Trump Press Conference (Jan 3, 2026): Venezuela, Maduro Captured, and U.S. Energy Security

President TRUMP

And it was 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 Caracas.

To bring outlaw dictator Nicolás 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, there are some other good ones: the attack on Soleimani, the attack on al-Baghdadi, and the obliteration and decimation of the Iran nuclear sites.

Most recently, in an operation known as “Midnight Hammer,” all perfectly executed and done.

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 powerless as the men and women of our military, working with U.S. law enforcement, successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.

It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.

It was dark, and it was deadly.

Captured along with his wife, Cilia Flores, both of whom now face American justice, Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York for their campaign of deadly narco-terrorism against the United States and its citizens. [unclear reference: “Jay Clayton”]

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 are a respected country again—maybe like never before.

These highly trained warriors, operating in collaboration with U.S. law enforcement, caught them in what’s called a “ready position.” They were waiting for us. They knew we had many ships out at sea. They knew we were coming.

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 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 people involved in that fight.

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. We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by sea… 90%. Each boat kills, on average, 25,000 people. We knocked out 97%. And those drugs mostly come from the place called Venezuela.

We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation we had for a long period of years.

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. It’s 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. We’ve had decades of that. We’re not going to let that happen.

We’re there now, and we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. We’re going to run it, essentially, until 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 compared to what they could have been pumping.

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, 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. We were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to. We assumed a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not.

The first wave—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 partnership of Venezuela with the United States of America will make the people of Venezuela rich, independent, and safe. And it will also make the many, many people from Venezuela living in the United States extremely happy. 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 illicit drugs into the United States.

As alleged in the indictment, he personally oversaw the vicious cartel known as the [unclear] “Cartel de los Soles,” which flooded our nation with lethal poison responsible for the deaths of countless Americans—hundreds of thousands over the years, they say—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.

The overwhelming evidence of their crimes will be presented in a court of law. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen what we have. 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—threatening not only our people, but the stability of the entire region.

In addition to trafficking gigantic amounts of illegal drugs that inflicted untold suffering and human destruction—particularly in the United States—Maduro sent savage and murderous gangs, including the bloodthirsty prison gang Tren de Aragua, to terrorize American communities nationwide.

They were in Colorado. They took over apartment complexes. They cut the fingers of people if they called police. They were brutal. But they’re not so brutal now.

And I have to congratulate our military—Pete and everybody—and our National Guard for the work they’ve done.

Whether it’s in Washington, D.C., 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, D.C. We haven’t had a killing. We had the terrorist attack a few weeks ago—different kind of threat. But we haven’t had a killing in a long period of time.

We used to have, on average, two a week in Washington, our capital. We don’t have that anymore. The restaurants are opening. Everyone’s happy. They’re walking their daughters, their children, their wives. They walk to restaurants. Restaurants are opening all over Washington, D.C.

So I want to thank the National Guard. I want to thank our military. And I want to thank law enforcement. It’s been amazing.

We’re doing it, as you know. We’re doing it in Memphis, Tennessee right now, and crime is down. We started a few weeks ago, but crime is down now 77 percent.

The governor of Louisiana called—great person—and he wanted us to help him. We have done that. It was a rough section, and we have clamped down. I understand it’s down to almost nothing already after two and a half weeks. New Orleans is down to almost nothing.

We also helped, as you know, in Chicago. Crime went down a little bit there. We did a very small help because we had no working ability with the governor. The governor was a disaster and the mayor was a disaster. But it knocked down crime.

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 Angeles. We did a great job. No credit for it whatsoever—but that’s okay.

But the place we’re very proud of is Washington, D.C., because it’s our nation’s capital. We took it from being a crime-ridden mess to being one of the safest cities in the country.

But the gangs they sent raped, tortured, and murdered American women and children. They were in all of the cities I mentioned—Tren de Aragua. 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.

Over the years, 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.

