Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump made a stunning announcement that the interim authorities in Venezuela, who apparently now serve at his pleasure, will let him sell between $1.8 and $3bn worth of their country’s oil, which made real a fantasy the president has been sharing in public for at least 15 years, about using the US military to “take the oil” of conquered nations.
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Trump is actively discussing options for “acquiring Greenland”, including the use of the US military, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said.
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Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, stressed at a meeting with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, that “the future of Greenland and Denmark” must be “decided solely by the people of Denmark and Greenland.”
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Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former marine who fought in Iraq, called the news that Trump is considering an invasion of Greenland “INSANE” and called for Congress to block it.
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Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, hardened her tone against the United States on Tuesday, saying in a televised address that “no external agent governs Venezuela”. Hours later, Trump announced that the interim government was giving him up to 50 million barrels of its oil.
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The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told lawmakers that the president was just using threats of military action in Greenland to convince Denmark to sell the territory to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, told reporters that he hopes to meet Rubio soon, with his Greenlandic counterpart, to try to correct what he called the false information Trump has spread about Greenland.
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Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, issued a bipartisan statement urging Trump to accept that “Greenland is not for sale”.
Key events
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Closing summary
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Trump to meet oil executives at the White House on Friday – report
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Long before Venezuela, Trump fantasized about using the US military to seize foreign oil reserves
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Pentagon demobilizes federalized national guard troops in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago
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Senators Tillis and Shaheen urge Trump to accept ‘Greenland is not for sale’
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Trump says Venezuela has agreed to let him sell 30-50m barrels of oil
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Trump’s claims about Greenland are misinformation, Denmark’s foreign minister says
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Joint statement by Nordic foreign ministers on Greenland rejects US advances on territory
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Rubio told US lawmakers Trump wants Denmark to sell Greenland to US – report
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Gallego moves to block Pentagon funds for Greenland invasion
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‘The future of Greenland’ is solely up to the people of Greenland and Denmark, Canada’s prime minister says
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White House says Trump is weighing options for ‘acquiring Greenland’, including military action
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Top House Democrat on foreign affairs committee says ‘critical questions remain’ over what happens next following Venezuela briefing
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Brawl erupts as counter-protester is arrested at march by pardoned January 6 rioters
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Trump implores GOP to win midterms, fears impeachment if Democrats regain control of House
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Trump teases meeting with oil executives following Maduro arrest
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Top House Democrat says Trump has ‘attempted to rewrite history’ on fifth anniversary of January 6 attacks
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Trump calls Caracas strikes ‘amazing’ and ‘brilliant’ at House GOP retreat
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Donald Trump addresses House Republicans at annual retreat
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Top Trump administration officials to brief all US senators on Venezuela strikes and Maduro capture
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Free all the Venezuelan political prisoners, opposition demands
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US trial of Maduro undermines stability of international relations, China’s foreign ministry says
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It is ‘clear’ the US raid on Venezuela ‘undermined a fundamental principle of international law’, UN human rights office says
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Maduro’s legal team includes acclaimed lawyer who represented Julian Assange
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British PM choosing his ‘words carefully’ over response to US attack on Venezuela, health secretary says
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Opening summary
Citing what it called concerns about fraud, the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Tuesday that it froze more than $10bn in federal childcare and family assistance funds for state-run programs in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York – five states with Democratic governors that voted against Donald Trump in all three elections since 2016.
The action applies to three programs overseen by the health department’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF): the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant.
Trump to meet oil executives at the White House on Friday – report
Donald Trump will meet with oil company executives at the White House on Friday to discuss rebuilding Venezuela’s degraded oil sector, two unnamed sources told Reuters.
Raising crude output from Venezuela, which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves, is a top objective for Trump after US forces seized the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, in a raid on its capital Caracas on Saturday, and left his regime in place.
Chevron is the only major US oil firm now operating in Venezuela’s oil fields.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips were major producers in the country before their projects were nationalized by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez, nearly two decades ago.
