Maduro Pleads Not Guilty; Venezuela Regroups With New Leader

0:00Hello, I'm Stephen Carroll. I'm in Brussels where many of Europe's biggest decisions get made. And I'm Caroline Hepker in London with the hosts of the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast. We're up early every weekday keeping an eye on what's happening across Europe and around the world. We do it early so the news is fresh, not recycled and so you know what actually matters as the day gets going. From Brussels, I'm following the politics, policy and the people shaping the European Union right now. And from London, I'm looking at what all that means for markets, money and the wider economy. We've got reporters across Europe and around the globe feeding in as stories break So whether it's geopolitics, energy, tech or markets, you're hearing it while it happens It's smart, calm and to the point And it fits into your morning You can find new episodes of the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast by 7am in Dublin or 8am in Brussels, Berlin and Paris On Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts

1:02Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Karen, we begin with the latest developments after the ouster of Nicolas Maduro. The deposed Venezuelan leader has had his first court appearance since his capture by the U.S. military over the weekend. Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in Manhattan federal court. Bloomberg's Miles Miller covered the hearing. When he walked into the courtroom, he wished people Happy New Year. And at one point, someone screamed at him and he had a loud outburst saying he was kidnapped.

1:41He and his wife sat wearing headphones and jail garb. To listen to translation, as Judge Alvin Hallerstein read the charges against him. When asked to enter a plea, Maduro said through an interpreter, I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am president of my country. Bloomberg's Miles Miller reports the indictment accuses Maduro of sitting atop an illegitimate government that used its power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking. Maduro's attorney, Barry Pollack, says he expects voluminous and complicated legal filings for the defense, including that Maduro is immune from prosecution as head of a sovereign nation.

2:18Judge Hellerstein set another hearing for March 17th. Nathan, with Nicolas Maduro out of power, President Trump has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take the lead on implementing political and economic reforms in Venezuela. White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller says the U.S. is getting, in his words, full, complete and total cooperation from the current government in Caracas under Acting President Delce Rodriguez. And as a result of that cooperation, the people of Venezuela are going to become richer than they ever have before. And of course, the United States is going to benefit from this massively in terms of economic security and military cooperation, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, and every other dimension of our security.

3:00White House senior advisor Stephen Miller did not offer many details on how the U.S. plans to administer Venezuela. Rubio has indicated the U.S. will exert its influence through economic coercion and the threat of more military action. And Karen, President Trump has said he wants U.S. oil companies to play a key role in rebuilding Venezuela. In an interview with NBC News, the president said oil majors could be up and running in the country in less than 18 months. And he suggested the U.S. government could subsidize their efforts. That time frame is at odds with many industry experts, and the president acknowledges it will take a tremendous amount of money, in his words.

3:36President Trump says it's too soon to reveal whether he's spoken to top executives at ExxonMobil, Chevron, or ConocoPhillips. Sources tell Bloomberg News Energy Secretary Chris Wright plans to speak with oil execs at a Goldman Sachs conference in Miami this week. Nathan, Venezuela's new leader is someone many in the oil industry wanted all along. And we get that part of the story with Bloomberg's John Tucker. John, good morning. And good morning, Karen. Oil executives and lobbyists have long argued that Maduro's number two, Delce Rodriguez, should fill his shoes. A former oil minister herself, Rodriguez, has long been the go-to contact for senior executives.

4:14Greylock Capital Chairman and CEO Hans Humes, a longtime investor in Venezuela debt, says she's navigated Venezuela's industry through international sanctions, economic pressures, and internal mismanagement. So if you want somebody who can operate in reasonably okay conditions, get the person who operated in the worst conditions. This woman is good. Trump administration officials were mindful of the chaos that ensued in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Maintaining a semblance of business continuity could be critical to a successful transition. In New York, I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio.

4:50All right, John, thank you. The intervention in Venezuela has fed concerns about other U.S. foreign policy plans. The prime minister of Denmark, Mehta Fredriksen, is warning that NATO will collapse if the U.S. attacks Greenland. Fredriksen spoke with Danish broadcaster TV2. I believe that the American president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland. But I also want to make it clear that if the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Denmark's Prime Minister, mentor Fredriksen, speaking through an interpreter. In an interview with CNN, White House senior advisor Stephen Miller asserted that Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States.