Americans like 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray from Houston—beautiful Jocelyn. They kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered her—by Tren de Aragua. Animals. They murdered Jocelyn and left her dead under a bridge.

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.

They came from mental institutions [unclear: “Insanus Islands”]. They came from prisons and jails. 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.

This was 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.

We built Venezuela’s oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill. 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. Massive oil infrastructure was taken, and we didn’t do anything about it. I would have done something about it.

Furthermore, under the now-deposed dictator, Maduro, Venezuela was increasingly hosting foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten U.S. interests and lives.

And 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.

All the way back—it dated to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot. They now call it the [unclear] “Don Road Document.” I don’t know. It’s the 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.

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.

We did this in my first term. We had great dominance in my first term, and we have 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 our national security—just like tariffs are. They’ve made our country rich, and they’ve made our national security strong—stronger than ever before.

We will secure our borders. We will stop the terrorists. We will crush the cartels. And we will defend our citizens against all threats—foreign and domestic.

The 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 a 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 Maduro 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 in 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—to continue.

So I want to thank everybody for being here. I want to thank General [unclear: “Rezin/Razin Canes”]. 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 attacks on sovereignty—an attack for justice. And I’m very proud of him. And I’m very proud of our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, who I’m going to ask to say a few words. Thank you very much.

Secretary of War (Pete Hegseth)

Well, thank you, Mr. President. Finally, a commander-in-chief the world respects—and the American people deserve.

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 all of us witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit—gallantry and glory. I’m simply humbled by such men.

I tip my hat to our Chairman, Dan [unclear], 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.

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—was all on full display in the middle of the night.

Nicolás Maduro had his chance—just like Iran had their chance—until they didn’t. He messed 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 [unclear]—to give a few more details about the operation.

Chairman

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, 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—the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to bring to justice two indicted persons: Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.

This operation—known as Operation Absolute Resolve—was discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd, culminating 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 walk you through some of the preparation and details without compromising any of our tactics, techniques, and procedures. There is always a chance we’ll be tasked to do this type of mission again.

Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience 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: soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Guardians working in unison with our intelligence community partners and our law-enforcement teammates—in an unprecedented operation.

We leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and our years of experience hunting terrorists. We could not have done this mission without the incredible work of various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NGA.

We watched. We waited. We prepared. We remained patient and professional.

This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from decades of missions over many years. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do.

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—coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose: to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.

Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission—and failure is never an option for America’s joint force.

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, and even what his pets were—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 to minimize 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 year.

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 for 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—Mr. President, we appreciate it—“Good luck and Godspeed.” 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, ISR, rotary wing—were in the air last night.

Our youngest crew member was 20, and our oldest was 49. There is simply no match for American military might.

As the night began, helicopters took off with the extraction force—which included law-enforcement officers—and began their flight into Venezuela at 100 feet above the water.

As they approached Venezuelan shores, the United States began layering different effects—provided by SpaceCom, CyberCom, and other members of the interagency—to create a pathway.

Overhead, those forces were protected by aircraft from the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard.

The force included F-22s, F-35s, F/A-18s, EA-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, and other support aircraft, as well as numerous remotely piloted drones.

As the force began to approach Caracas, the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air-defense systems in Venezuela—employing weapons to ensure safe passage of the helicopters into the target area.

The goal of our air component was—and always will be—to protect the helicopters and the ground force, get them to the target, and get them home.

As the force crossed the last point of high terrain where they had been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had maintained the element of surprise.

We arrived at Maduro’s compound at 1:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, or 2:01 a.m. Caracas local time. The apprehension force descended into the compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline toward their objective, isolating the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons.

Upon arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire and replied with overwhelming force in self-defense.

One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable. 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, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring they 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 U.S. military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of U.S. life.

After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prepare for departure. Aircraft and remotely piloted platforms 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 afloat launch bases. The force was over the water at 3:29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time with the indicted persons on board, and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS [unclear: “Uajima”].

