President Donald Trump stated Friday that Venezuela is not yet prepared for elections following the recent U.S. military removal of President Nicolás Maduro from power. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said that while the country is not ready for a vote at this time, he expects it will be in the future. He did not provide a specific timeline for when elections might occur or detail the current economic status of the nation.
During the same briefing, the president addressed domestic legal matters regarding the use of subpoenas for New York Times journalists. Despite his administration's withdrawal of subpoenas for three reporters a day earlier, Trump stated that the legal process is ongoing. He said the objective was to identify individuals responsible for leaking information regarding a presidential aircraft, asserting that the administration's focus is on government leakers rather than the journalists themselves.
Trump also discussed the implementation of new trade measures, including double-digit tariffs on 60 economies. The administration cited failure to enforce bans on forced labor as the justification for these actions. Additionally, the president announced plans to impose new tariffs on Mexico in response to a parasite outbreak linked to imported lettuce and on Canada due to smoke coming into the U.S. from Canadian wildfires. These moves follow a recent Supreme Court decision that invalidated a separate set of tariffs earlier this summer.