President Donald Trump said he is working with Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez and the rest of the regime after the capture of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro to avoid mistakes made during the Iraq War.
Speaking to press outside the White House, Trump said "if you ever remember a place called Iraq, where everybody was fired — every single person, the police, the generals, everybody was fired — and they ended up being ISIS."
REPORTER: "Why align with Delcy Rodríguez... and not with Machado?"
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 16, 2026
.@POTUS: "If you ever remember a place called Iraq, where everybody was fired — every single person, the police, the generals, everybody was fired — and they ended up being ISIS... I remember that." https://t.co/rZUuTOVtxe pic.twitter.com/bn8V95swhg
"Instead of getting down to business they became ISIS, I remember that," Trump added. He went on to say that he, nonetheless, had a "great" meeting with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Thursday. "She gave me her Nobel Price. I was very impressed. This is a fine woman," Trump said.
Despite the praise, Trump has said that Machado "doesn't have the respect" to take over the country at the moment, and has been working with the regime, largely overseeing its oil industry.
In fact, U.S. intelligence officials have described Delcy Rodriguez as a pragmatic political figure capable of working with Washington, according to assessments cited after a rare visit to Caracas by CIA director John Ratcliffe.
According to a U.S. official familiar with the discussions, Ratcliffe was dispatched at Trump's direction to signal interest in an improved working relationship. The talks covered intelligence cooperation, economic stability and preventing Venezuela from becoming a "safe haven for America's adversaries, especially narco-traffickers," the official said.
As part of those discussions, CIA produced an early assessment portraying Rodríguez, then vice president, as a negotiator rather than an ideologue. One intelligence report noted that she wore a $15,000 dress to her inauguration, prompting an official to remark that "she is a socialist but the most capitalistic one I've seen."
Rodríguez had participated in talks with Richard Grenell, Trump's special envoy, as the administration explored ways to persuade Maduro to relinquish power voluntarily. While no agreement emerged, officials said Rodríguez demonstrated a willingness to identify potential areas of compromise.
Subsequent intelligence reporting concluded that keeping Rodríguez in place temporarily would be the most effective way to avoid chaos after Maduro's removal. U.S. intelligence also judged opposition leaders, including Machado and Edmundo González, as unlikely to secure cooperation from security forces in the short term.
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