Trump: "You could call Venezuela a territory"

U.S. President Donald Trump once again boasted about the economic benefits of his intervention in Venezuela, claiming that it has already brought billions of dollars to his country.

In an interview with CBS’s '60 Minutes', which aired this Saturday, Trump defended his administration’s achievements after being asked about his confidence in Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, following reports that Hegseth might be replaced in the wake of the election defeat.

"We have won two wars. We have won in Venezuela, and we have already extracted billions upon billions upon billions of dollars. And we will continue to extract many more billions of dollars, and we will get along very well," he remarked, noting that the operation was carried out "in less than an hour" and without any fatalities, even though Venezuela reported around a hundred deaths.

The leader, who had previously expressed on several occasions his desire to turn the South American nation into the "51st state," now referred to it as a "territory." "You can call it a territory, you can call it whatever you want," he maintained.

When asked whether he credited Hegseth with the operation, Trump replied in the negative, though he did add that "he was a part of it."

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Source of information: Global News Agencies including REUTERS / TASS / AFP / ANADOLU / INT.RU / Al Jazeera / CNN