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Inside the Story
Inside the Story:This image was posted by US President Donald Trump on the social media platform Truth Social, and it appears to show operations related to the strike on Venezuela.
(Photo courtesy: President Donald Trump / Truth Social)
South America | Donald Trump | Federal Agencies | National Security
It was just like watching television.
Huddled around screens in a draped-off room at Mar-a-Lago — which, according to images released by the White House, also included a live feed of messages from the social media platform X — President Donald Trump watched and listened as highly trained American Delta Force soldiers entered the home of Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, where the Venezuelan leader was sleeping alongside his wife.
Maduro was swiftly taken into custody as he attempted to flee toward his steel-reinforced safe room.
It was the dramatic culmination of a months-long campaign, whose ultimate objective had long been clear to those involved in its planning: to remove Maduro from power. Trump, who at various points expressed concerns about unintended consequences and the risk of the United States becoming drawn into a prolonged war, ultimately set those reservations aside and approved the operation a few days before Christmas.
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However, it took more than a week for the weather to clear and conditions to become favorable. At 10:46 p.m. ET, after shopping for marble and onyx and enjoying dinner on the Mar-a-Lago patio, the president gave the final authorization.
“Good luck,” Trump told the national security officials gathered at his gilded private club in South Florida, “and Godspeed.”
Soon afterward, American helicopters were flying across the sea at an altitude of 100 feet, heading toward Caracas. A few hours later, Maduro was in US custody — handcuffed, dressed in gray sweatpants, and wearing blackout goggles — as shown in a photo Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday morning.
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Another image shows Maduro aboard the US Navy ship USS Iwo Jima.
On Saturday, Trump declared that the United States would now “run” Venezuela for an indefinite period, offering very few details and saying he was not afraid of deploying “boots on the ground.”
For a president whose political movement was fueled in part by public resentment toward two decades of bloody US foreign interventions, this marked a remarkable reversal. Trump largely glossed over the challenges that may lie ahead, instead focusing on gaining access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, and repeatedly declined to rule out a stronger US military presence if Maduro’s allies refuse to relinquish power.
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In the hours following the strike, sources in Washington — including congressional staffers and allies of the president — privately expressed concerns about the long-term consequences of the action, both for US national security and for the political fallout facing a president with low approval ratings, especially as his base has shown little appetite for overseas military intervention.
Timeline of Maduro’s Capture — General Explains (Video: 1:55)
A Plan Months in the Making
This week in Florida, Trump was joined by the chief architects of the escalating pressure campaign against Maduro, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior adviser Stephen Miller. They were seen dining with the president just hours before the operation began and joined him again on Saturday as he declared victory.
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According to individuals familiar with the plans who spoke to CNN, preparations for the raid began in mid-December, though the concept had taken shape months earlier. Even before the US military strike in early September on an alleged drug-carrying vessel linked to Venezuela, the plan to remove Maduro from power was already underway.
While the United States was visibly increasing its military assets in the Caribbean — deploying warships and other equipment to the region — another buildup was taking place in secret. In August, the CIA covertly deployed a small team inside Venezuela to monitor Maduro’s movements, residence, and daily routines. That intelligence proved crucial to Saturday’s operation, including confirming where he would be sleeping, according to sources.
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine said on Saturday:
“We learned how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore — even what pets he had.”
Sources said the CIA’s assets included a source operating within the Venezuelan government who helped the United States track Maduro’s location and movements ahead of his capture.
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The detailed timeline and the revelation that a CIA team had been operating inside Venezuela for such a long period shed new light on the administration’s pressure campaign against Maduro over recent months, even as senior officials publicly stated that regime change was not their goal.
On Saturday, several Democratic members of Congress accused Rubio and Hegseth of lying to lawmakers during a Senate briefing last month.
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New Jersey Senator Andy Kim wrote on X:
“Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth looked every Senator in the eye a few weeks ago and said this wasn’t about regime change. I didn’t trust them then, and now we see that they blatantly lied to Congress.”
Inside the Story: How the United States Moved to Capture Nicolás Maduro
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