5:30Greenland should be part of the United States. The president has been very clear about that. That is the formal position of the U.S. government. And presidential aide Stephen Miller added the Trump administration could seize the Danish territory if it wanted. We have some health news this morning, Nathan. U.S. officials have taken the unprecedented step of dropping the number of vaccines it recommends for every child. That's leaving other immunizations such as flu shots open to families to choose but without clear guidance. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington. Health and Human Services is moving to change the recommendations for childhood vaccinations, including no longer broadly recommending the flu or COVID-19 vaccines.

6:09The CDC will continue to recommend shots for whooping cough, diphtheria, pneumococcal, polio, measles and HPV. And all vaccines recommended by the CDC through December 31st will continue to be covered by the Affordable Care Act and other federal insurance programs. Medical experts are slamming the move. They say this could lead to a reduced uptake of important vaccinations and increased disease. In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. Okay, Amy, thank you. We turn to the markets now where futures are mixed this morning following yesterday's gains on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the way, gaining one and one quarter percent as investors shrugged off geopolitical concerns.

6:47Lori Calvacina is head of U.S. Equity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets. We've seen particularly with geopolitical issues over the past year or so that investors have tended to take a wait and see approach, maybe pricing in things more at the micro level as opposed to the big picture index level. And I think this is a period of time where we're going to get a lot of information over the next few days. There are different issues that we're monitoring. But at the end of the day, I think that investors are very focused on what does the economic backdrop look like in the U.S.? What does the earnings backdrop look like in the U.S.?

7:18And what does the monetary policy backdrop look like in the U.S.? And those are really the bigger picture issues I think people have on their minds heading into the new year. RBC's Lori Calvacina has a 12-month price target of$77.50 for the S &P 500. That's about 12 % above current levels. Nathan, let's turn now to new developments at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong announced a group of AI models and tools designed to speed up the development of autonomous vehicles. The offering is aimed at creating vehicles that can think their way out of unexpected situations, such as a traffic light outage.

7:53And here's Wong. Today we're announcing Alpamayo, the world's first thinking, reasoning autonomous vehicle AI. Alpamayo is trained end to end, literally from camera in to actuation out. In another development, Jensen Wong said the company's Rubin and data center processes are in production and demand is strong. Wong says the Rubin processor is three and a half times better at training and five times better at running AI software than its predecessor, Blackwell. And also at CES, Karen, Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su announced a new chip for corporate data center use. With all of that user growth, we have seen a huge surge in demand in the global compute infrastructure, growing from about one Zetaflop in 2022 to more than 100 Zetaflops in 2025.

8:51Now, that sounds big. That's actually 100 times in just a few years. AMD CEO Lisa Su says her company's created a new multibillion dollar business out of AI chips in the last couple of years. AMD is widely regarded as NVIDIA's closest rival.

9:11Time now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning. Good morning, Karen. House Democrats are holding an informal hearing to commemorate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffrey says Democrats plan to honor police officers today who defended the Capitol. The session will include testimony from law enforcement and others who were at the Capitol that day. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is ending his bid for a third term amid President Trump's focus on a fraud investigation into child care programs in the state and its Somali community.

9:49Walz says the negative attention and Republican attacks make it too hard to serve full-time as governor and be a candidate for another term. Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can't spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences. A person close to Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar says she's considering running for governor. Activists say the death toll in violence surrounding economic protests in Iran has risen to at least 35. It's believed more than 1 ,200 people have been detained in the protests.

10:27New Orleans police officials say the city ended 2025 with the third straight year of declining violent crimes. The armed National Guard troops are currently patrolling the city's streets, per the White House. New Orleans Police Superintendent Ann Kirkpatrick says that's fine, as long as laws are followed and crime is down. We work very well with everyone, so I will just say that collectively, all of us have a role to play. And we're just grateful that crime is down. And I don't care who gets the credit. President Trump deployed 350 National Guard troops to the state. Global News, 24 hours a day and whenever you want it.

11:08With Bloomberg News Now, I'm Michael Barr, and this is Bloomberg, Karen. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in John Stashauer. Thanks, Karen. Black Monday in the NFL. Three coaches got fired. Kevin Stefanski, after six years in Cleveland, a two-time coach of the year, He had the best win percentage of any Browns coach since Bill Belichick 30 years ago. 74-year-old Pete Carroll, the coach for the Raiders for just one season. They went 3-14. He got fired. So did Jonathan Gannon at Arizona. Top two teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference met in Detroit, and the Pistons blew out the Knicks 121-90.

11:46That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this. As markets move and headlines break, what matters most is context. A Bloomberg subscription gives you unmatched reporting, sharp analysis, and powerful tools that help you connect the dots. Visit Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer to learn more. Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius XM, and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. With Nicolás Maduro now behind American bars, the White House is getting down to, as President Trump has put it, running Venezuela.

12:29White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller says Secretary of State Marco Rubio will run point with the remaining Venezuelan government. Our conversations are that we are very much getting full, complete and total cooperation from the government of Venezuela. That was White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller. This morning, we're joined by Bloomberg News correspondent David Gurra, host of the Big Take podcast. And David, do we have a better sense of what running Venezuela is going to look like in these days after Maduro's ouster? Good morning. Good morning. We really don't. So we know that the president has, as you said, backed the vice president, now acting president of Venezuela, who was sworn in yesterday in that National Assembly meeting.

13:07She's somebody with whom oil companies in the U.S. and around the world have some familiarity. She used to be the oil minister. and what we hear Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio continuing to talk about is this quarantine of oil, this blockade of oil tankers around Venezuela. They see that as their best leverage here going forward, Nathan. They're going to be able to kind of control the economy from the outside and that's going to force that administration that's in office now on this temporary basis to do what the U.S. wants it to do. And what we know, Nathan, at least in broad strokes from the president and from his advisors is they want that Venezuelan administration to work more closely with the United States and with oil companies to reanimate this oil industry that is a shadow of what it once was.

13:49And in comments from the president yesterday at NBC News, we have him talking about how he thinks that the estimates that will take a very much longer time to set up that infrastructure are exaggerated. He thinks within 18 months, we could have companies back on the ground, getting that oil running more fully once again. Well, that's a pretty tall order, isn't it, given the state of the Venezuelan oil industry and the fact that we don't really have a sense at this point about whether oil industry executives are willing to go in right now. It's a great point. And what we've heard from analysts over the course of the last 48 hours is this is a decades-long project.

14:23It's not something that's going to happen quickly. We do know that the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, is going to make his way to a conference in the coming days to meet with oil executives, to talk to them about the path forward here. But what you rightly point out is what those executives are looking for here is an assurance, some sense of confidence for the administration there's going to be some stability here. And you look at what's played out on the streets of Caracas and elsewhere in Venezuela over the last few hours, it is not a more tranquil scene than it once was. Yes, Nicolas Maduro is out of the country.

14:51He's in Brooklyn. But we've seen these colectivos, these gangs of motorcyclists roaming the city. We've seen counterintelligence groups roaming the city. We've seen arrests of journalists and others. So it isn't a new sense of stability in the country. It seems far from it. Again, that the leadership has gone at the highest level, of course. The president is now here in the United States. But it seems like there is still a great deal of uncertainty and unease across Venezuela. And in our last 30 seconds, David, where is the opposition in all this, the Venezuelan opposition? We heard from Maria Corina Machado last night.

15:23She was on Fox News and she said she hadn't spoken with President Trump since the 10th of October when she was picked to be the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize. Look, she's still retaining hope the opposition is going to get more recognition, that they're going to be guaranteed some safety, that members of the opposition who have been jailed will be released by this new administration, but they don't have the kind of might that they might have hoped going forward here. So that's still very much uncertain as well, Nathan, sort of the role they're going to play here going forward formally.

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16:28Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow. And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak.