President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post depicting Venezuela overlaid with an American flag and labeled the 51st state followed a Fox News report that Trump said he was “seriously considering” such a move.
President Donald Trump posted a graphic on Truth Social on Tuesday, May 12, showing Venezuela’s outline filled with the American flag and the words “51st State” above it.
The post came one day after Fox News’s John Roberts wrote on X: “Just got off the phone with @realDonaldTrump … he told me he is seriously considering a move to make Venezuela the 51st state…”
Trump’s post follows months of major developments in U.S.-Venezuela relations after the January 3 arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, by U.S. forces in Caracas in a law enforcement operation authorized by Trump.
Since Maduro’s downfall, Venezuela has been led by “acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, who had served as Maduro’s vice president and oil minister and has cooperated with the Trump administration on its three-phase “stabilization, recovery, and transition” plan.
The two countries reestablished diplomatic ties in late March. Rodríguez later thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their “willingness to pursue diplomatic, economic, and cooperative relations with Venezuela” during the signing ceremony for a new Mining Law, which rolled back socialist-era restrictions on the mining sector and introduced provisions to attract foreign investment. The IMF and World Bank also resumed dealings with Caracas after a seven-year rupture.
On May 1, Breitbart News reported that the United States had restored direct commercial flights between Miami and Caracas after a seven-year interruption, with the State Department announcing: “Flights between Miami and Caracas restored.” U.S. chargé d’affaires John M. Barrett said the route was tied to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s three-phase plan for Venezuela and showed the country was in the “recovery” phase while the White House said the flights would not have resumed without Operation Absolute Resolve, the January 3 operation that led to Maduro’s arrest.
Trump has also pledged to secure the release of Venezuelan political prisoners, telling reporters on May 13, “We’re going to get them all out.” Foro Penal has documented 19,092 political detentions since 2014 and reported that 457 confirmed political prisoners remained in Venezuela as of last week.
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