Asked when that the country will hold elections in Venezuela after U.S. forces toppled President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump said, “They’re not really ready for them yet.”
Watch Trump’s remarks in the video player above.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump said the U.S. has brought economic benefits to Venezuela without elaborating, or mentioning the devastation of recent, major earthquakes there.
“They’re not ready yet for the elections, but at some point they will be,” he added before mentioning the country’s prowess in the Miss Universe pageants once he owned.
On Friday, Trump defended subpoenas targeting New York Times journalists.
A day after his administration withdrew subpoenas that would have required three New York Times journalists to testify about their sources, Trump said he isn’t retreating.
“We have a long way to go with that case,” Trump said.
Trump said he supports the subpoenas, which were issued in response to a story about President Donald Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.
“We’re not after journalists, we’re after leakers,” Trump said. “And the way you find them is through the journalists.”
Trump also defended new tariffs announced this week.
Trump called the latest tariffs his administration announced on 60 economies late Thursday “very standard tariffs” that “follow the line” when asked whether he believes the latest tranche announced this week could overcome legal challenges.
The administration’s tariffs announced this week are based in the argument that the countries targeted have failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor.
Citing the Supreme Court’s decision this summer that struck down the president’s Liberation Day tariffs Trump said: “I thought the decision by the Supreme Court was not a good one, but we have many forms of tariffs.”
Trump also said the U.S. will place “a major tariff” on Mexico for diarrhea-causing parasite.
Asked when it would be safe to eat lettuce again, after a diarrhea-inducing parasite found in lettuce produced in Mexico has affected patients in nine U.S. states, Trump said his government is “going to put a major tariff on tax on Mexico because of the lettuce.”
He added that his administration would also “put a big tariff on Canada because of the smoke” caused by hundreds of wildfires raging across Canada, which has carried smoke by winds into the U.S.
