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President Donald Trump stated on Monday that he is "seriously considering" making Venezuela the 51st state of the United States, in a phone statement to Fox News reported by Congressional correspondent Bill Melugin.
Trump justified the idea by referencing Venezuela's oil reserves, which he valued at 40 trillion dollars, and added that "Venezuela loves Trump."
The statement came hours after Delcy Rodríguez, who serves as the head of the interim Venezuelan government following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, was in The Hague representing the regime before the International Court of Justice.
Consulted by a journalist from Telesur as she left a hearing on the territorial dispute of Esequibo with Guyana, Rodríguez outright rejected the proposal from the U.S. president.
"It was never intended because if there is one thing we Venezuelans have, it is that we love our process of independence; we love our heroes and heroines of independence," Rodríguez responded from The Hague.
This is not the first time that Trump has put forward this idea regarding Venezuela.
On March 17, following Venezuela's victory over Italy by 4-2 in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic, Trump posted on Truth Social: "Good things are happening to Venezuela lately! I wonder what this magic is all about. Statehood, number 51, anyone?"
The geopolitical background is decisive: on January 3, 2026, Operation Absolute Resolution resulted in the capture of Maduro and Cilia Flores by the Delta Force unit of the U.S. Army, who were transferred to a federal court in New York on charges of narcoterrorism.
Since then, Washington has effectively controlled Venezuelan oil exports. On January 7, 2026, Trump announced that Venezuela would deliver between 30 and 50 million barrels of high-quality oil to the U.S., with the revenues under the direct control of Washington.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented a three-phase plan for Venezuela to the Senate: stabilization with control over oil, economic recovery with an investment of 100 billion dollars, and a democratic transition with free elections before the end of 2026.
The rhetoric of the "51st state" is part of a broader pattern in Trump's discourse, as he has applied the same idea to Canada since November 2024 and to Greenland since 2019.
The central argument has always been the same: Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, approximately 303 billion barrels, equivalent to 17% of global reserves, concentrated in the Orinoco Belt.
Rodríguez, who leads the regime's delegation at the main judicial body of the United Nations regarding the dispute over Esequibo, also delivered a speech before the ICJ on Monday in which he warned: "Venezuela will not renounce its history or its legitimate rights, recognized and preserved in the Geneva Agreement, simply because Guyana now seeks to unilaterally and opportunistically redefine the controversy."
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