United States President Donald Trump on Monday posted an image on social media declaring himself the “acting president of Venezuela.”

The digitally altered image posted on Truth Social was captioned: “Acting President of Venezuela, Incumbent - January 2026”.

This comes days after the US military operation in Venezuela on January 3, during which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were abducted.

The US has accused Maduro of narco terrorism and drug trafficking, among other crimes – allegations that the Venezuelan government rejects. Caracas has described the US government’s actions as “military aggression” and has demanded that Maduro and Flores be immediately released.

Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to immediately assume the role of acting president after Maduro’s capture, “in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation”.

However, hours after the military operation, Trump said that the US will “run” Venezuela and tap its huge oil reserves.

Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, but is not among the top 10 producers.

On January 7, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that the country will control the sales of sanctioned Venezuelan oil “indefinitely”. The statement came a day after the US president also announced that his country will get up to 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela.

Since 2019, the South American country’s oil production and export have been sharply restricted after Trump, in his first term as US president, imposed sanctions. The curbs intensified in December, after Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil vessels heading to and leaving Venezuela.

The US president had said in December that his country wanted to regain oil that he claimed had been stolen by Venezuela. It was unclear what oil Trump had been referring to, as Venezuela had nationalised its oil and gas industry in the 1970s.