Full: Trump Drops Bombshell On USA's 'Operation Absolute Resolve' To Capture Venezuela's Maduro

Late last night and early today,

at my direction, the United States Armed

Forces conducted an extraordinary

military operation in the capital of

Venezuela.

Overwhelming American military power,

air, land, and sea was used to launch a

spectacular assault.

And it was a an assault like people have

not seen since

World War II.

It was a force against a heavily

fortified military fortress in the heart

of Caracus

to bring outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro

to justice.

This was one of the most stunning,

effective, and powerful displays of

American military might and competence

in American history.

And if you think about it, we've done

some other good ones like the

attack on Solomi,

the attack on Albaghaghdadi,

and the obliteration and decimation of

the Iran nuclear sites

just recently

in an operation known as Midnight

Hammer.

All perfectly executed and done.

[snorts] No nation in the world could

achieve what America achieved yesterday

or frankly in just a short period of

time.

All Venezuelan military capacities were

rendered perilous as the men and women

of our military working with US law

enforcement successfully captured Maduro

in the dead of night. It was dark. The

[snorts] uh lights of Karacus were

largely turned off

due to a certain expertise that we have.

It was dark and it was deadly,

but captured along with his wife

Celia Flores,

both of whom now face American justice.

Maduro and Flores have been indicted in

the Southern District of New York. It's

Jay Clayton for their campaign of deadly

narco terrorism against the United

States and its citizens.

I want to thank the men and women of our

military who achieved such an

extraordinary success overnight

with breathtaking speed, power,

precision, and competence.

You rarely see anything like it. You've

seen some raids in this country that

didn't go so well. They were an

embarrassment. If you look back to

Afghanistan or if you look back to

the Jimmy Carter days, they were

different days. We're a respected

country again like maybe like never

before.

These highly trained warriors operating

in collaboration with US law enforcement

caught them in a very ready position.

They were waiting for us. They knew we

had many ships out

in the sea just sort of waiting. They

knew we were coming. So they were in a

ready what's called a ready position,

but they were completely overwhelmed and

very quickly incapacitated.

If you would have seen what I saw last

night, you would have been very

impressed. I'm not sure that you'll ever

get to see it, but it was an incredible

thing to see.

Not a single American service member was

killed and not a single piece of

American equipment was lost. We had many

helicopters, many planes, many

many people involved in that fight. But

think of that, not one piece of military

equipment was lost. Not one service

member was more importantly killed. The

United States military is the strongest

and most fearsome military on the planet

by far with capabilities and skills. Our

enemies can

scarcely begin to imagine we have the

best equipment anywhere in the world.

There's no equipment like what we have.

And you see that even if you just look

at the boats, you know, we've knocked

out 97% of the drugs coming in by sea.

90%. Each boat kills 25 on average

25,000 people. We knocked out 97%.

[snorts]

And those drugs mostly come from place

called Venezuela.

We're going to run the country until

such time as we can do a safe, proper,

and judicious

transition. So, we don't want to be

involved with uh having somebody else

get in. And we have the same situation

that we had for the last long period of

years. So we are going to run the

country until such time as we can do a

safe, proper and judicious

transition. And it has to be judicious

because that's what we're all about. We

want peace, liberty, and justice for the

great people of Venezuela.

And that includes many from Venezuela

that are now living in the United States

and want to go back to their country.

It's their homeland. [snorts]

We can't take a chance at somebody else

takes over Venezuela that doesn't have

the good of the Venezuelan people in

mind.

We've had decades of that. We're not

going to let that happen. [snorts]

We're there now. And what people don't

understand, but they understand as as I

say this, we're there now, but we're

going to stay until such time as the

prop proper transition can take place.

So, we're going to stay until such time

as we're going to run it essentially

until such time as a proper transition

can take place.

As everyone knows, the oil business in

Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust

for a long period of time.

They were pumping almost nothing by

comparison to what they could have been

pumping and what could have taken place.

We're going to have our very large

United States oil companies, the biggest

anywhere in the world, go in, spend

billions of dollars, fix the badly

broken infrastructure, the oil

infrastructure,

and start making money for the country.

and we are

ready to stage a second and much larger

attack if

we need to do so. So, we were prepared

to do a second wave

if

we needed to do so. We actually assumed

that a second wave would be necessary,

but now it's probably not. the first

wave, if you'd like to call it that. The

first attack was so successful, we

probably don't have to do a second, but

we're prepared to do a second wave. A

much bigger wave, actually.

This was pinpoint, but we have a much

bigger wave that

probably won't have to do. this

partnership of Venezuela with the United

States of America, a country that

everybody wants to be in involved with

because of what we were able to do and

accomplish, will make the people of

Venezuela rich, independent, and safe.

And it will also make the many, many

people from Venezuela that are living in

the United States extremely happy. They

suffered. They suffered. So much was

taken from them. They're not going to

suffer anymore.

The illegitimate dictator Maduro was the

kingpin of a vast criminal network

responsible for trafficking colossal

amounts of deadly and elicit drugs into

the United States. As alleged in the

indictment, he personally oversaw the

vicious cartel known as cartel de las

solless

which flooded our nation with lethal

poison responsible for the deaths of

countless Americans. The many many

Americans, hundreds of thousands over

the years of Americans died because of

him. Maduro and his wife will soon face

the full might of American justice and

stand trial on American soil.

Right now, they're on a ship. They'll be

heading to ultimately New York and then

a decision will be made, I assume,

between New York and

Miami or Florida.

