Summary of this article
Donald Trump said he could run for president in Venezuela, claiming he would poll “higher than anybody ever has.”
The comments were made in a light-hearted tone during a press conference, where he also said he would “quickly learn Spanish.”
His remarks follow a controversial US military operation that led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, after which Washington said it would oversee a transition in the country.
Donald Trump claimed he was popular in Venezuela, where he might consider running for president after completing his US term.
In light-hearted remarks during a press conference on Monday, Trump said he would poll higher than anybody ever has in Venezuela, where US forces captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in January to face drug trafficking trials in the US.
"The people of Venezuela, they say, if I ran for president of Venezuela, I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela, so after I'm finished with this, I can go to Venezuela," Trump said.
"I will quickly learn Spanish. It won't take too long. I'm good at language, and I will go to Venezuela. I'm going to run for president. But we're very happy with the president-elect that we have right now," the US president said.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez took over as acting president after Nicolas Maduro's capture by US forces on January 3 this year.
During the press conference, Trump said the conflict with Venezuela was "over in 45 minutes", and boasted that the United States has now taken hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from the country.
"We have great people running Venezuela. The relationship is good, and we are a partner with Venezuela, and we've taken hundreds of millions of barrels (of oil), already, (it) is in Houston, refined and out, and paid for that war many, many times over," Trump said.
