The remarks came a day after the Trump administration slapped sanctions against eight members of Venezuela’s Supreme Court, accusing them of damaging the nation’s democracy. A ruling by the court

in late March stripping the opposition-controlled ­assembly of its remaining powers ignited a deadly wave of unrest.

Although Venezuelan leaders have lashed out at US presidents frequently in the past, Maduro had largely been careful not to antagonise Trump. But Trump’s repeated criticisms of the troubled South American nation appeared to have struck a nerve.

Speaking alongside Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday, Trump expressed dismay over Venezuela’s crisis, asking how a country holding such huge oil reserves could be stricken by so much poverty and turmoil. He described Venezuela’s state as a “disgrace to humanity”.

Maduro had initially urged the world to give Trump a chance after he was elected in November but his government unleashed its strongest condemnation to date of the Republican president.

“President Trump’s aggressions against the ­Venezuelan people, its government and its institutions have surpassed all limits,” said a government statement that accused Washington of seeking to destabilise Venezuela and foment foreign intervention.

Trump’s sanctions and comments against Venezuelan officials played to the government’s longstanding accusations of US imperialism in Latin American affairs.

The statement also accused Washington of financing the Venezuelan opposition while ignoring problems at home like income inequality and civil rights violations.

“The extreme positions of a government just starting off only confirmed the discriminatory, racist, xenophobic, and genocidal nature of US elites against humanity and its own people, which has

now been heightened by this new administration which asserts white Anglo-Saxon supremacy,” the statement said.

Nearly two months of street protests throughout Venezuela have left at least 46 people dead. Demonstrators are demanding new elections and blaming Maduro for the nation’s triple-digit inflation, rising crimes and vast food shortages.

Maduro is pushing to resolve the crisis by con­vening a special assembly to rewrite the constitution. That proposal was rejected by the opposition, and on Friday, a letter from the nation’s chief prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Diaz, a long-time government loyalist, made it clear she will not support it either.

Ortega Diaz broke with the government shortly after the Supreme Court’s controversial ruling in March, calling it a “rupture” of the constitutional ­order. Days later, Congress partially reversed its dec­ision following international outcry.

In her letter, Ortega Diaz hailed the country’s 1999 constitution as one of the most advanced in

the world and the foremost legacy of the late former president, Hugo Chavez. She said that far from ­resolving the nation’s current crisis, convening the special assembly would likely only serve to further accelerate the nation’s upheaval.

“It’s not necessary, pertinent, or convenient to carry out a transformation of the state in the terms that a new constitution could imply,” she wrote.

Additional reporting by Reuters