President Trump announced details of “Operation Absolute Resolve” at Mar-a-Lago, confirming U.S. special forces and law enforcement captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, describing a coordinated air, land and sea assault and outlining immediate plans for U.S. oversight of Venezuela’s recovery and oil industry while stressing that no U.S. service members were lost.
The president spoke from the Tea Room at Mar-a-Lago alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan “Raizin'” Caine, presenting the operation as a decisive action against a regime long accused of corruption and tyranny. He emphasized the scale and precision of the mission, calling it an “extraordinary military” action that neutralized Venezuelan forces without U.S. casualties.
Trump named the effort “Operation Absolute Resolve” and said it was a joint effort between U.S. special forces and federal law enforcement, executed using air, land and sea components to carry out a “spectacular assault.” He insisted the assault was unprecedented in its scope, stating, “Overwhelming American military power — air, land and sea — was used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II.”
Officials at the briefing described planning that stretched over months and required coordination across the services and agencies. Secretary Hegseth praised the execution as “flawlessly executed,” while General Caine called the mission “audacious” and said it “required every component of joint forces.” Trump also released an image showing Maduro in U.S. custody, underscoring the operation’s success.
On the question of what follows, Trump said the United States will manage Venezuela “until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition” of power, framing this as a temporary stewardship aimed at stabilizing the country. He announced plans for major U.S. oil companies to enter Venezuela to repair dilapidated infrastructure and restore production, promising investment on a large scale.
“We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country,” Trump said, presenting economic recovery as central to the broader security and humanitarian goals. The president tied energy rebuilding directly to Venezuelans’ future prosperity, portraying it as both pragmatic and patriotic policy.
When asked about resistance inside Venezuela, Trump warned that the United States would act again if necessary, declaring a willingness to “stage a second, larger attack, if needed” to ensure the transition takes hold. He positioned the mission as intended to bring “peace, liberty, and justice” and to make Venezuelans “rich, independent, and safe,” presenting U.S. intervention as a pathway to national renewal.
Earlier statements from the administration provided an initial outline of the operation, noting the collaboration of special forces and law enforcement in a raid in Caracas that took Maduro and his wife while they slept. The White House framed the operation as decisive and lawful, stressing coordination across agencies and the absence of U.S. military losses during the action.
A prior public message from the president stated, “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolás Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” and added that “This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement.” That statement was released on the president’s social platform and used to announce the outcome before the Mar-a-Lago briefing.
Administration officials tied the timing to history, noting January 3 has seen significant U.S. actions before, and they highlighted parallels to past decisive moments in American foreign policy. They framed the Maduro arrest as part of a broader effort to hold authoritarian leaders accountable and to restore democratic and economic order where extremist kleptocracy has taken hold.
Questions remain about logistics, legal authority, and the shape of any interim Venezuelan governance, but the White House presented a clear immediate agenda: secure the country, stabilize oil production, and prepare for a transition. Officials emphasized that the U.S. aims to avoid prolonged occupation, repeatedly using the word temporary to describe the planned U.S. role in helping restore institutions and infrastructure.
Critics will press on legality and sovereignty; supporters will point to decades of Venezuelan suffering under Maduro’s rule and welcome swift action to remove a corrupt dictator. The administration framed the operation as both a law enforcement success and a strategic move designed to restore order and economic potential, with energy investment front and center as the engine of recovery.
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Absolute Righteous Action against a massive enemy of all American’s on so many levels; such as some of the biggest drug cartels on the planet poisoning and tearing apart our society from within along with the Maduro Regime’s direct promotion of “Carnage upon America” accompanied by the Criminal former Biden/Harris Regime’s allowing this influx or Invasion via millions of “Illegal Invading” foreigners that included the release “of criminals in Venezuela’s Prisons along with sending into America many mental criminally insane persons from their insane asylums,” just to mess up America as much as possible! That was an “Act of War” perpetrated by Venezuela and the Totally Fraudulent Biden/Harris Cabal with the whole Demoncrap party; and this was the “Absolute Proper Response by the US Government,” because we now have a at least functioning administration with “RESOLVE” to get the job done rather than how the previous administrations just sitting back and watching it all happen or even “facilitating such out of control attacks upon innocent American Citizens!~”
It’s about damn time!!!