But we have uh

people where the overwhelming evidence

of their crimes will be presented in a

court of law. And uh I've seen it. I've

seen what we have. It's uh

it's both horrible and breathtaking that

something like this could have been

allowed to take place. For many years

after his term as president of Venezuela

expired, Maduro

remained in power and waged a ceaseless

campaign of violence, terror, and

subversion against the United States of

America, threatening not only our

people, but the stability of the entire

region. And you all saw it. In addition

to trafficking gigantic amounts of

illegal drugs that inflicted untold

suffering and human destruction all over

the country, all over in particular the

United States. Maduro sent savage and

murderous gangs including the

bloodthirsty prison gang trend dear to

terrorize American communities

nationwide. And he did indeed. They were

in Colorado. They took over apartment

complexes. They cut the fingers off

people if they call police. They were

brutal,

but they're not so brutal now. [snorts]

And I just have to congratulate our

military Pete and everybody and our

National Guard because the job that

they've done whether it's in Washington

DC where we have a totally safe city

where it was one of the most unsafe

cities anywhere in the world frankly and

now we have no crime in Washington DC.

We haven't had a killing. We had the

terrorist attack a few weeks ago.

Uh little bit of a different kind of a a

threat, but we haven't had a killing in

a long period of time, six, seven

months. We used to have two on average

two a week in Washington, our capital.

We don't have that anymore. The

restaurants are opening. Everyone's

happy. They're going, they're walking

their daughters. They're walking their

children, their wives. as they walk to

restaurants. Restaurants are opening all

over Washington DC. So, I want to thank

the National Guard. I want to thank our

military and I want to thank law

enforcement. Been amazing. And they

should do it with more cities. We're

doing it as you know and uh we're doing

it in Memphis, Tennessee right now. And

crime is down. We've just sort of

started a few weeks ago, but crime is

down now 77%.

And uh the governor of Louisiana called

great person and he wanted us to help

him as you know in a certain very nice

part of Louisiana

and we have done that and it's a rough

it was a rough rough section and we have

climbed down I I understand it's down to

almost nothing already after two and a

half weeks. New Orleans. It's down to

almost nothing and we've only been there

for two and a half weeks. Can't imagine

why governors wouldn't want us to help.

We also helped, as you know, in Chicago.

Then crime went down a little bit there.

We did a very small help because we had

no no uh we had no working ability with

the governor. The governor was a

disaster and the mayor was a disaster.

But it knocked down Crown. But we're

pulling out of there when when they need

us. We'll know. You'll know. you'll be

writing about it. And likewise, Los

Angeles where we saved Los Angeles early

on where the head of the police

department made a statement that if the

federal government didn't come in, we

would have lost Los Angeles. That's

after long after the fires. That's when

they had the riots in Los. We did a

great job. Got no credit for it

whatsoever. But that's okay. It doesn't

matter. We don't need the credit.

But we'll be pulling out when they need

us. They'll call or we'll go back if we

have to. We'll go back. But we did a

great job in various cities. But the

thing, the place that we're very proud

of is Washington DC because it's our

nation's capital. We took it from being

a crimeridden mess to being one of the

safest cities in the country. But the

gangs that they sent raped, tortured,

and murdered American women and

children. They were in all of the cities

I mentioned, Trendewa,

and they were sent by Maduro to

terrorize our people. And now Maduro

will never again be able to threaten an

American citizen or anybody from

Venezuela. There will no longer be

threats. For years, I've highlighted the

stories of those innocent American whose

lives

were so heartlessly robbed by this

Venezuelan terrorist organization.

Really one of the worst. One of the

worst, they say the worst. Americans

like 12-year-old Joselyn Nungarry from

Houston. Beautiful Joselyn then Gary.

What happened to her?

They uh as you know they kidnapped,

assaulted and murdered by trend raw

animals. They murdered Joselyn

and

left her dead under the bridge. There

was a bridge,

a bridge that will never be the same to

so many people after seeing what

happened. As I've said many times, the

Maduro regime emptied out their prisons,

sent their worst and most violent

monsters into the United States to steal

American lives. And they came from

mental institutions and insane asylums.

They came from prisons and jails. The

reason I say both, they sound similar

actually. Prisons

little bit more

a little bit more hostile, a little bit

tougher. A mental institution isn't as

tough as an insane asylum. But we got

them both. They sent from their mental

institutions. They sent from their

jails, prisons. They were drug dealers.

They were drug kingpins. They sent

everybody bad into the United States.

But no longer. And we have now a border

where nobody gets through. In addition,

Venezuela

unilaterally seized and sold American

oil, American assets, and American

platforms, costing us billions and

billions of dollars.

They did this a while ago, but we never

had a president that did anything about

it. They took all of our property. It

was our property. We built it.

And uh we never had a president that

decided to do anything about it. and

instead they fought wars that were

10,000 mi away. We built Venezuela oil

industry with American talent, drive,

and skill, and the socialist regime

stole it from us during those previous

administrations. And they stole it

through force. This constituted one of

the largest thefts of American property

in the history of our country.

Considered the largest theft of property

in the history of our country. Massive

oil infrastructure was taken like we

were babies and we didn't do anything

about it. I would have done something

about it. America will never allow

foreign powers to rob our people or

drive us back into

and out of our own hemisphere. That's

what they did.

