oil industry would be a huge, huge deal. Though reestablishing it would be wildly expensive and a really long-term project. And it's also kind of unclear, as of now, which companies would undertake this challenge.
Now, Trump claimed that it would not cost the U.S. any money because he expects U.S. oil companies will happily invest billions of dollars to rebuild Venezuelans' oil structure. But the reality is that oil - or at least he says, the oil would then be extracted and sold for a profit to benefit both Venezuelans and the U.S. Now, he says the U.S. troops may be necessary to protect the oil, but he is not afraid of U.S. boots on the ground, and that is a tremendous statement for President Trump considering his aversion to military intervention in the past.
KELLY: Right. You and I both covered the campaign, and the whole central message of foreign policy was that the U.S. is going to get out of long entanglements overseas. Isn't this the type of action that Trump supporters have opposed?
ORDOÑEZ: Absolutely. I mean, Trump ran for office on an America First agenda, but his focus this term on international affairs has really raised questions with some of his most die-hard supporters. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, ripped into Trump's moves today, charging that regime change and funding foreign wars was exactly what MAGA thought they were voting against.
And I think that's why you're seeing so much focus by Trump on oil. He kept repeating that Venezuelan oil needs to be returned to the U.S. because Venezuela stole it from the U.S., and that's clearly a message to supporters that this is about U.s. interests.
KELLY: Thank you, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you.
KELLY: That's NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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