Trump pledges rapid U.S. aid for Venezuela after deadly earthquakes

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to deploy U.S. resources to earthquake-stricken Venezuela after back-to-back tremors of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck near the country’s northern coast, flattening buildings in the capital Caracas and prompting a state of emergency.

“The U.S. stands ready, willing, and able to help,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday evening stateside. The president added that he had instructed all government agencies to prepare to “move quickly,” calling Venezuela’s people the “new and great friends.”

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said earlier in the day that the U.S. was in touch with Venezuelan authorities and has been mobilizing assistance for the South American nation.

Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodriguez declared a state of emergency in a national address on Wednesday night, and later said at least 164 people were killed and 971 were injured, according to Reuters.

The State Department has already mobilized a disaster assistance team and task force to deliver and coordinate critical assistance to Venezuelans, including search and rescue teams, medical supplies, and humanitarian resources, according to senior State Department official Jeremy Lewin.

The U.S. Geological Survey issued two consecutive red alerts through its PAGER system, and estimated a 41% probability that fatalities could exceed 10,000 and a 17% chance they could reach 100,000. The authority also projected that the devastating earthquake could dent Venezuela’s GDP by up to 7%.

In a video message posted on X Thursday morning, Rodriguez thanked the Trump administration for providing “support and solidarity,” and the Dominican Republic for sending rescue teams to Venezuela.

China and Brazil have sent humanitarian aid to the country, she said, and the Qatar government has prepared a rescue brigade set to arrive Thursday.

The quakes are among the strongest to strike the country in the past century. Venezuela lies in a seismically active zone where the Caribbean Plate meets the South American Plate.

The swift U.S. offer of assistance reflects a degree of diplomatic realignment between the Trump administration and the Venezuelan interim government, led by Rodriguez.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the War Department would play a logistical role in the disaster assistance as the earthquakes damaged Caracas’ airport. “It’ll be big, it’ll be fast, and it’ll be effective,” Rubio said about the U.S. government response to the disaster.

He also said that it is a “setback” to the stabilization efforts in Venezuela, following the January military intervention that seized the country’s then-president, Nicolas Maduro. Washington has exerted control over Venezuela’s oil exports since then.

The U.S. has remained Venezuela’s largest oil buyer since January, with the estimated value of US-controlled exports surging to $3.7 billion in April from $600 million in January, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, estimating $8 billion in flows have moved through the arrangement with little transparency or oversight. India and Spain are the next largest recipients.