U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a training camp for House Republicans at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2026.
Mandel Gunn | AFP | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump has called off new military attacks on Venezuela, saying the two countries are “working together well” to rebuild oil and gas infrastructure.
In an op-ed on Truth Social on Friday, President Trump called Venezuela’s release of “a large number of political prisoners” a “very important and wise action.”
“Thanks to this cooperation, we have canceled the long-anticipated second wave of attacks, which may not be necessary, but all vessels will remain in place for safety and security purposes,” Trump said.
At a press conference on January 3, President Trump suggested that a second attack on Venezuela was unlikely to be deemed necessary, citing the success of the first operation.
“If necessary, we stand ready to carry out a second, even larger attack,” he told reporters at the time. “So we were prepared to do a second wave if necessary. In fact, we assumed we would need a second wave. But that’s probably not the case right now. The first wave, if you want to call it that, was very successful. We probably don’t need to do a second wave, but we are prepared to do a second wave, which is a bigger wave.”
The U.S. government launched a military operation in Venezuela over the weekend, leading to the detention of the country’s President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are facing drug trafficking charges. Both men pleaded not guilty. President Maduro claimed in a New York courtroom this week that he had been “kidnapped” and a “prisoner of war.”
On Thursday, Venezuelan National Assembly Speaker Jorge Rodriguez announced that the government would release a significant number of foreign and Venezuelan prisoners. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Álvarez later said five Spanish prisoners had been released and were on a plane returning to their home country.
Since Maduro’s ouster, President Trump has focused on oil-rich Venezuela’s energy resources, saying immediately after the operation that he was in talks with major oil companies about rebuilding the country’s oil infrastructure.
President Trump said in a post Friday that “Big Oil” would invest at least $100 billion in Venezuela and said he planned to meet with representatives of the U.S. oil giants at the White House later on Friday.
chevron is currently the only oil major operating in Venezuela, and U.S. oil majors have so far been largely silent on President Trump’s push to join in rebuilding the country’s energy system.
Venezuela, a founding member of the powerful OPEC energy alliance, has 303 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This represents about 17% of the world’s oil reserves, but it is currently thought to produce less than 1% of the world’s oil production, with only half of that being exported.
On Tuesday, President Trump said Venezuelan authorities would provide the United States with up to 50 million barrels of crude oil to sell at market prices.
“That money will be managed by me as President of the United States to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump said at the time. A source close to the White House later told CNBC that Venezuela would continue shipping sanctioned oil to the United States indefinitely.
— CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this article.
