Patriot Brief

• Donald Trump warned Venezuela’s interim leadership against defying U.S. demands after Maduro’s capture.

• Trump and Marco Rubio emphasized results over rhetoric in judging Venezuela’s next steps.

• Republicans remain divided on whether Delcy Rodríguez should be treated as a legitimate governing authority.

Donald Trump isn’t pretending this is a delicate diplomatic dance. After the capture of Nicolás Maduro, the president made it clear that Venezuela doesn’t get a reset by changing faces and keeping the same habits. His message to interim leaders was blunt: cooperate, dismantle the criminal infrastructure, and stop serving as a launchpad for drugs, terror groups, and hostile regimes — or pay the price.

That clarity matters. For years, Venezuela mastered the art of saying the right things at press conferences while continuing the same behavior behind the scenes. Marco Rubio’s comments cut directly through that routine. The administration isn’t interested in speeches, statements, or symbolic condemnations. It’s watching outcomes. Do the drugs stop flowing? Do Iranian and Hezbollah operations get expelled? Does migration slow? Do narco-terror groups lose safe haven? Those are the metrics now.

Delcy Rodríguez’s shifting tone tells its own story. One day it’s outrage and denunciations, the next it’s talk of cooperation and shared development. That’s not ideological evolution — that’s leverage at work. Trump understands that power vacuums invite chaos unless someone defines the rules quickly.

Sen. Tom Cotton is also right to draw a hard line on legitimacy. Control of the military doesn’t equal moral authority. The goal isn’t to prop up another strongman in a different suit. It’s to force conditions where a genuinely pro-American, stabilizing government can emerge.

This approach isn’t about endless occupation or nation-building. It’s about conditional pressure. Venezuela gets a path forward — but only if it proves, through actions, that it’s done being a threat to its neighbors and the United States. For once, Washington is judging results instead of promises.

From Western Journal:

President Donald Trump is keeping up the pressure on Venezuela’s interim leader to work with the U.S. and not against it.

Immediately after the U.S. raid that captured dictator Nicolás Maduro, Trump said Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez would collaborate with the United States to govern Venezuela. Later Saturday, she made a speech condemning Maduro’s capture.

That led Trump to say, “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” according to the Atlantic.

Trump has indicated he will not allow Venezuela to backslide into another military-backed dictatorship.

“Rebuilding there and regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse,” he said, according to Fox News.

Trump said rebuilding the country is “not a bad thing in Venezuela’s case,” according to Politico.

Although Rodriguez said that the raid to capture Maduro was “an atrocity that violates international law,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he believes Venezuela will follow the U.S. lead to install a better government.

“Well, we’re not going to judge moving forward based simply on what’s said in press conferences,” he said, according to ABC News.

“We want to see action here at the end of the day. Rhetoric is one thing. You see rhetoric for a lot of different reasons. There’s a lot of different reasons why people go on TV and say certain things in these countries, especially 15 hours or 12 hours after the person who used to be in charge of the regime is now in handcuffs and on his way to New York,” he said.

“So, what I will say is, moving forward, it’s very simple, we’re not going to be reactive here to statements at press conferences or what people say in a certain interview or what some media posts — some media post somewhere,” he said.

“What we are going to react to is very simple, what do you do? Not what you’re saying publicly. What happens? What happens next? Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah no longer able — and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela? Does the migration pattern stop? Do the drug trafficking boats end? Do you deal with the ELN and the FARC, two narco-terrorist organizations who control territory and operate with impunity from the territory of Venezuela against the interest of Colombia and the United States?” he said.

“These are the things we want addressed. If they are addressed, that’s how we’ll judge it. If they’re not addressed, that’s how we’ll judge it,” he said.

However, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said, “We don’t recognize Delcy Rodriguez as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela,” Politico reported.

 “They have control of the military and security services. We have to deal with that fact, but that does not make them a legitimate leader. What we want is a future Venezuelan government that will be pro-American, that will contribute to stability, order, and prosperity, not only in Venezuela, but in our own backyard,” he said.

On Sunday, Rodriguez appeared to be slightly shifting her tone.

“We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperative agenda, oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” she said, according to The New York Times.

“Our people and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. That has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s position, and it is the position of all of Venezuela at this moment. That is the Venezuela I believe in, the Venezuela to which I have dedicated my life. My dream is for Venezuela to be a great power where all good Venezuelans can come together,” she said.

Source

Photo Credit: Jesus Vargas / Getty Images; Joe Raedle / Getty Images