The Latest: After briefing, Johnson says he doesn’t expect US troops to deploy to Venezuela

The Latest: After briefing, Johnson says he doesn’t expect US troops to deploy to Venezuela

The Associated Press

Tue, January 6, 2026 at 1:16 PM UTC

5 min read

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., answers questions from reporters following a closed-door briefing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and others about the U.S. military operation in Venezuela ordered by President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In this courtroom sketch, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, and his wife, Cilia Flores, second from right, appear in Manhattan federal court with their defense attorneys Mark Donnelly, second from left, and Andres Sanchez, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Congress Venezuela

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., answers questions from reporters following a closed-door briefing from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and others about the U.S. military operation in Venezuela ordered by President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials briefed leaders in Congress late Monday on the striking military operation in Venezuela amid mounting concerns that President Donald Trump is embarking on a new era of U.S. expansionism without consultation with lawmakers or a clear vision for running the South American country.

After the briefing, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he doesn't expect the United States to deploy troops to Venezuela, emphasizing that U.S. actions there are “not a regime change” operation.

Democratic leaders said the session lacked clarity about the Trump administration’s plans for Venezuela. Sen. Chuck Schumer said the session “posed far more questions than it answered.”

Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. courtroom Monday.

Here's the latest:

Cuba faces uncertain future after US topples Venezuelan leader Maduro

Cuban officials on Monday lowered flags before dawn to mourn 32 security officers they say were killed in the U.S. weekend strike in Venezuela, the island nation’s closest ally, as residents here wonder what it means for their future.

The two governments are so close that Cuban soldiers and security agents were often the Venezuelan president’s bodyguards, and Venezuela’s petroleum has kept the economically ailing island limping along for years. Cuban authorities over the weekend said the 32 had been killed in the surprise attack “after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers, or as a result of the bombing of the facilities.”

The Trump administration has warned outright that toppling Maduro will help advance another decades-long goal: Dealing a blow to the Cuban government. Severing Cuba from Venezuela could have disastrous consequences for its leaders, who on Saturday called for the international community to stand up to “state terrorism.”

On Saturday, Trump said the ailing Cuban economy will be further battered by Maduro’s ouster.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

A rare ‘thank you’ to the media from the Trump administration

In the wake of last weekend’s U.S. military action in Venezuela, the news media got something it has seldom heard from the Trump administration: a “thank you.”

Rubio credited news organizations that had learned in advance about last Saturday’s strike with not putting the mission in jeopardy by publicly reporting on it before it happened.

Rubio’s acknowledgment was particularly noteworthy because Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has cited a mistrust of journalists’ ability to responsibly handle sensitive information as one of the chief reasons for imposing restrictive new press rules on Pentagon reporters. Most mainstream news organizations have left posts in the Pentagon rather than agree to Hegseth’s policy.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Rubio said the administration withheld information about the mission from Congress ahead of time because “it will leak. It’s as simple as that.” But the primary reason was operational security, he said.

“Frankly, a number of media outlets had gotten leaks that this was coming and held it for that very reason,” Rubio said. “And we thank them for doing that or lives could have been lost. American lives.”

▶ Read more about Rubio’s comments

Rubio, Hegseth brief congressional leaders as questions mount over next steps in Venezuela

Republican leaders entered the closed-door session at the Capitol largely supportive of Trump’s decision to forcibly remove Madurofrom power, but many Democrats emerged with more questions as Trump maintains a fleet of naval vessels off the Venezuelan coast and urges U.S. companies to reinvest in the country’s underperforming oil industry.

A war powers resolution that would prohibit U.S. military action in Venezuela without approval from Congress is heading for a vote this week in the Senate.

“We don’t expect troops on the ground,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said afterward.

“This is not a regime change. This is demand for a change in behavior,” Johnson said. “We don’t expect direct involvement in any other way beyond just coercing the new, the interim government, to get that going.”

But Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, emerged saying, “There are still many more questions that need to be answered.”

▶ Read more about the briefing

US allies and adversaries use UN meeting to critique Venezuela intervention as America defends it

Both allies and adversaries of the United States on Monday used an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to voice opposition to the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela that captured leader Nicolás Maduro.

Before the U.N.’s most powerful body, countries critiqued — if sometimes obliquely — President Donald Trump’s intervention in the South American country and his recent comments signaling the possibility of expanding military action to countries like Colombia and Mexico over drug trafficking accusations. The Republican president also has reupped his threat to take over the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests.

Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the mineral-rich island, carefully denounced U.S. prospects for taking over Greenland without mentioning its NATO ally by name.

“The inviolability of borders is not up for negotiation,” said Christina Markus Lassen, Danish ambassador to the U.N.

She also defended Venezuela’s sovereignty, saying “no state should seek to influence political outcomes in Venezuela through the use of threat of force or through other means inconsistent with international law.”

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