Long before Venezuela, Trump fantasized about using the US military to seize foreign oil reserves
Donald Trump’s stunning announcement on Tuesday, that the interim authorities in Venezuela, who apparently now serve at his pleasure, will let him sell between $1.8bn and $3bn worth of their country’s oil, and decide how to spend the proceeds, makes real a fantasy the president has been sharing in public for at least 15 years, about using the US military to “take the oil” of conquered nations.
Earlier in the day, Joe Scarborough, a former Republican representative turned centrist pundit, reported that Trump had told him in a phone conversation that his plans for Venezuela were very different from the failed US occupation of Iraq two decades ago. “Joe, the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn’t keep the oil,” the president said. “We’re going to keep the oil.”
“In 2016,” Trump added, “I said we should’ve kept the oil. It caused a lot of controversy. Well, we should’ve kept the oil.”
In Venezuela, he said, “we’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time, we’re going to keep the oil”.
As I reported in 2016, Trump did indeed tell Matt Lauer, at a presidential forum on the military two months before he was elected, that the US had made a grave mistake in Iraq by failing to “take the oil” before withdrawing all of its troops.
“If we would’ve taken the oil, you wouldn’t have Isis, because Isis formed with the power and the wealth of that oil,” Trump said.
“How are we going to take the oil?” Lauer asked.
Trump suggested that the US could have left troops behind to “take various sections where they have the oil”.
“You know, it used to be the victor belong the spoils,” Trump added. “But I always said, take the oil.”
In that interview, Trump was referring to the fact that he had, five years earlier, when he briefly considered running for president against Barack Obama, repeatedly called for the US to use its military force to extort control of foreign oil reserves.
In a YouTube video posted in late February 2011 on a channel set up to promote The Apprentice, Trump criticized Obama for not sending in troops to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi. “I can’t believe what our country is doing,” Trump said. “Gaddafi in Libya is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is, and we’re sitting around. We have soldiers all have the Middle East, and we’re not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage.”
“After it’s all done, we go to the protesters, who end up running the country,” Trump added, “and we should then say: ‘By the way, from all of your oil, we want reimbursement.’”
A month later, when the Fox host Bill O’Reilly quizzed him on how he would handle foreign policy as president, Trump proudly unveiled his plan to seize Iraq’s oil.
“I like the old system better: you won a war, you stay there, and you keep the oil,” Trump said. “You stay and protect the oil, and you take the oil and you take whatever is necessary for them and you take what’s necessary for us and we pay our self back $1.5tn or more. We take care of Britain, we take care of other countries that helped us, and we don’t be so stupid.”
“So, in a nutshell,” he added, “we go in, we take over the second-largest oilfields, and we stay.”
When O’Reilly stifled a laugh as he said: “So you’re going to take over the Iraqi oilfields?” Trump was indignant, saying: “Don’t smile!”
“I’m just saying,” O’Reilly said, “if you’re going to go into the Iraq oilfields and take them over, there’s going to be a lot of blowback.”
Five months later, after the US-led air campaign had forced Gaddafi from power in Libya – and Trump had decided not to challenge Obama for the presidency – the star of The Apprentice posted another YouTube video, this time complaining that the US should have waited longer to aid the Libyan rebels, to force them to agree to surrender half of the country’s oil reserves.
“What we should’ve done is we should’ve asked the rebels when they came to us – and they came to us, they were being routed by Gaddafi, they were being decimated – we should’ve said: ‘We’ll help you, but we want 50% of your oil,’” Trump said. “They would’ve said: ‘How about 75%?’”
Pentagon demobilizes federalized national guard troops in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago
The US military’s Northern Command announced on Tuesday that hundreds of national guard troops, called up in support of immigration enforcement raids in Portland, Los Angeles and Chicago, are being returned from federal service to their respective states.
All of those troops “will return to their home units once their demobilization is complete”, the military command said in a statement.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, welcomed the decision to release the reservists who were blocked from deploying to the streets of Portland by a federal court injunction.
Kotek said:
The citizen-soldiers of the Oregon National Guard are our neighbors, friends, and family. These courageous Oregonians deserve certainty and respect. While I am relieved that all our troops will finally return home, it does not make up for the personal sacrifices of more than 100 days, including holidays, spent in limbo.
