Trump: U.S. Will Run Venezuela to Secure Order and Transition

Trump: U.S. Will Run Venezuela to Secure Order and Transition

President Donald Trump opened his address on the aerial assault, named Operation Absolute Resolve, by praising the military, National Guard, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for their work on the capture.

“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 an assault like people have not seen since World War Two.

It was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro to justice.”

Trump expanded on the role the United States will play in what is next as the deposed Maduro heads to New York to face a slew of charges on drug trafficking and weapons.

“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 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 who are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country as their homeland.

We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela, that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind for decades. We’re not going to let that happen.”

President Trump also warned those still in power that the United States would protect their interests even if that means a second strike.

“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.”

He also tied the downfall of Maduro to the horrific immigration policies of the last decade.

“I’ve highlighted the stories of those innocent Americans 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 Jocelyn Nungaray from Houston, beautiful Jocelyn Nungaray what happened to her?

They, as you know, they kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered by the Trende Aragua animals. They murdered Jocelyn and left her dead under the bridge. It 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.”

Trump concluded his remarks with a full-throated defense of his actions.

“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.”

Trump opened the floor to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who let Chairman John Daniel “Raizin” Caine describe the actions taken in Caracas during the mission.

“As the President said, the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, 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 2, and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal, an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake.”

Chairman Caine continued.

“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.”

Chairman Caine went into detail on the hundreds of offensive weapons, aircraft, and soldiers involved. He also mentioned that while one aircraft was hit, it remained flyable and in the air without too much damage. The mission lasted about 90 minutes and was executed without failure.

The administration’s message was unmistakable: Operation Absolute Resolve was not framed as a one-off strike, but as a decisive assertion of American power in the Western Hemisphere and a warning to hostile regimes that geographic distance no longer guarantees immunity. With Maduro in custody and facing justice in the United States, the White House cast the mission as both a national security imperative and a moral reckoning for years of instability, criminal exportation, and regional neglect.

As Washington moves to oversee a transitional period in Venezuela, the operation stands as one of the most audacious U.S. military actions in decades, combining intelligence, speed, and overwhelming force with a clear political objective. Whether it marks the beginning of a longer American presence or a rapid handoff to a new Venezuelan leadership remains to be seen. For now, the administration is betting that shock, certainty, and deterrence will succeed where diplomacy and half-measures failed.

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