President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, as they were returning to Joint Base Andrews, Md.

WASHINGTON ― US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the United States will “run” Venezuela after the US captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation over the weekend sparked bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill, where even some top Republicans were left scratching their heads.

“I think it needs more clarification,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito (Republican, West Virginia), a member of Senate GOP leadership, told reporters on Monday. “I think the interpretation of ‘run’ has been pretty broad, and I think they’re trying to, in my opinion, trying to narrow it down.”

“It’s all unknowable. I have no idea,” added Senator Ron Johnson (Republican, Wisconsin).

Senator Thom Tillis (Republican, North Carolina) said that properly administering Venezuela would require committing 100,000 US troops on the ground, a policy he did not support.

“The details are very vague to me,” Tillis added.

Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky), a critic of the Trump administration’s months-long military campaign against Venezuela, warned that Trump’s rhetoric – no matter the intended meaning – would backfire by turning off people in Venezuela and in other Latin American countries.

“It sounds like the 19th century,” Paul said, referring to American........

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