Furthermore, under the now deposed

dictator Maduro, Venezuela was

increasingly hosting foreign adversaries

in our region and acquiring menacing

offensive weapons that could threaten US

interests and lives. And they used those

weapons last night. They used those

weapons last night potentially in league

with the cartels operating along our

border. All of these actions were in

gross violation of the core principles

of American foreign policy dating back

more than two centuries

and uh not anymore.

All the way back it dated to the Monroe

doctrines.

And the Monroe doctrine is a a big deal

but we've superseded it by a lot

[snorts] by a real lot. They now call it

the Donro document. I don't know. It's

uh Monroe Doctrine. We sort of forgot

about it. It was very important, but we

forgot about it. We don't forget about

it anymore. Under our new national

security strategy, American dominance in

the Western Hemisphere will never be

questioned again. Won't happen. So just

in concluding for decades other

administrations have neglected or even

contributed to these growing security

threats in the Western Hemisphere under

the Trump administration. We are

reasserting American power in a very

powerful way in our home region and our

home region is very different than it

was just a short while ago. The future

will be and we did this in my first

term. We had great dominance in my first

term and we have uh far greater

dominance right now. Everyone's coming

back to us. The future will be

determined by the ability to protect

commerce and territory and resources

that are core to national security.

These are core to n our national

security. Just like tariffs are they've

made our country rich and they've made

our national security stronger than ever

before.

But these are the iron laws that have

always determined global power

and uh we're going to keep it that way.

We will secure our borders. We will stop

the terrorists. We will crash the

cartels and we will defend our citizens

against all threats, foreign and

domestic. Other presidents may have

lacked the courage or whatever to defend

America, but I will never allow

terrorists and criminals to operate with

impunity against the United States. This

extremely successful operation should

serve as warning to anyone who would

threaten American sovereignty or

endanger American lives. Very

importantly, the embargo on all

Venezuelan oil remains in full effect.

The American

Armada remains poised in position and

the United States retains all military

options until United States demands have

been fully met and fully satisfied.

All political and military figures in

Venezuela should understand what

happened to Madura can happen to them

and it will happen to them if they

aren't just fair even to their people.

The dictator and terrorist Maduro

is finally gone and Venezuela people are

free. They're free again. It's been a

long time for them, but they're free.

America is a safer nation. this morning.

It's a prouder nation this morning

because it didn't allow this horrible

person and this country that was doing

very bad things to us. It didn't allow

it to happen. And the Western Hemisphere

is right now a much safer place to be.

So, I want to thank everybody for being

here. Uh, I want to thank General Raisen

Kaine. He's fantastic man. I've worked

with a lot of generals. I worked with

some I didn't like. I worked with some I

didn't respect. I worked with some they

just weren't good. But this guy is

fantastic. I watched last night one of

the most precise

uh attacks on sovereignty. I mean, it

was an attack for justice and I'm very

proud of him. And I'm very proud of our

Secretary of War, Pete Hexath, who I'm

going to ask to say a few words. Thank

you very much.

Okay. [clears throat]

[snorts]

>> Well, thank you, Mr. President. Um,

finally, a commander-in-chief the world

respects and the American people

deserve. And as the president said,

words can barely capture the bravery and

the power and the precision of this

historic operation. A massive joint

military and law enforcement raid

flawlessly executed by the greatest

Americans our country has to offer.

American warriors are second to none.

the best in the world and the best of

our country. What I what all of us

witnessed last night was sheer guts and

grit, gallantry and glory of the

American warrior. I'm simply humbled by

such men such men. And I tip my hat to

our chairman Dan Raisen Kaine and all

those Americans

who stood watch last night. Our warriors

are the elite of America and again

President Trump has your back.

No other country on planet Earth, and

it's not even close, could pull this

kind of operation off. And no other

president has ever shown this kind of

leadership, courage, and resolve. The

most powerful combination the world has

ever seen. As the president said, our

adversaries remain on notice. America

can project our will anywhere, anytime.

the coordination, the stealth, the

lethality, the precision, the very long

arm of American justice, all on full

display in the middle of the night.

Nicholas Maduro had his chance just like

Iran had their chance until they didn't

and until he didn't. He effed around and

he found out. President Trump is deadly

serious about stopping the flow of gangs

and violence to our country. deadly

serious about stopping the flow of drugs

and poison to our people. Deadly serious

about getting back the oil that was

stolen from us. And deadly serious about

reestablishing American deterrence and

dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

This is about the safety, security,

freedom, and prosperity of the American

people. This is America first. This is

peace through strength. and the United

States War Department is proud to help

deliver it. Welcome to 2026

and under President Trump, America is

back. I'd like to welcome now our

chairman, Chairman Raisen Kaine, to give

a few more details about the operation.

Mr. Chairman,

>> thank you. Uh thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Thank you, uh Mr. President, and good

morning. Last night on the order of the

President of the United States and in

support of a request from the Department

of Justice, as the president said, the

United States military conducted an

apprehension mission in Caracus,

Venezuela, to bring to justice two

indicted persons, Nicholas and Cecilia

Maduro. This operation known as

Operation Absolute Resolve was discreet,

precise, and conducted during the

darkest hours of January 2nd and was at

the culmination of months of planning

and rehearsal. An operation that frankly

only the United States military could

undertake. What I'd like to do this

morning is talk you through some of the

preparation and the details without

compromising any of our tactics,

techniques, and procedures. There is

always a chance that we'll be tasked to

do this type of mission again. Our inter

agency work began months ago and built

on decades of experience of integrating

complex air, ground, space, and maritime

operations. While the past two decades

have honed the skills of our special

operations forces, this particular

mission required every component of our

joint force with soldiers, sailors,

airmen, marines, and guardians working

in unison with our intelligence agency

partners and law enforcement teammates

in an unprecedented operation. We

leveraged our unmatched intelligence

capabilities and our years of experience

in hunting terrorists. And we could not

have done this mission without the

incredible work by various intelligence

agencies including the CIA, NSA, and

NGA. We watched, we waited, we prepared,

we remained patient and professional.

