In a dramatic turn of events, President Trump stunned the international community when the United States executed a successful mission to detain Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The extensive operation unfolded in the early hours of Saturday, mobilizing over 150 U.S. aircraft. Maduro, along with his wife Cilia Flores, now faces charges in the Southern District of New York, and they are currently being transported to New York aboard the USS Iwo Jima.

During a press briefing that captured global attention, Trump revealed details of the operation and declared that the U.S. will govern Venezuela temporarily until a new administration is established.

While members of the Republican Party have praised the bold move to remove Maduro from power, Democratic leaders have swiftly criticized the mission, highlighting the absence of Congressional consultation.

Here are five key insights into Trump’s unexpected removal of Maduro from leadership.

Trump seeks to ‘run’ Venezuela, threatens more strikes  

Perhaps the biggest headline out of Trump’s new conference was his revelation that the U.S. would run Venezuela until a new leader is safely and peacefully installed.  

“We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “We don’t want to be involved with having somebody get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.”  

When asked to clarify specifically who will run Venezuela, Trump said the U.S will be running it with “a group.” 

“We’re going to be running it with a group and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of and we’re going to make sure the people of Venezuela who were forced out by this thug are taken care of.” 

Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assumed power following Maduro’s capture on Saturday. When asked if the U.S. would work with Rodríguez, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had had a conversation with her. 

“She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” he said.  

Trump warned that the U.S. was prepared to carry out a second strike if one was deemed necessary.  

“We are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,” Trump said. “We actually assumed a second wave would be necessary but now it’s probably not.”  

Democrats cry foul  

Democrats on Capitol Hill slammed the attacks, noting that Congress was not notified prior to the strikes being carried out. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the operation was “entirely inconsistent” with what Trump’s Cabinet briefed members of Congress.  

“We need to hear directly from the President on why his varying justifications to date warrant dragging America into an armed conflict without a clear end,” Shaheen said.  

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over war powers and the deployment of Armed Forces, condemned the operation as “a violation of international law and further undermines America’s global standing.” 

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also questioned the military action. 

“Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, but I have seen no evidence that his presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without congressional authorization, nor have I heard a strategy for the day after and how we will prevent Venezuela from descending into chaos,” he said in a statement.

Trump claimed Congress would leak the details and compromise the mission, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio backing up that assertion.  

“It’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission,” Rubio said.  

Operation spurs fear over precedent for Russia, China

Trump said the impact on U.S. relations with Russia, China and Iran — key Maduro allies — centers around oil.

While Trump did not provide any, the strong implication was that Trump could use U.S. sales of Venezuelan oil to undercut Iran and Russia’s oil exports. China is a primary purchaser of Russian oil. 

“In terms of other countries that want oil, we’re in the oil business. We’re going to sell it … in other words, we’ll be selling oil … . We’ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now,” the president said. 

Trump did not explicitly address how his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin might be affected by the Venezuelan operation, suggesting at one point that Russia’s war in Ukraine is getting “straightened out” and then saying he’s “not thrilled” with the Russian leader.  

The president’s allies, however, sought to strike fear in U.S. adversaries. Trump on Friday had threatened to launch military operations in Iran in defense of popular protests against the high cost of living.  

“When he tells you that he’s going to do something, when he tells you he’s going to address a problem, he means it. He actions it,” Rubio said.  

“Nicolás Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this. He was provided multiple very, very, very generous offers, and chose instead to act like a wild man,” Rubio continued. 

“And the result is what we saw tonight.” 

Trump seeks control of Venezuelan oil 

President Trump said Saturday that he wants the U.S. to control Venezuela’s oil sector as the country holds the world’s largest proven reserve of the commodity. 

“The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time,” Trump said during his press conference on Saturday. 

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” he added.  

In the U.S., individual oil companies, not the government, decide whether and when to pump oil, as the U.S. does not have a state-run oil firm. 

One U.S. company, Chevron, was already operating in Venezuela at the time of Maduro’s capture. 

Maduro accused of drug trafficking, but indictment is slim on gang ties 

Maduro, along with his wife and other members of his regime, face a four-count indictment that alleges the Venezuelan leader leveraged government power to protect and promote vast criminal conduct — from drug trafficking to terrorism — for the benefit of himself and his allies.   

While the indictment accuses Maduro of involvement with six different terrorism and drug trafficking groups, in some cases it offers few details about those connections or makes only passing references to the organizations. 

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York assert that, for more than 25 years, Venezuelan leaders abused their positions of public trust and power to corrupt government institutions and import tons of cocaine into the U.S.   

Starting with his early days in government, Maduro allegedly provided diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and enabled diplomatic cover for planes carrying laundered money.  

Maduro and his wife are also accused of running their own cocaine trafficking operation between 2006 and 2015, ordering the kidnappings, beatings and murders of people who undermined them. 

And while president, the government alleges Maduro coordinated with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to aid in drug trafficking. 

But the indictment is otherwise slim on longstanding accusations made by the Trump administration. While the Trump team has said Maduro has ties to the Tren de Aragua gang as well as Cartel de los Soles, the indictment does not offer any specific details about his connection to the groups other than to charge the gang’s leader alongside him. 

Though it also accuses him of having ties to two major Mexican cartels, the indictment offers little about the operations of Sinaloa Cartel or the Zetas.    

The legal battle is also sure to be dogged by questions over whether Trump had the authority to remove the leader.