PALM BEACH, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States (US) will “run” Venezuela until a political transition can occur, after the shocking US military operation to remove Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from the country.

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told a press conference, adding that US forces were ready to conduct a second, “much bigger” wave of strikes if necessary.

He also announced that he would allow American oil companies to head into Venezuela to tap its massive crude reserves after a US military operation to seize the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro.

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure and start making money for the country,” Trump told a press conference.

Trump also said “the embargo on all Venezuelan oil remains in full effect”.

As part of a weeks-long military pressure campaign against Venezuela in the run-up to the raid, US forces seized at least two oil tankers that Washington said were subject to US sanctions.

Trump also warned other political and military figures in Venezuela, saying that “what happened to Maduro can happen to them”.

Venezuela has been under US oil sanctions since 2019. It produces about a million barrels of crude per day. It sells most on the black market at steep discounts.

Trump claims Caracas is using oil money to finance “drug terrorism, human trafficking, murder and kidnapping”.