WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump threatened Sunday that Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez will pay a "very big price" if she doesn't cooperate with the United States, after US forces seized and jailed her former boss Nicolas Maduro.
"If she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro," Trump told The Atlantic in a brief telephone interview.
US forces attacked Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, bombing military targets and spiriting away Maduro and his wife to face federal narcotrafficking charges in New York.
The Trump administration says it is willing to work with the rest of Maduro's government as long as Washington's goals, including opening access to US investment in the enormous Venezuelan crude oil reserves, are met.
Trump's warning came as Rodriguez was confirmed as interim president by Venezuela's Supreme Court and military officials. She sounded a defiant note Saturday after the US raid on the capital Caracas, saying that Maduro was the country's sole legitimate leader and that "we're ready to defend our natural resources."
Trump has long campaigned against US nation building and regime change in foreign countries.
However, he said Saturday that the United States will "run" Venezuela.
He told The Atlantic that "rebuilding there and regime change -- anything you want to call it -- is better than what you have right now."
"Rebuilding is not a bad thing in Venezuela's case," he said. "The country's gone to hell. It's a failed country. It's a totally failed country. It's a country that's a disaster in every way."
The 79-year-old Republican also repeated his frequent demand that Greenland -- an autonomous territory belonging to the NATO ally Denmark -- become part of the United States.
Asked what the US military action in Venezuela signalled for Greenland, Trump told The Atlantic: "They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don't know."
"But we do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense."