President of the United States Donald Trump. [EPA Yonhap News]

U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 4th (local time) that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who is acting as president after the operation to arrest and extradite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, "will pay a very high price if you don't do the right thing."

In a phone interview with U.S. current affairs magazine The Atlantic on the morning of the 4th, President Trump emphasized, "You will probably pay a higher price than Maduro."

Through military operations that lasted from the night of the 2nd to the dawn of the 3rd, U.S. forces raided President Maduro's safe house, arrested President Maduro and his wife, and then extradited them to a detention center in New York.

Trump's tone towards Vice President Rodríguez became much tougher on this day, contrasting with his positive remarks about her at the press conference the previous day, The Atlantic pointed out.

At the press conference, President Trump said that Vice President Rodríguez had privately expressed her willingness to cooperate with the United States, stating, "He (Rodríguez) is essentially willing to do whatever we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again."

However, Vice President Rodríguez later presided over an emergency cabinet meeting and demanded the release of President Maduro and his wife, saying, "Our only president is Maduro." She also countered Trump's remarks about "operating Venezuela" by stating, "Venezuela will not be a colony of any country."

In the interview, President Trump said about the future situation in Venezuela, "Reconstruction and regime change, whatever you call it, it will be better than now. It can't get any worse."

When asked how the regime change or national reconstruction in Venezuela differs from the past U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Trump replied, "Iraq was not done by me. It was done by (George W.) Bush. You should ask Bush that question. We should never have entered Iraq. That was the beginning of the Middle East disaster."

The Atlantic reported that President Trump repeatedly confirmed that Venezuela might not be the last country to be the target of U.S. intervention.

President Trump said, "Greenland is absolutely necessary. It is necessary for defense," and then stated that Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark and a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is "surrounded by Russian and Chinese vessels."