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 we cannot get it wrong.

Our job is to integrate combat power so when the order comes, we can deliver overwhelming force at the time and 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 for the families that stand by them and support them.

As we stand here this morning, our forces remain in the region at a high state of readiness—prepared to project power, defend themselves, and defend our interests in the region.

This operation is a testament to our 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.

Press Q&A (mixed speakers)

Official

I don’t have much to add other than the following points. Nicolás Maduro 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, and 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—and I want to be clear: he had multiple opportunities to avoid this.

He was provided multiple very generous offers and chose instead to act like a wild man. The result is what we saw tonight.

The message here is this: when the President tells you he’s going to do something, he means it. He actions it.

This is not a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences. If he says he’s serious about something, he means it.

Don’t play games with this president while he’s in office, because it’s not going to turn out well.

Reporter

Does the U.S. running the country mean that U.S. troops will be on the ground? How will that work?

President TRUMP

You know, they always say “boots on the ground.” We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have them. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level.

Reporter

Can you say by which [mechanism] you’re going to run the country? Are you going to designate it?

President TRUMP

Yes. It’s all being done right now. We’re designating people. We’re talking to people. We’ll let you know who those people are.

Marco is working on that directly. He just had a conversation with her, and she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.

Marco

This was not the kind of mission you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission. Conditions had to be met night after night. It’s not the kind of mission where you call people and say, “We may do this at some point in the next 15 days.”

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.

President TRUMP

Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good.

Reporter

Was there any point where the U.S. was considering, if Maduro pushed back or resisted, killing Maduro?

President TRUMP

It could have happened. He was trying to get into a safe place—safe places, all steel. He wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.

Reporter

The U.S. has a mixed track record of ousting dictators without necessarily a plan for what comes afterwards. Did that weigh on your decision?

President TRUMP

Not with me. With me, we’ve had a perfect track record of winning.

Reporter

How long do you expect the U.S. to run Venezuela?

President TRUMP

I’d like to do it quickly, but it takes a period of time. We’re rebuilding their infrastructure. The infrastructure is old. It’s rotted.

Reporter

What is your message to the people of Venezuela today—specifically the civilian population?

President TRUMP

You’re going to have peace and justice. You’re going to have some of the riches you should have had for a long period of time—it was stolen from you. You’re going to have safety. You’re going to have a country—a real country—potentially a great country.

President TRUMP (later remarks)

I apologize to 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.

Reporter

Do you envision the U.S. military having a presence in Venezuela as the U.S. runs that country?

President TRUMP

We’re going to have a presence as it pertains to oil, because we have to. We’re sending our expertise in. You may need something—not very much.

So I want to thank you all very much. Thank you.

You were so nice before; I’m going to give you the final question—unless it’s a bad question, in which case I’ll go one more.

Reporter

It’s about Putin. You had a phone call with him on Monday. Did he talk at all about Maduro?

President TRUMP

No, we didn’t. We never spoke about Maduro.

Reporter

Are you mad at him right now?

President TRUMP

I’m not thrilled with Putin. He’s killing too many people.

I settled eight and one-quarter wars. You know what the one-quarter was? Thailand and Cambodia. They broke out, and I settled it in about five hours. I only give myself one quarter because they broke out again.

I thought the easiest one would be Russia–Ukraine. It’s not. 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 loss of life.

Last month, 30,000—27,000 the month before—mostly soldiers, were killed. I want to stop that.

I got NATO to pay 5% instead of 2%. We send them a lot of munitions. 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 from dying.

We have Mr. [unclear: “Whitcoff”] here. I think we’re making progress. But that war should have never happened. If I were president, it would have never happened.

I watched an operation last night that was so precise—so brilliant—it was incredible. If we had our people like this general and our people involved, that war would not have gone on very long, I can tell you.

That war has become a bloodbath. And we want it to get stopped. Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you.