>> [snorts]

>> This mission was meticulously planned,

drawing lessons from decades of missions

over the last many years. Decades of

many missions over these last many

years. This was an audacious operation

that only the United States could do. It

required the utmost of precision and

integration within our joint force. And

the word integration does not explain

the sheer complexity of such a mission.

An extraction so precise it involved

more than 150 aircraft launching across

the Western Hemisphere in close

coordination. All coming together in

time and place to layer effects for a

single purpose to get an interdiction

force into downtown Caracus while

maintaining the element of tactical

surprise.

Failure of one component of this

welloiled machine would have endangered

the entire mission and failure is never

an option for America's joint force.

Those in the air over Caracus last night

were willing to give their lives for

those on the ground and in the

helicopters.

Let me talk a little bit about the

preparation. After months of work by our

intelligence teammates to find Maduro

and understand how he moved, where he

lived, where he traveled, what he ate,

what he wore, what were his pets. In

early December, our force was set

pending a series of aligned events. key

was choosing the right day to minimize

the potential for civilian harm and

maximize the element of surprise and

minimize the harm to the indicted

personnel. So, as the president said,

they could be brought to justice. And as

the president said earlier today,

weather in Venezuela is always a factor

this time of the year. And over the

weeks through Christmas and New Year's,

the men and women of the United States

military sat ready, patiently waiting

for the right triggers to be met and the

president to order us into action.

Last night, the weather broke just

enough, clearing a path that only the

most skilled aviators in the world could

maneuver through. Ocean, mountain, low

cloud, ceilings. But when tasked with a

mission, this organization does not

quit. At 10:46 p.m. Eastern time last

night, the president ordered the United

States military to move forward with

this mission. He said to us, and we

appreciate it, Mr. President, "Good luck

and Godspeed." And those words were

transmitted to the entire joint force.

Over the course of the night, aircraft

began launching from 20 different bases

on land and sea across the Western

Hemisphere. In total, more than 150

aircraft, bombers, fighters,

intelligence, reconnaissance,

surveillance, rotary wing were in the

air last night. Thousands and thousands

of hours of experience were airborne.

Our youngest crew member was 20 and our

oldest crew member was 49. and they're

simply no match for American military

might. As the night began, the

helicopters took off with the extraction

force, which included law enforcement

officers, and began their flight into

Venezuela at 100 ft above the water. As

they approached Venezuelan shores, the

United States began layering different

effects provided by Spacecom, CyberCom,

and other members of the inter agency to

create a pathway overhead. Those forces

were protected from aircraft were

protected by aircraft from the United

States Marines, the United States Navy,

the United States Air Force, and the Air

National Guard. The force included

F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, EA18s, E2s, B1

bombers, and other support aircraft, as

well as numerous remotely piloted

drones. As the force began to approach

Caracus, the joint air component began

dismantling and disabling the air

defense systems in Venezuela, employing

weapons to ensure the safe passage of

the helicopters into the target area.

The goal of our air component is, was,

and always will be to protect the

helicopters and the ground force and get

them to the target and get them home. As

the force crossed the last point of high

terrain where they'd been hiding in the

clutter, we assessed that we had

maintained totally the element of

surprise. As the helicopter force

ingressed towards the objective at low

level, we arrived at Maduro's compound

at 10:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time or

2:01 a.m. Caracus local time. and the

apprehension force descended into

Maduro's compound and moved with speed,

precision, and discipline towards their

objective and isolated the area to

ensure the safety and security of the

ground force while apprehending the

indicted persons.

On arrival into the target area, the

helicopters came under fire and they

replied with that fire with overwhelming

force in self-defense. One of our

aircraft was hit but remained flyable.

And as the president said earlier today,

all of our aircraft came home and that

aircraft remained flyable during the

rest of the mission. As the operation

unfolded at the compound, our air and

ground intelligence teams provided

realtime updates to the ground force,

ensuring those forces could safely

navigate the complex environment without

unnecessary risk. The force remained

protected by overhead tactical aviation.

Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave

up and were taken into custody by the

Department of Justice, assisted by our

incredible US military with

professionalism and precision, which

with no loss of US life. After securing

the indicted persons, the force began to

prep for departure. Helicopters were

called in to exfiltrate the extraction

force while fighter aircraft and

remotely piloted aircraft provided

overhead coverage and suppressive fire.

There were multiple self-defense

engagements as the force began to

withdraw out of Venezuela. The force

successfully exfiltrated and returned to

their afflat launch bases. And the force

was over the water at 3:29

a.m. Eastern Standard Time with indicted

persons on board. And both Maduro and

his wife were embarked aboard the USS

UIA.

