Trump administration officials laid out their roadmap for Venezuela on Wednesday in a classified Senate briefing, insisting they have a clear plan forward. Not all senators believe it.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the long-term plan as a “threefold process” to stabilize Venezuela, rebuild its economy and guide a political transition after U.S. forces captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
“Step one is the stabilization of the country. We don’t want it descending into chaos,” Rubio told reporters after meeting with senators.
He described a phased approach that would rely on U.S. control of Venezuela’s oil and political pressure on interim leaders. Rubio said U.S. control over Venezuela’s oil industry keeps the regime from getting revenue and gives the U.S. leverage to guide the transition and prevent chaos.
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Republicans and Democrats are looking for specifics on what happens next after the ouster, while the South American country is led by an interim president who is facing extreme pressure to make deals with the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has been adamant that the U.S. is in control of Venezuela’s resources but has stopped short of providing details on next steps.
“I won’t get ahead of the plans that the president and his team are currently speaking with the interim authorities about, but rest assured, there is a long-term plan here,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.
The U.S. plans to sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil under its control, with the revenue placed in American-run accounts to be dispersed in a way that Rubio said would “benefit the Venezuelan people.”
Officials said the U.S. will control these transactions “indefinitely” to maintain leverage. Rubio said the oil would be sold at market rates, not the discounted prices Venezuela had previously accepted.
The second phase, he said, focuses on recovery: opening Venezuela to Western businesses and beginning internal reconciliation, including amnesty for opposition forces and rebuilding civil society. The third phase is a full political transition.
Some senators said the details remained vague, even behind closed doors.
Sen. Josh Hawley, who had been looking forward to learn more about the administration’s endgame with Venezuela, said after the briefing that many of his questions remained unanswered, especially around the oil sales.
“There was nobody from Energy or Commerce there to discuss that,” he said. “So, I didn’t hear anything new that hasn’t been publicly reported just as of this morning.”
Hawley said the briefing itself was short with “very little time for questions,” and when asked if all his questions were answered, he replied: “No, no, of course not.”
Democrats largely came out of the classified briefing dissatisfied, raising concerns about the lack of transparency, the administration’s long-term strategy and its broader ambitions.
“We need answers as to how long this is going to last,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “We need answers to how many troops, how much money, are there guardrails?”
Schumer said the Trump administration’s strategy is “fraught with peril,” criticizing the administration for relying on what he described as corrupt and anti-American actors to help Trump run Venezuela. He also raised concerns about possible future operations in places like Greenland, Colombia and Mexico.
“Virtually all the questions were unanswered,” Sen. Tim Kaine told reporters, adding that the briefing was short and “very vague on the path forward.”
“We’ve got to get this discussion out of the skiff and into the public before it’s too late,” he added.
The briefing has satisfied at least one Democratic senator: John Fetterman. He praised the Venezuela operation as “supremely organized” and said it was not something that was hastily put together.
He defended the secrecy around the mission, telling reporters, “They probably wouldn’t have been able to keep it as secret as it was kept” if Congress had been notified ahead of time.
Asked whether he would vote for the war powers resolution proposed by Kaine and Sen. Rand Paul, Fetterman said he wouldn’t support anything that would have blocked the operation.
Most Republicans came out of the briefing praising the operation’s success and voicing confidence in the administration’s plan for Venezuela.
“This was a coordinated effort with months of planning,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin told reporters. “What we want to do is give the best opportunity for the Venezuelan people to take back their country and put it back in the democracy that they lost 25 years ago.”
Sen. Tim Sheehy backed the administration’s approach to the transition period.
“We’re four days in. It’s gonna take time,” he told reporters. “But I have confidence in Secretary Rubio, and the president and their plan.”
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