‘I’m not thrilled with Putin’: Trump ends Venezuela briefing with blunt remark on Russian President

The United States will take control of Venezuela until a political transition is secured, President Donald Trump said on Saturday, hours after confirming the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. The remarks followed an overnight US military operation in which Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were 'captured and flown out of the country' during what he described as ‘large-scale’ strikes. As the press conference drew to a close, however, attention shifted beyond Caracas when Trump added an unscripted remark on Russia, saying, “I’m not thrilled with Putin".

How Russia reacted to the strikes

Hardly anyone expected 2026 to usher in calm, and within its first three days, those expectations collapsed. Trump also accused Maduro of being a ‘dictator’ and a ‘drug kingpin’ and also claimed that Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, had been sworn in as the country’s new president and would cooperate with the United States. “We can't take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela who doesn't have the interests of Venezuelans in mind,” he added. Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned what it called an 'act of armed aggression against Venezuela' by the United States, calling any ‘excuses’ given to justify such actions ‘untenable’. In the statement it added, "Venezuela must be guaranteed the right to determine its own destiny without any destructive, let alone military, interference from outside.”

Trump's remarks on Putin

While the press conference was centered on Venezuela, it ended with an unexpected pivot to Russia and the war in Ukraine. When asked about his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said Maduro had not come up in their discussion. However, he used the moment to voice blunt frustration with Moscow. “I’m not thrilled with Putin,” Trump said. “He’s killing too many people.” He described the war in Ukraine as a ‘bloodbath’ and said progress was being made towards peace, without providing specifics.

Flanked by senior Cabinet officials, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump repeated his long-held claim that the conflict ‘should have never happened’ and insisted it would not have begun had he been president at the time. “I’m not happy about the number of people killed,” he added, saying both sides had ‘done some bad things’.