In closing, what we've witnessed today

is a powerful demonstration of America's

joint force. We think, we develop, we

train, we rehearse, we debrief, we

rehearse again and again. Not to get it

right, but to ensure that we cannot get

it wrong. Our jobs are to integrate

combat power so when the order comes, we

can deliver overwhelming force at the

time and the place of our choosing

against any foe anywhere in the world. I

am immensely proud today of our joint

force and filled with gratitude to

represent them here today. There is

simply no mission too difficult for

these incredible professionals and the

families that stand by them and support

them. [snorts] As we stand here this

morning, our forces remain in the region

at a high state of readiness, pro

prepared to project power, defend

themselves and our interests in the

region. This operation is a testament to

the dedication and unwavering commitment

to justice and our resolve to hold

accountable those who threaten peace and

stability. In closing, I want to express

my heartfelt gratitude to the brave men

and women who executed this mission.

Their courage and tireless commitment to

our nation are what makes us strong.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thank you,

Mr. President.

Well, I don't have much to add to what

you've heard now other than the

following points. Nicholas Madura was

indicted in 2020 in the United States.

He is not the legitimate president of

Venezuela. That's not just us saying it.

The first Trump administration, the

Biden administration, the second Trump

administration, none of those three

recognized him. He's not recognized by

the European Union and multiple

countries around the world. He is a

fugitive of American justice with a $50

million reward. Uh which I guess we

saved $50 million and uh

>> make sure

>> Yeah, exactly. But

>> don't let anybody claim it. [laughter]

>> Nobody deserves it but us.

>> But I want to be clear about one thing.

Nicholas Maduro had multiple

opportunities to avoid this. He was

provided multiple very very very

generous offers and chose instead to act

like a wild man. Chose instead to play

around and the result is what we saw

tonight. Uh the other message here is

the following. You have a guy like many

people around the world, they like to

play games. You have a guy who decides

he's going to invite Iran into his

country, is going to, you know, do the

confiscation of American oil companies.

He's going to flood our country with

gang members. Is is going to take

Americans prisoner and try to hold them

for hostage and trade them like he was

able to do with the Biden

administration. Basically likes to play

games all this time and thinks nothing's

going to happen. And I hope what people

now understand is we have a president.

The 47th president of the United States

is not a game player. When he tells you

that he's going to do something, when

he's tells you he's going to address a

problem, he means it. He actions it. I I

can tell you, I've watched this process

now for 14 15 years, been around it.

Everybody talks, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do that. When I get there,

we're going to do this. We're going to

take This is a president of action.

Like, I don't understand yet how they

haven't figured this out. And now, if

you don't know, now you know, cuz this

is the way it's going to play out. And I

think people need to understand that

this is not a president that just talks

and does letters and press conferences

and you know if he says he's serious

about something he means it. And and

this is something that was a direct

threat to the national interest of the

United States and the president

addressed it. There's a president of

peace by the way. I told you what I just

said earlier. This guy had multiple

opportunities to find his way somewhere

else and figure out another. He could

have been living somewhere else right

now very happy but instead he wanted to

play big boy. And so now you know he's

got other sets of problems on his hands.

And uh but I think that the message here

should be for the world. Look, the

president doesn't go out looking for

people to pick fights with. He's not

generally wants to get along with

everybody. We'll talk and meet with

anybody, but don't play games. Don't

play games with this president's in

office because it's not going to turn

out well. And so I I hope that uh you

know um you know, I guess uh that lesson

was learned last night and um and we

hope it'll be instructive moving

forward.

>> Is that a message for Cuba, Mr.

President?

>> Mr. President,

Well, we're going to be running it with

a group and we're going to make sure

it's run properly. We're going to

rebuild the oil infrastructure which

will cost billions of dollars. It'll be

paid for by the oil companies directly.

Uh they will uh be reimbursed for what

they're doing, but uh that's going to be

paid and we're going to get the oil

flowing the way it should be. as you

know, was just a minor flow. It was

actually a minor flow for what they

have, but we're going to run it

properly, and we're going to make sure

the people of Venezuela are taken care

of. We're going to make sure the people

that were forced out of Venezuela by

this thug uh are also taken care of,

>> President. Does the US running the

country mean that US troops will be on

the ground? How will that work?

>> Well, you know, they always say boots on

the ground. So, we're not afraid of

boots on the ground if we have to have.

We had boots on the ground last night at

a very high level. Actually, we're not

afraid of it. We We don't mind saying

it. But we're going to make sure that

that country is run properly. We're not

doing this in vain. This is not This is

a very dangerous attack. This is an

attack that could have gone very very

badly. Could have gone very badly. We

could have lost a lot of people last

night. We could have lost a lot of uh

dignity. We could have lost a lot of

equipment. The equipment is less

important. But uh we could have lost a

lot and we're going to make sure that

this is proper. We're there now. We're

ready to go again if we have to. We're

going to run the c country right. It's

going to re run very uh judiciously,

very fairly. Uh it's going to make a lot

of money. We're going to give money to

the people. We're going to reimburse uh

people that were taken advantage of.

We're going to take care of everybody.

It's very important. We couldn't let

them get away with it. You know, they

stole our oil. We we built that whole

industry there and they just took it

over like we were nothing and we had a

president that decided not to do

anything about it. So uh we did

something about it. We're late but we

did something about it. Yeah. Please

explain the exact mechanism by which

you're going to run the country. Are you

going to designate a US?

>> It's all being it's all being done right

now. We're designating people. We're

talking to people. We're designating uh

various people and we're going to let

you know who those people are.

group you mentioned would run Venezuela.

