Donald Trump brags about 'very good call' with Venezuelan president

Donald Trump boasted of a 'very good call' with Interim Venezuela President Delcy Rodriguez after the Senate blocked a resolution that would have limited his powers in the region.

It came as Trump praised Rodriguez, formerly Nicolas Maduro's vice president, as a 'terrific person' after the US has left her in charge following the capture of Maduro.

'We just had a great conversation today and she’s a terrific person,' he told reporters in the Oval Office. 

Trump said on Truth Social that 'we are making tremendous progress, as we help Venezuela stabilize and recover. Many topics were discussed, including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, National Security.' 

'This partnership between the United States of America and Venezuela will be a spectacular one FOR ALL. Venezuela will soon be great and prosperous again, perhaps more so than ever before!' 

Rodriguez said on social media that she and Trump had a 'long and courteous conversation.' 

Trump is scheduled to meet with Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the opposition to Maduro's party in the last election.

Machado has been highly critical of Rodriguez, calling her 'even more ruthless' than Maduro and said she cozied up to America's adversaries. 

Trump's decision to sideline Machado and Edmundo González has opened a sharp split with influential Republicans and the Venezuelan-American community, many of whom regard Machado as the country's legitimate leader.

Some of Trump's closest allies are now openly breaking ranks. Representative Carlos Gimenez, a staunch Trump supporter and a powerful voice in Miami's exile community, told the Daily Mail that on Machado, the President is simply wrong.

'The community is not divided on her. I think the community is solid behind her,' Gimenez stated. 

While Gimenez praised Trump for the 'bold action' of the operation itself, he admitted there is a disconnect regarding the country's future leadership.

'The President is my president... but my assessment and his are different,' Gimenez said.

Trump's comments came after JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate to dismiss a resolution that would have limited Trump's ability to conduct further attacks on Venezuela. 

Two GOP senators - Todd Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana - reversed their plans to vote against Trump on the war powers resolution which brought about the tie Vance broke. 

Trump put intense pressure on five Republican senators who joined with Democrats to advance the resolution last week and ultimately prevailed in heading off passage of the legislation.

Two of the Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana — flipped under the pressure.

Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined the Democrats to vote against it.  

Vice President Vance had to break the 50-50 deadlock in the Senate on a Republican motion to dismiss the bill.

The outcome of the high-profile vote demonstrated how Trump still has command over much of the Republican conference, yet the razor-thin vote tally also showed the growing concern on Capitol Hill over the president's aggressive foreign policy ambitions.

Democrats forced the debate after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid earlier this month

'Here we have one of the most successful attacks ever and they find a way to be against it. It's pretty amazing. And it's a shame,' Trump said at a speech in Michigan Tuesday. 

He also hurled insults at several of the Republicans who advanced the legislation, calling Paul a 'stone cold loser' and Murkowski and Collins 'disasters.' 

Trump's latest comments followed earlier phone calls with the senators, which they described as terse. 

The president's fury underscored how the war powers vote had taken on new political significance as Trump also threatens military action to accomplish his goal of possessing Greenland.

The legislation, even if it had cleared the Senate, had virtually no chance of becoming law because it would eventually need to be signed by Trump himself.

But it represented both a test of GOP loyalty to the president and a marker for how much leeway the Republican-controlled Senate is willing to give Trump to use the military abroad. 

Republican angst over his recent foreign policy moves — especially threats of using military force to seize Greenland from a NATO ally — is still running high in Congress. 

Hawley, who helped advance the war powers resolution last week, said Trump's message during a phone call was that the legislation 'really ties my hands.' The senator said he had a follow-up phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio Monday and was told 'point blank, we're not going to do ground troops.'

The senator added that he also received assurances that the Trump administration will follow constitutional requirements if it becomes necessary to deploy troops again to the South American country.

'We're getting along very well with Venezuela,' Trump told reporters at a ceremony for the signing of an unrelated bill Wednesday.

As senators went to the floor for the vote Wednesday evening, Young also told reporters he was no longer in support. 

He said that he had extensive conversations with Rubio and received assurances that the secretary of state will appear at a public hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Young also shared a letter from Rubio that stated the president will 'seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting)' if he engaged in 'major military operations' in Venezuela.

The senators also said his efforts were also instrumental in pushing the administration to release Wednesday a 22-page Justice Department memo laying out the legal justification for the snatch-and-grab operation against Maduro.

That memo, which was heavily redacted, indicates that the administration, for now, has no plans to ramp up military operations in Venezuela.

'We were assured that there is no contingency plan to engage in any substantial and sustained operation that would amount to a constitutional war,' according to the memo signed by Assistant Attorney General Elliot Gaiser.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Republicans 'abdicated their responsibility' after they voted to dismiss a war powers resolution that would have given Congress a say on Trump's future military actions in Venezuela.

'What has happened tonight is a road map to another endless war,' Schumer said.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said Democrats will 'file a whole lot more war powers resolutions' as Trump has threatened action in other countries.

'They can run but they can't hide,' Kaine said of Republicans. 'They can't block us from having a vote.'

Successful White House efforts to flip two Republican votes, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana, was to 'stop a debate about a war,' Kaine said.