“This is big stuff,” an exhausted, bedraggled-looking Donald Trump began on Saturday, detailing a brazen overnight US military operation to capture Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
Regaling reporters in a raspy timbre, Trump described “an assault like people have not seen since World War II” — a “stunning display of American military might,” as he put it, aimed at “bring[ing] the outlaw dictator Maduro to justice.”
During a highlight reel-style recap of great US military operations, Trump lauded his strike on Qassem Soleimani, the raid on Bakr Al-Baghdadi and the bombing of Iran’s nuclear program but notably didn’t mention Normandy.
Maduro was “captured in the dead of night,” Trump said. “It was dark,” he added. “And it was deadly.” Venezuela was “in a ready position. They were waiting for us,” he went on, “but they were overwhelmed.”
No US soldiers were killed in the raid, and no US military equipment was lost, according to Trump who, in a remarkable proclamation, said America’s “going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
He said it again and again: “We are going to run the country.” “We can’t take a chance that someone else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the people in mind,” Trump declared. “We’re there now [and] we’re going to stay until such time as a proper transition can take place.”
He wasn’t done. Trump proceeded to explain how America’s “very large oil companies” are going to “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the oil infrastructure and start making money for the country.” He didn’t say which country.
In the event anyone in the Venezuelan government’s not on board with the program, the US is “ready to stage a second and much larger attack.” Indeed, the US was “prepared to do a second wave” on Saturday, but now believes more strikes aren’t necessary.
The implication seems to be that the US had at least some buy-in for Maduro’s exit from inside the Venezuelan government. That’d help explain why the operation went so smoothly, and also how Trump can confidently say the US will run the country without an occupying force in the capital.
After describing Maduro as a “kingpin” who oversaw the “flooding” of America “with lethal poison,” Trump veered into a defense of his efforts to militarize American streets. Washington D.C., he said, “was one of the most dangerous cities in the world prior to the National Guard deployment.”
Steering the car back on the tracks, Trump said Saturday’s mission in Caracas was consistent with the “core principles of US foreign policy.” He cited the “Monroe Doctrines,” plural apparently, before suggesting a new name for American dominance of the Western Hemisphere: “They now call it the Don-roe Doctrine,” he said.
Trump then invited Pete Hegseth to speak. Adopting the overwrought bravado that’s made him a meme, Hegseth said of Maduro, “He f’ed around and he found out.”
That’s how you do a special military operation. Not like this almost 4 year old fiasco in Eastern Europe.
At least our military is competent.
Reminds me of the good old days of richer more powerful nations taking the natural resources of smaller weaker ones.
Imperialism worked so well the last time it’s about time we have it another shot.
Since Cuba is totally dependent on Venezuelan oil, can Cuba remain a viable/functioning economy in any sense? Should we just make Cuba a protectorate of Florida?
Don’t think you’ll have to wait long if little Marco has his way.
Brilliant kidnapping/arrest. Much much more complicated than an assassination.
Does remind me of the O’Henry story
If you keep the price of oil low enough tariffs might not be inflationary. All things being relative.
It may be the offshore natural gas that’s more important to our economy at the moment.
The heavy crude onshore till it’s safe…….
I’m sorry, I must have missed the detailed report on how we’re going to run the country. Who’s in charge? Pete? L’il Marco? Junior? Eric? Not to worry, Trump’s always been good at running stuff!
Even better at ruining stuff.
Wag the dog, I’ve almost forgotten about the Epstein files.
Since oil and gas producing infrastructure needs to be re-built and updated in Venezuela, are the stocks of oil services companies an opportunity ?? Cheap Venezuelan heavy sour crude oil should help expand the crack spread and profit margins of our refineries. Unless I’m mistaken Chevron has the largest presence in Venezuela. Will crude oil prices go down enough to be disinflationary? If Iranian oil production and transport is disrupted due to the political convulsions currently in Iran, then how will that affect China’s dependence on foreign oil from Iran and Venezuela ?
Hegseth and Trump: Two guys who have never been able to fight their way out of wet paper bag, always relying upon someone else to fight their battles with real and fabricated foes.
Greenland is next. I bet the US overwhelms their military too even if it’s “in a ready position.”
How long before Trump renames Venezuela after himself? Greenland is easy: “Trumpland.” I wonder what drugs Greenland is forcing upon US citizens to threaten national security?
Thank god it was dark at night.
Absolutely stunning global political event – with profound implications and hopefully leading to a significant shake up of the global petro order that will benefit both the US and the Venezuelan economies.
Good riddance to Maduro, but without a stable government to follow, the US oil companies won’t want to invest in the aged and neglected oil infrastructure. There is lots of money to be made, however, so I’m guessing that the oil majors, with US military backing (what could possibly go wrong?) will figure it out.
Venezuela has the world’s largest proven reserves (300B barrels), yet production has fallen to 1% of global daily output (global daily output 100M barrels). So much potential! Remove sanctions and oust China/Russia from Venezuelan oil production? Denationalize Chevron? Going to be fascinating!
Ad hoc Monthly time: https://heisenbergreport.com/2026/01/03/monthly-letter-the-noriega-analogue/
Trump wanted a 51st state with his name on it come hell or high water. Time to welcome Trumpiswela to the USA.
So Americans are now in an unimaginable position: You are not in Kansas anymore. Your President just crossed the Rubicon: I don’t think you voted for a guy who portents to effectively be the Putin of the Western Hemisphere – lawlessly, upturning the post world war order – plundering, taking whatever he wants and turning the locals into vassal states. Past time to get off your hind legs and do something. Anything. You snooze, we all lose.
Cuba is probably next, then regime change in Columbia. Scotty B is running Argentina already. Panama better watch their Ps and Qs if they know what’s good for them. Canada doesn’t have enough golf courses so they are safe for now. But there’s always Bermuda, just a stone’s throw from the winter White House.
Remember that time we invaded Iraq, and we were going to make a bazillion gazillion dollars extracting their oil and gas, so much that the proceeds from govt receipts would pay for the war entirely?
Y’all remember that, right?
Yeah.
So Trump just launched a military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has been indicted on drug trafficking charges… five weeks after he pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been convicted drug trafficking charges.
This is about job creation. I need to update my “viceroy” resume. Maybe now people will start to see the genius of this three-dimensional chess. The USA annexes Venezuela. NATO steps in. The USA annexes Denmark. The USA gains Greenland for “free”. No more of the Danish companies “taking advantage of us”. Novo Nordisk, Maersk, LEGO, Pandora, and Carlsberg will all lower their prices by 500%.