>> Well, it's largely going to be for a

period of time. The people that are

standing right behind me, we're going to

be running it. We're going to be

bringing it back. It's a it's a dead,

you know, I talk about a dead country. A

year and a half ago, we were a dead

country. Now, we're the hottest country

anywhere in the world. We're a country

doing better than any country anywhere

in the world. And uh it required

leadership. Venezuela has a lot of bad

people in there, a lot of bad people

that shouldn't be leading. We're not

going to take a chance at one of those

people take over for Maduro. So, uh, you

can look at and and others. We have

fantastic people, including people in

the military. So, we're going to have a

group of people running it until such

time as it can be put back on track,

make a lot of money for the people, and

give people a great way of life and also

reimbursement for people in our country

that were forced out of Venezuela.

>> Would be,

>> you said earlier today that you weren't

going to back Machado to come back and

be the opposition leader in your Fox and

Friends interview. And then you also

mentioned the vice president of

Venezuela. Are you going to work with

the vice president of Venezuela or how

do you foresee the relationship? and she

was just sworn in, but she was, as you

know, picked by Maduro. So Marco's

working on that directly. Just had a

conversation with her and she's

essentially willing to do what we think

is necessary to make Venezuela great

again. Very simple.

>> Mr. President, uh so Colombian President

Gustavo Petro, uh you know, a couple

weeks ago he said he's got to watch his

um and today he said he's not concerned

about anything happening to him in the

aftermath of this operation. So, uh,

just what your message is.

>> Well, he has cocaine mills. He has, uh,

factories where he makes cocaine. And,

yeah, I think I stick by my first

statement. He's making cocaine. They're

sending it into the United States. So,

he does have to watch his

[laughter]

>> Did you notify any members of Congress

in advance?

>> Marco, do you want to talk about that

because you were involved in

>> Sure. We called members of Congress

immediately after. This was not the kind

of mission that you can do congressional

notification on. It was a a

trigger-based mission in which

conditions had to be met night after

night. We watched and monitor that for a

number of days. So, it's just simply not

the kind of mission you can call people

and say, "Hey, we may do this at some

point in the next 15 days." But it's

largely a law enforcement function.

Remember, at the end of the day, at at

its core, this was an arrest of two

indicted fugitives of American justice.

And the Department of War supported the

Department of Justice in that job. Now,

there are broader policy implications

here, but it's just not the kind of

mission that you can pre-notify because

it endangers the mission.

Plus, if I could add one thing to that,

>> Congress has a tendency to leak. This

would not be good. If they leaked,

General, I think it would have been

maybe a very different result. But I I

have to say they knew we were coming at

some point. You know, a lot of ships out

there. They sort of knew we were coming.

We went there. But but Congress Congress

will leak and we don't want leakers.

Mr.

>> President, you were one of the only

people to watch this all play out live.

What was Maduro doing uh when the US

forces entered what I assume would be

his home? And also, was there any point

where the US was considering if Maduro

pushed back or resisted killing Maduro?

>> We could have happened. It could have

happened. He was trying to get into a

safe place. You know, the safe place is

all steel and he wasn't able to make it

to the door because our guys were so

fast. They went through the opposition

so fast and there was a lot of

opposition. You know, people were

wondering, did we get them by surprise?

sort of surprised, but they were waiting

for something. There was a lot of

opposition. There was a lot of gunfire.

You saw some of it today. Uh, but he was

trying to get to a safe place, which

wasn't safe because we would have had

the door blown up in about 47, I think

47 seconds they say on average,

regardless of how thick the steel was.

It was a very thick door. It's a very

heavy door, but he was unable to get to

that door. He made it to the door. He

was unable to close it.

>> So,

Go ahead. Finish.

>> Where is Maduro going to be in the time

being right now? Do you know his exact

>> Well, eventually, ultimately in the near

future, he's going to be brought to New

York.

>> And where is he going to be held? Where

is he going to be held in New York?

>> That's going to be up to the officials

that do these things.

>> Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr.

President, the US has something of a

mixed track record of ousting dictators

without necessarily a plan for what

comes afterwards. That weigh on your

decision.

>> Well, that's why we had different

presidents, but with me that's not true.

with me. We've had a perfect track

record of winning. We win a lot. And we

win. If you look at Salamani, you look

at Albaghdaddy, you look at the Midnight

Hammer. Midnight Hammer was incredible.

Right now, you you wouldn't have peace

in the Middle East. We if essentially

peace in the Middle East because of

that. If you didn't if we weren't

successful with Midnight Hammer, you

wouldn't have peace in the Middle East.

So, uh, with me, you've had a lot of a

lot of victory. You've had only

victories. You've had no losses. Yeah.

>> Can you How long do you expect the US to

run Venezuela and how soon do you want

Venezuelan people to hold elections?

>> So, I'd like to do it quickly, but it

takes a period of time. You know, we're

rebuilding. We have to rebuild their

whole infrastructure. The infrastructure

is rotted. It's actually very dangerous.

It's a, you know, blowup territory. Oil

is very dangerous. It's a very dangerous

thing to take out of the ground. Uh can

kill a lot of people. It has killed a

lot of people doing just that. Uh the

infrastructure is old. It's rotted. Much

of it is stuff that we put there 25

years ago and we're going to re be

replacing it and we're going to take a

lot of money out so that we can take

care of the country. Yeah.

>> Are you saying that Secretary Rubio and

Mr. President, China, Russia, and Iran

have interests in Venezuela? How does

this operation affect your relationships

with them when it comes to

>> China and Russia? uh well, Russia, when

we get things straightened out, but in

terms of other countries that want oil,

we're in the oil business. We're going

to sell it to we're not going to say

we're not going to go. In other words,

we'll be selling oil uh probably in much

larger doses because they couldn't

produce very much because their

infrastructure was so bad. So, we'll be

selling large amounts of oil to other

countries, many of whom are using it

now, but I would say many more will

come.

