Trump Says He’ll Allow Venezuela Elections – But First, ‘We’re Gonna Rebuild the Oil’ 

President Donald Trump put the prospect of elections in Venezuela on the back burner and said the U.S. will rebuild the country’s oil sector, which will “make a lot of money.”

U.S. forces invaded Venezuela on Saturday and abducted President Nicolas Maduro, who pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in New York on Monday. Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, has been sworn in as acting president. After the invasion, Trump has gushed about Venezuela’s oil reserves.

“We’re going to keep the oil,” he said. The president has also suggested that the U.S. government will reimburse American oil companies who rebuilding Venezuela’s energy industry.

Trump appeared on Thursday’s Hannity on Fox News, where the host asked about elections in the South American country.

“Do you foresee a Venezuela that will have free and fair elections?” Sean Hannity asked. “I would have little doubt that the opposition would win handily if they were free and if they were fair.”

The president responded that elections will happen “eventually,” but first, there is a more pressing matter to attend to:

Yeah, I do see that and I think that’s happening. But before we do that, it’s gonna take a while to do. We have to rebuild the country. They couldn’t have an election. They wouldn’t even know how to have an election right now. The country’s become third-world. And they wouldn’t know how to have an election right now.

We’re gonna rebuild the oil and the oil infrastructure. We’ll be in charge of it. It’s gonna do great. Gonna make a lot of money, we’re gonna take it from there. But we’re gonna rebuild the country and ultimately, you’re gonna have elections.

Watch above via Fox News.