U.S. President Donald Trump on the 4th warned Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who has stepped in to act in place of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, that she could "pay a bigger price."
In a phone interview with the U.S. current affairs weekly the Atlantic that morning, Trump said Rodríguez would "pay a very big price if she does not do the right thing," adding that "she may pay a bigger price than Maduro."
Earlier, through a military operation from the night of the 2nd to the early morning of the 3rd, U.S. forces raided Maduro's safe house, arrested Maduro and his wife, and transferred them to a detention center in New York. The operation to capture Maduro was completed just three hours after Trump gave the order to strike.
The Atlantic said Trump's threatening remarks stood in contrast to his positive comments about Rodríguez at a news conference the day before.
Previously, at the briefing, Trump said Rodríguez had privately expressed a willingness to cooperate with the United States, saying, "Rodríguez is essentially willing to do whatever we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again."
However, Rodríguez later chaired an emergency cabinet meeting and said, "Our only president is Maduro," demanding the release of the presidential couple. She also pushed back on U.S. remarks about running Venezuela, saying, "Venezuela will never be a colony of any country."
Meanwhile, the Atlantic reported that Trump again said Venezuela may not be the last country subject to U.S. intervention. He said "Greenland is absolutely necessary," adding that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a current member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is "surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships."