Donald Trump warned Colombia could be the next country to face a military operation, while clarifying that the US was 'in charge' of Venezuela after ousting its leader Nicolás Maduro. 

President Trump said while traveling on Air Force One Sunday that Colombia's leftist President Gustavo Petro was a 'sick man' who 'likes making cocaine' after threatening Petro to 'watch his a**.'

Trump's attacks on the Colombian leader came after Petro described Washington's attack on Venezuela as an 'assault on the sovereignty' of Latin America.

'Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long,' he said. 

When asked whether the US would pursue a military operation against the country, Trump bluntly replied, 'It sounds good to me.'

Trump's comments came as Maduro was due to make his first appearance in Manhattan's federal court Monday after he was captured by US forces.

Amid Maduro's arrest the future of Venezuela remained in flux as acting the country's president Delcy Rodriguez called for 'peace and dialogue, not war.'  

'We prioritize moving towards balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela,' Rodriguez said.  

'President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolás Maduro's message, and it is the message of all of Venezuela right now.' 

The US in September also added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of US assistance to the country. 

'He's not going to be doing it for very long,' Trump said of Petro on Sunday while accusing the Colombian leader of drug trafficking. 

'He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it.'

The president also suggested that Cuba 'is going down' but stopped short of suggesting they could also face a military operation.

'I just think it is going to fall. It is going down for the count. You ever watch a fight? They go down for the count. Cuba looks like it is going down,' he said. 

Petro hit back at Trump in a fiery social media post, after the US president accused him of being a drug trafficker.  

'Stop slandering me, Mr Trump,' Petro said in a lengthy post on X.

'That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people of Colombia’s fight for Peace.'

In a later social media post Sunday, Petro added: 'Friends do not bomb.' 

As the US president speculated about the downfall of various countries in the Western Hemisphere, questions remained over who was running the show in Caracas.

'Don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial,' Trump said on Air Force One.

A reporter responded by asking: 'What does that mean?'

'It means we're in charge,' Trump replied. 

Maduro's Interior, Justice and Peace Minister Diosdado Cabello still clung tight to the notion that Maduro is the nation's lawful president. 

A defiant Cabello defended his boss in a statement through the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. 

'Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy's provocations,' he said. 

Rodriguez struck a more conciliatory tone in a statement of her own on Sunday.

'We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,' she said in her statement.

Trump on Sunday also renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of US security interests.

'It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,' Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. 

'We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.'

Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the US-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: 'They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don´t know.' 

Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring 'American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere' as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.

Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary - a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama´s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. - as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.

Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the 'Don-roe Doctrine.'

The Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a 'corrupt, illegitimate government' fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. 

The US government does not recognize Maduro as the country's leader.

His arraignment is scheduled for noon on Monday in Manhattan federal court before Judge Alvin Hellerstein.