In the first White House news conference since Maduro's arrest, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted a number of achievements she said the Trump administration had marked during its first year in office.
Watch Leavitt's news briefing in our video player above.
Leavitt plugged what she characterized as economic benefit to Americans by following "incredible deals that the president cut" on prescription drug prices.
For the rollout of new dietary guidelines, Leavitt was joined in the briefing room by administration officials including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
Leavitt said the new guidelines would pertain to all federally funded food services, including for the military and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC.
White House says U.S. is running Venezuela 'in close correspondence' with interim leaders
Asked if Trump or Venezuela's leader, Delcy Rodríguez, is running Venezuela, Leavitt said, "We obviously have maximum leverage over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now."
During her briefing with reporters, Leavitt said, "The Trump administration — led by Secretary Rubio, the vice president and the president's entire national security team — is in close correspondence with the interim authorities in Venezuela."
She added that those "interim authorities agreed to release" seized oil to the U.S.
Leavitt says crew of sanctioned oil tanker may be 'subject to prosecution'
The press secretary said the crew of a merchant vessel seized earlier Wednesday would be "brought to the United States for such prosecution if necessary," citing the presence of a "judicial seizure order" in place.
U.S. European Command earlier Wednesday announced the seizure of the Bella 1 for "violations of U.S. sanctions." A Coast Guard cutter had pursued the tanker into the waters between Scotland and Iceland after it tried to avoid being ensnared by the U.S. blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.
According to an outline of the policies published Wednesday by the Energy Department, the Trump administration is "selectively" removing sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of Venezuelan oil to global markets.
The Bella 1 was reflagged as Russian and renamed the Marinera after turning toward Europe. The U.S. military handed control of it to law enforcement officials after seizing it, said a U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations. The ship was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.