Trump Declares Himself "Acting President of Venezuela"

US President Donald Trump described himself as the “Acting President of Venezuela” in a post shared on his account on the US-based social media platform Truth Social. In the image shared by Trump, this phrase appeared under his photograph, while the visual was presented as if it were content taken from Wikipedia, drawing attention.

The post also included the phrase “in office as of January 2026.” Another notable detail in the image was that JD Vance was listed as vice president in the so-called administration created for Venezuela.

What happened?

The United States carried out an operation in Venezuela’s capital Caracas on January 3 at around 02:00 local time.

In previous statements, Trump had announced that a large-scale operation had been conducted against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and that Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been detained.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that criminal complaints had been filed in the United States against Maduro and his wife. Bondi said that Maduro was accused of “narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.”