During this crisis, Oregonians stood united against the unwanted, unneeded, unconstitutional military intervention in our state, with thousands peacefully voicing their opposition to the Trump Administration’s abuse of power.
President Trump’s disregard for the facts on the ground revealed that he is more focused on provoking a fight in cities and states that don’t share his politics than serving the American people. I remain committed to defending our values and the rule of law.
Senators Tillis and Shaheen urge Trump to accept ‘Greenland is not for sale’
Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, issued a bipartisan statement urging Donald Trump to accept that “Greenland is not for sale”.
The senators, who co-chair a Senate group on Nato, wrote:
Denmark is one of our oldest and most reliable allies. Danish troops have fought and died alongside Americans in numerous conflicts, and Denmark was among the first to stand with us when NATO invoked Article 5 following the 9/11 attacks. Today, Denmark is significantly increasing its defense spending and remains a critical partner in Arctic security. This is an ally that has earned our unwavering respect.
When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark. Any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend.
They added: “As we confront the challenges of the 21st century, we do so alongside allies like Denmark who stand with us by choice, not by compulsion.”
Trump says Venezuela has agreed to let him sell 30-50m barrels of oil
Donald Trump, who has for years claimed that the US military can and should be used to take control of the oil of foreign nations, announced on Tuesday that the interim authorities in Venezuela have agreed to let him sell 30-50m barrels of their oil.
“I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America. This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan, immediately,” he added. “It will be taken by storage ships, and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States.”
Trump’s claims about Greenland are misinformation, Denmark’s foreign minister says
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, responds to a request from Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the three of them to meet soon to discuss threats from Donald Trump to seize the Danish self-governing territory.
According to the Danish public broadcaster DR, Rasmussen said that such a meeting would give the Danes and Greenlanders a chance to correct what he called the false information Trump has used to argue that Greenland poses a threat to the security of the United States.
That misinformation, the foreign minister said, includes false claims that there are a lot of Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland, and that China exerts great influence there through investments.
“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.
“We do not share this image that Greenland is plastered with Chinese investments,” Rasmussen said, “nor that there are Chinese warships up and down along Greenland”.
Rasmussen spoke to reporters after an emergency session of Denmark’s foreign policy committee and defense ministry with just one item on the agenda: “The Kingdom’s relations with the United States.”
Denmark’s defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, said after the meeting that Denmark had spent billions to increase security in Greenland, not, as Trump had claimed this week, by adding just “one more dog sled”.
Joint statement by Nordic foreign ministers on Greenland rejects US advances on territory
The foreign ministers of five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – have rejected the Trump administration’s statement that it is reviewing options for “acquiring Greenland” in a joint statement on Tuesday.
“We collectively reiterate that matters concerning Denmark and Greenland are for Denmark and Greenland to decide alone,” the foreign ministers write.
The statement also says that the nations “support NATO increasing its presence and vigilance” in the arctic region, but security “rests on respect for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders”.
“The Kingdom of Denmark, including Greenland, is a founding member of NATO,” the foreign ministers note, “and has historically worked closely with the United States on Arctic Security, including through the Defense Agreement between the US and Denmark from 1951, which offers opportunities for increased security cooperation.”
Rubio told US lawmakers Trump wants Denmark to sell Greenland to US – report
During a classified briefing on Venezuela on Monday, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, told lawmakers that the president was just using threats of military action in Greenland to convince Denmark to sell the territory to the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the Journal, Rubio was responding to a question from Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, about whether the Trump administration plans to make good on threats to use military force in Mexico and Greenland.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who was a scathing critic of Trump’s qualifications to be commander-in-chief in 2016 but has since turned into a staunch supporter, told the newspaper the threat to attack Greenland “is all about negotiations”.
After Graham dropped out of the 2016 Republican presidential primary, he told reporters that choosing between the final two candidates, Trump and Ted Cruz, was “like being shot or poisoned”.
“Donald Trump I think is the most unprepared person I’ve ever met to be commander-in-chief,” Graham added. “When Donald Trump speaks about foreign policy, it scares the hell out of me.”
Tiago Rogero
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, hardened her tone against the United States on Tuesday, saying in a televised address that “no external agent governs Venezuela” – a clear rebuttal to Donald Trump’s claim that, following the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, the US would now run the South American country.
It marked another shift in tone from Maduro’s former vice-president. After being sworn in as president by Venezuela’s supreme court on Saturday, Rodríguez released a conciliatory statement late on Sunday in which she “invited the US government to work together on an agenda of cooperation”.
That softer message came hours after the US president threatened that she could “pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she did not comply with his demands.
In Tuesday’s address, however, Rodríguez reverted to harsher language, describing Saturday’s strike – the first large-scale US military operation on South American soil – as a “terrible military aggression” and a “criminal attack” whose “absolutely illegal outcome, in violation of international law”, was the “kidnapping” of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
“We are a people who do not surrender, who do not give up, and we are here, governing together with the people. The government of Venezuela rules in our country – no one else. There is no external agent governing Venezuela. It is Venezuela, it’s constitutional government and the consolidated power of the people,” said Rodríguez, who had served as Maduro’s vice-president since 2018.
Since Monday, the regime has stepped up internal repression, with armed militias patrolling streets, operating checkpoints and checking people’s mobile phones.
The regime also made public a decree dated Saturday and signed by Maduro – who was arrested at 2.01am – declaring a “state of external commotion”, effectively a state of emergency, and ordering the “immediate search and capture of anyone involved in the promotion or support of the US armed attack”.
At least 14 journalists and media workers, including 13 linked to international outlets, were detained in Caracas. Thirteen were later released, one of whom was deported. Gunshots and explosions were reported overnight near the Miraflores presidential palace, and the government said it had fired at unauthorised drones flying over the area.
Gallego moves to block Pentagon funds for Greenland invasion
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and former marine who fought in Iraq, called the White House statement that Donald Trump is considering using the military to invade Greenland “INSANE” in a social media post and called for Congress to block the threatened invasion of Danish territory.
In response to the news, Gallego wrote on Bluesky: “INSANE. This is why I’m taking action. Congress MUST act so I’m introducing my War Powers Resolution to stop this Dumbroe Doctrine.”
Gallego has drafted an amendment to the Pentagon defense appropriations bill “To prohibit the use of funds for military force, the conduct of hostilities, or the preparation for war against or with respect to Greenland”.
In his social media post, Gallego also made a mocking reference to Trump’s recent boast that his attack on Venezuela was a development of the 1823 Monroe doctrine, which the president claimed some were calling the “Donroe doctrine”.
“This is not more complicated than the fact that Trump wants a giant island with his name on it,” Gallego added. “He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong. The US military is not a toy.”
‘The future of Greenland’ is solely up to the people of Greenland and Denmark, Canada’s prime minister says
As the White House says that a military option for seizing the Danish territory of Greenland is under active consideration, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, just met with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, in Paris, and stressed that “the future of Greenland and Denmark” must be “decided solely by the people of Denmark and Greenland.”
Carney also stressed that Denmark and Canada “share a maritime border of 3,000 kilometers” and a close relationship through Nato.
Carney also mentioned that Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, is about to visit Greenland.
“I will be in Nuuk in the coming weeks to officially open Canada’s consulate and mark a concrete step in strengthening our engagement in support of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Greenland,” Anand wrote on social media.
Dharna Noor
Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, is demanding US big oil bosses disclose any prior knowledge of Trump’s attack on Venezuela and capture of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
“President Trump and his administration lied about and concealed their plans to attack the territory of, and conduct regime change in, Venezuela, keeping the American public and members of Congress – who have the sole constitutional power to declare war – in the dark. The only outside entities that appear to have known the truth are oil executives,” Markey wrote in the letters to the heads of Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, the three biggest US oil companies.
The missives, sent Tuesday, follow a claim from Trump on Sunday that he talked to oil companies “before and after” the attack on Venezuela, describing them as crucial to “fix the infrastructure” in the country.
