U.S. President Trump Press Conference on the Detention of President Maduro (Full English Text)

U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference at 11:00 a.m. local time on the 3rd (1:00 a.m. on the 4th in Japan) at his private residence, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, to announce the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The press conference lasted approximately 56 minutes in total, of which just under 30 minutes were devoted to a question-and-answer session with reporters. At press conferences by the President of the United States, reporters are not called on by a press secretary; instead, President Trump selects them directly. Reporters ask questions bluntly without stating the name of their newspaper or television network, and there is an unspoken rule that all other reporters fall silent while one journalist is speaking.

Naturally, the reporters in attendance are expected to have applied in advance through the White House, but responding to more than ten random questions from reporters requires considerable effort from both the respondent and the journalists themselves.

On this occasion, Maritime Bridge Japan is reporting on the press conference with a focus on Venezuela’s positioning in the future crude oil market, as well as the implications for the tanker market, international shipping, and Japanese shipping. At the same time, since The White House has released the entire press conference uncut, this article introduces the opening remarks and the initial exchanges of the question-and-answer session.