President of the United States Donald Trump joked on Thursday about the possibility of running in the Venezuelan elections against interim president Delcy Rodríguez, due to his popularity in that country. "After my term, maybe I'll go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy. Maybe I'll run against Delcy," he declared during a meeting at the White House with his cabinet, provoking laughter from those present. The head of state made this comment after assuring that the relationship with Venezuela since the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3 is "incredible" and that even he is "the person with the highest approval rating" in that South American country. The president also stated that the United States obtained 100 million barrels of Venezuelan oil in the first two weeks after Maduro's capture and that both the United States and Venezuela "have earned a lot of money." Immediately after, the Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who was recently in Caracas, assured that Trump is so respected and admired in Venezuela that they see him "as Simón Bolívar" and that he believes they are going to erect a statue of him in the Caribbean country. At the same cabinet meeting, Trump said that Maduro, who faces his second hearing before Justice in New York this Thursday, is only being prosecuted for "a fraction" of the crimes he committed and that there will be more trials. This Thursday, the arrival of a Venezuelan delegation in Washington is expected to prepare for the reopening of the South American country's embassy in the United States after both nations restored their diplomatic relations, which had been broken since 2019.
