Venezuela will not have new elections in the next 30 days, President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Monday, projecting a longer-term engagement two days after U.S. forces captured that nation’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. “We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump said about the possibility of a vote in the next month. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health.” Moreover, he said, the U.S. may subsidize an effort by oil companies to rebuild the country’s energy infrastructure — a project he said could take less than 18 months. “I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” he said. “A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.” He also insisted the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela. “No, we’re not,” Trump said. “We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country.” Venezuela 15 hours ago Live updates: Nicolás Maduro, Cilia Flores plead not guilty Venezuela 8 hours ago Who is Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim leader after the capture of Nicolás Maduro? In the roughly 20-minute interview, Trump identified a group of U.S. officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance — who will help oversee America’s involvement in Venezuela. “It’s a group of all. They have all expertise, different expertise,” he said. But he had a one-word answer for who is ultimately in charge: “Me.” Trump’s discussion of his vision for Venezuela came just a couple of hours after Maduro was arraigned in New York on a series of charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy. He was seized from a compound in the capital city of Caracas in the wee hours of Saturday morning during a raid by U.S. special forces and law enforcement officials. Maduro pleaded not guilty, saying he remains the leader of his country even as Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in Monday as acting president. Trump said Rodríguez has been cooperating with U.S. officials but insisted there was no communication between her camp and the American side before Maduro’s ouster. “No, that’s not the case,” he said, adding that a determination will be made soon about whether existing sanctions against Rodríguez will be left in place or lifted. When asked if there was “any deal with any official in Venezuela to remove” Maduro, Trump replied, “Well, yeah, because a lot of people wanted to make a deal, but we decided to do it this way,” adding that it was without the help of Maduro’s inner circle. Trump also declined to say whether he’s spoken to Rodríguez yet, but he said that Rubio “speaks to her fluently in Spanish” and that their “relationship has been very strong.” He indicated that the U.S. could launch a second military incursion into Venezuela if Rodríguez stops cooperating with U.S. officials but said he does not believe that will be necessary. Trump also suggested he had initially expected to have to send in American forces again already. “We’re prepared to do it,” he said. “We anticipated doing it, actually.” Trump also denied a Washington Post report that he had dismissed the possibility of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado running the country because she won the Nobel Peace Prize last year — an award long sought by Trump. “She should not have won it,” he said. “But no, that has nothing to do with my decision.” Having campaigned on an “America First” platform and his desire to end wars, rather than start them, Trump has seen some of his political allies question the wisdom of the U.S. entering into a long-term commitment in Venezuela. But he said in the interview that he is confident his political base will stick with him. “MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I’m doing. MAGA loves everything I do,” Trump said. “MAGA is me. MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too.” Critics in both parties have noted that Trump did not seek a new authorization from Congress to launch Saturday morning’s raid, and he said in the interview that he would not need lawmakers to act in order for him to send American troops back in. “We have good support congressionally,” he said. “And Congress knew what we were doing all along, but we have good support congressionally. Why wouldn’t they support us?” When asked what Congress “knew” — and whether any lawmakers had advance notification about the operation, Trump declined to elaborate. “I don’t want to get into that,” he replied, “but people knew.” ...read more read less