>> Are you saying, what is your method? Are

you saying that,

>> Mr. President? Are you saying that you

Mr. President, thank you. What is your

message to the people of Venezuela

today? Of course, the civilian

population specifically, they have a lot

of questions. What is your message to

the people of Venezuela?

>> You're going to have peace, justice,

you're going to have uh some of the

riches that you should have had for a

long period of time. It was stolen from

you. But you're going to have peace and

you're going to have safety. You're

going to have justice. You're going to

have a country. You're going to have a

real country. You're going to have

potentially a great country. You know,

if you go back 20 years, maybe even a

little longer ago, that was a great

country and they destroyed it. Remember

I said that if we lose this election,

the United States will be Venezuela on

steroids. That's what would have

happened. Had we lost the election, the

2024 election, we suffered so badly.

When you look at the border from 2020,

what what they did, what Joe Biden

administration did to our country should

never be forgotten. But if we had to go

through another year of that, we

wouldn't have we would be exactly where

Venezuela was in terms I I used to say

if they win, we're going to be Venezuela

on steroids and that's what would have

happened.

>> President, thank you. Are you saying

that Secretary Hegsth and Rubio are

going to be running Venezuela? And will

you be sending in US military troops

that's working with the people of

Venezuela to make sure that we have

Venezuela, right? Because for us to just

leave, who's going to take over? I mean,

there is nobody to take over. You have a

vice president who's been appointed by

Maduro and right now she's the vice

president and she's I guess the

president. She was sworn as president

just a little while ago. She had a long

conversation with Marco and she said,

"We'll do whatever you need." Uh she I

think she was quite gracious, but she

really doesn't have a choice. We're

going to have this done right. We're not

going to just do this with Madura, then

leave like everybody else. leave and

say, you know, let it go to hell. If we

just left, it has zero chance of ever

coming back. We'll run it properly.

We'll run it professionally. We'll have

the greatest oil companies in the world

go in and invest billions and billions

of dollars and take out money, use that

money in Venezuela.

And the biggest beneficiary going to be

the people of Venezuela. And also, I

can't stress this strongly enough, the

people that got thrown out of Venezuela

that are now in the United States. And

frankly, some want to stay. And some

probably want to go back. Yeah.

>> To protect Americans in the country. And

were any of the detained Americans?

>> Well, right now they're very protected

because nobody's going to mess with us.

They're very protected. The people of

And we let them know that you better not

touch one of them.

>> Are you concerned that bad elements of

the Maduro regime will remain in place?

>> Well, we know who they are. We're on

them. And uh they're acting much

differently now than they would have

acted 2 days ago. Okay. Wait behind you,

please.

>> Mr. President, why is running a country

in South America, America first?

>> Well, I think it is because we want to

surround oursel with good neighbors. We

want to surround oursel with stability.

We want to surround oursel with energy.

We have tremendous energy in that

country. It's very important that we

protect it. We need that for ourselves.

We need that for the world. And we want

to make sure we can protect it.

>> Yes, sir. Please go ahead.

>> Is there a message for Cuba on US

canals?

>> Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba

is, you know, uh not doing very well

right now. It that system is not been a

very good one for Cuba. The people there

have suffered for many, many years. And

I think Cuba is going to be something

we'll end up talking about because Cuba

is a failing nation right now. Very

badly failing nation. and we want to

help the people of It's very similar in

the sense that we want to help the

people in Cuba, but we want to also help

the people that were forced out of Cuba

and living in this country. Do you want

to say something about that, Marco,

please?

>> Well, I mean, I just gave you a

statement a few minutes ago about uh you

know, when the president speaks, you

should take him seriously. So, suffice

it to say, you know, Cuba is a disaster.

It's it's run by incompetent seen now

men and and in some cases not seen now,

but incompetent nonetheless. It has no

economy. It's in total collapse. And by

the way, you know, they were crit, you

know, all of the guards that helped

protect Maduro, this is well known,

their whole spy agency, all that were

full of Cubans. I mean, they basically,

it's amazing, this poor

island took over Venezuela in some

cases. One of the biggest problems

Venezuelans have is they have to declare

independence from Cuba that tried to

basically colonize it from a security

standpoint. So, yeah, look, if I lived

in Havana and I was in the government,

I'd be concerned at least a little bit.

>> Cutting off the oil flow to Cuba from

Venezuela.

Well, the president already announced a

week ago that anything that's

sanctioned, it's sanctioned oil, it it's

not going to be allowed to get there. So

that that's an pre-existing

>> The answer is the answer is yes,

>> Mr. President.

>> Yes.

>> Is the US aware of the location of

opposition? And have you been in contact

with her?

>> No, we haven't. We haven't.

>> Mr. President,

>> Mr. president on on Monday.

>> Oh, I think it would be very tough for

her to be the leader. She doesn't have

the support within or the respect within

the country. She's a very nice woman,

but she doesn't have the respect.

>> Mr. President, is it possible that the

US ends up administrating Venezuela for

years? You know, in

>> Well, you know, it won't cost us

anything because the uh money coming out

of the ground is very substantial. So,

it's not going to cost us anything. We

will well, we want safety there. We want

to be surrounded by countries that

aren't housing all of our enemies all

over the world. That's what was

happening. And you don't want to have

that. Uh but we're going to be

rebuilding and and we're we're not

spending money. The oil companies are

going to go in. They're going to spend

money. They're going we're going to take

back the oil that frankly we should have

taken back a long time ago. A lot of

money is coming out of the ground. We're

going to get reimbursed for all of that.

