Although our policy is based on a peaceful transition, we have made it very clear that all options are on the table.[2]
In May 2020, Trump said in a conversation with the television network Fox News that "If we ever did anything with Venezuela", in that case "it would be called invasion", explaining: "if I wanted to go into Venezuela I wouldn't make a secret about it", and "I wouldn't send a small, little group, no, no, no. It would be called an army."[3] In June 2020 John Bolton, National Security advisor at the time, published in a book that Trump said that invading Venezuela would be "cool" because It is "really part of the United States".[4]
In May 2023 Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, declared that Trump had made a proposal to then-president Iván Duque to invade Venezuela through Colombia, but that his advisors had stopped him.[5]
In June 2023, Trump declared at a press conference in North Carolina:[6]
When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse. We would have taken it over, we would have gotten all that oil.