On Friday, an industry insider told Politico big oil executives did communicate with Trump about the attack. “In preparation for regime change, there had been engagement,” the person said, adding that “it’s been sporadic and relatively flatly received by the industry”.
Trump purportedly seeks a massive ramp-up of fossil fuel extraction from Venezuela. The country is home to the world’s largest oil reserves, though production has plummeted since its peak in the 1970s.
“The oil companies are going to go in, they are going to spend money, we are going to take back the oil, frankly, we should’ve taken back a long time ago,” the US president said in the wake of the extraction of Maduro, as well as his wife, Cilia Flores.
In his letters, Markey called on Chevron – the sole US oil company doing business in Venezuela – as well as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips to turn over any communication with US officials about the military operations before they occurred.
He also asked the companies whether they had had advance notice of attempts at regime change, and to disclose their plans to boost oil extraction in Venezuela. In addition, he asked how the firms would be affected by the military action in the South American country. And he asked for their take on officials’ claims that the country “stole” American oil.
“The American people deserve to know,” Markey wrote.
Mark Warner, the Democratic vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, just posted a statement on social media urging his Republican colleagues to take Trump’s threats of military action against three more countries seriously.
“Now, Trump threatens Greenland, Colombia, and Mexico,” Warner wrote on Bluesky. “Where is the line? When will Republicans find a spine to say this is ridiculous and dangerous?”
White House says Trump is weighing options for ‘acquiring Greenland’, including military action
Donald Trump is actively discussing options for “acquiring Greenland”, including the use of the US military, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday:
President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.
At a news conference in Paris, the ITV correspondent James Mates just asked Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, who touted new commitments from the Trump administration to defend Ukraine: “What value do these commitments have on the very day that at the highest levels of government in Washington they are talking about seizing the sovereign territory of a fellow Nato member?”
Starmer said that he stood by the statement he made on Monday, when he said that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must determine the future of Greenland and nobody else”.
Top House Democrat on foreign affairs committee says ‘critical questions remain’ over what happens next following Venezuela briefing
After top Trump administration officials gave a briefing to congressional leaders on the military operation in Venezuela, the top House Democrat on the foreign affairs committee said that he “heard nothing” to dispel his “very serious concerns about the Trump administration’s attempted regime-change” in the country.
“Donald Trump used US military force to invade a sovereign nation without authorization from Congress. He did so not to address an imminent threat to the United States, nor to advance a democratic transition in Venezuela,” said the representative Gregory Meeks. “Instead, the administration is embracing a dangerous worldview in which the United States can run roughshod over our hemisphere, mirroring the same logic Vladimir Putin uses to justify domination over his neighbors.”
Meeks said he would push for “public hearings, transparency and meaningful oversight to reassert Congress’s constitutional role and prevent further escalation and instability”.
A reminder that the same officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will brief all senators on the weekend strikes in Caracas and the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, tomorrow on Capitol Hill.
Rachel Leingang
The Trump administration has sent more immigration agents to Minnesota, part of escalating attacks and rhetoric against the state and its immigrant populations.
The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed on X that it is “surging to Minneapolis to root out fraud, arrest perpetrators and remove criminal illegal aliens”. Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Newsmax that the agency has in the city “the largest immigration operation ever taking place right now”.
CBS News reported on Monday that the administration would bring another 2,000 agents, both from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations, into the state for 30 days. Lyons didn’t confirm the number of agents, but said it was an effort from both ICE and HSI. DHS wouldn’t confirm a number to the Guardian, but said that the agency had “surged law enforcement”.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, appears to be in the state. She can be seen in a video produced by DHS of an arrest in Minneapolis of a man from Ecuador whom the agency said is wanted for murder in his home country.
Operation Metro Surge, the agency’s name for its crackdown on Minnesota, has been under way since early December. Community members have fought back against ICE, protesting and impeding deportations, as some immigrants have stayed away from public life, avoiding grocery stores or medical care for fear of apprehension.