We're going to get reimbursed for

everything that we spend. So, it's going

to be uh it's going to be a very

important it's going to be a very

important this is a very big evening

that took place last night. We have to

be surrounded by safe secure countries

and we also have to have energy very

important. We have to have energy that's

real energy not where they're getting 4%

and 5% of the energy out of the ground.

You take a look it was such a disaster.

So what's going to happen with Venezuela

I think over the next period of a year

is going to be a great thing and the

people of Venezuela will be the biggest

beneficiaries

>> US military president what did you last

speak to Maduro about when you spoke and

is the

>> well I don't want to get into the

conversations but I did have

conversations with him and I said uh

[snorts]

you got to surrender

and I actually thought he was pretty

close to doing so, but now he wished he

did. Yeah. Mr. President,

>> can you explain, you said that Maduro is

responsible for drug trafficking. You

recently pardon the former president of

Honduras who was convicted of many drug

trafficking. Can you explain how these

two situations?

>> Well, the Would you ever pardon Maduro?

>> I endorsed, as you know, the winning

president, the man who won in Honduras.

I endorsed the man who won in Chile. I

endorsed the man who won in Argentina.

And we are doing very well with that

whole group. What the man that I

pardoned was, if you could equate it to

us, he was treated like the Biden

administration treated a man named

Trump. That didn't work out too well for

them. This was a man who was persecuted

very unfairly. He was the head of the

country. He was persecuted very unfairly

and there are a number of them and we

felt that it was a very unfair situation

that happened to him. Uh he's also a

party member of the man who won. So

obviously the people liked what I did

and one of the reasons that was done is

because of the fact that the party in

power felt very strongly that that man

was treated very badly. I studied it

very quickly and then I studied it in

great detail. I went to a lot of the

people standing behind me and they felt

that that man was persecuted and treated

very badly. That's why I gave him a

pardon.

>> You referenced boots on the ground

earlier. Can you just sort of button

this up? Do you envision the US military

having a presence in Venezuela as the US

runs that

>> Well, no, we're going to have a presence

in Venezuela as it pertains to oil

because we have to have we we're sending

our expertise in. Uh, so you may need

something, not very much, but no, we're

going to be taking out a tremendous

amount of wealth out of the ground. And

that wealth is going to the people of

Venezuela and people from outside of

Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela.

And it goes also to the United States of

America in the form of reimbursement for

the damages caused us by that country.

So, I want to thank you all very much.

Thank you. Do you have one? Yes, please.

>> You were so nice before. I'm going to

give you the final question. Go ahead.

Unless it's a bad question, in which

case I'll go one more way. It's about

>> It's about Putin, if you want.

>> About Putin. Well, that's always nice to

talk about Putin.

>> You had a phone call with him on Monday.

Did he talk at all about Maduro? Did you

talk about this?

>> No, we didn't. We never spoke about

Maduro.

>> Are you mad at him right now? I mean,

there's this

>> I'm not thrilled with Putin. I'm not

thrilled with Putin. He's killing too

many people.

>> There was that entire

>> I thought that would be So, I settled

eight and one quarter war. You know what

the one quarter was? Thailand and

Cambodia. I did it again. They were they

broke out and I did it in about 5 hours

and I settled it. I'm giving myself one

quarter. So I'm up to now eight and one

quarter. In other words, I settled the

war, but then they broke out. They had a

pretty bad breakout over the last four

days. I got them to go back to peace. So

I only give one quarter. I thought the

easiest one would be one of the easier

ones would be Russia, Ukraine. It's not.

And uh they both have done some pretty

bad things. And look, that's Biden's

war. That's not my war. But I want to

stop the lives. Did you see where last

month 30,000 this last it was 27 27,000

the month before 30,000

mostly soldiers were killed this last

month. 30,000. I want to stop that. You

know, I got NATO to pay 5% instead of

the 2% that they weren't paying. They

weren't paying two. Now they pay five.

And we send them a lot of munitions. We

send them a lot of things, missiles and

various other things. A lot. And they

pay. The United States is not losing

money. We're probably making money on

that. It's the last thing I care about.

I just want to stop all those people.

We're losing 25 30,000 human beings.

They come from two places that are very

far away. But if I can stop because it's

something I've been pretty good at

doing, deals. I guess it's all a deal.

Life is a big deal. But if I can stop

that war and stop 30,000 young people in

addition to the fact that people are

being killed in Kiev, people are being

killed in other cities throughout, you

know, a much smaller number, but they're

being killed, viciously killed. So I'm

not happy about it. I thought that would

be something that would get solved. We

have Mr. Whitaf here. I think that we're

making progress. But that's a war that

should have never happened. If I were

president, it would have never happened.

Putin says it. Everybody says it. If I

were president, that would have never

happened. But I inherited that war. That

was Joe Biden. Zalinsky and Putin. I

came into the situation and it's a mess.

And I will say this, I watched an

operation last night that was so

precise, that was so brilliant. I mean

it was incredible. Uh if we had our

people like this general and our people

involved that war that war would not

have gone on very long. That I can tell

you.

That war to use an old term that war has

become a bloodbath and we want it to get

stopped. Thank you very much everybody.