Trump speaks on Maduro's capture

Mr. President, can you explain how the US will run Venezuela? Well, thank you, Mr. President. Finally, a commander-in-chief the world respects and the American people deserve. And 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 buy 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 of the American warrior. I'm simply humbled by such men. And I tip my hat to our Chairman, Dan Raizin Caine 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. And no other president has ever shown this kind of leadership, courage, and resolve-- the most powerful combination the world has ever seen. 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 all on full display in the middle of the night. Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance until they didn't and until he didn't. He F'd 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 Raizin Caine, to give a few more details about the operation. Mr. Chairman. Thank you. 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, as the president said, the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to bring to justice two indicted persons, Nicolas and Cilia Maduro. This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd, and was the culmination of 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 talk to you through some of the preparation and the details, without compromising any of our tactics, techniques, and procedures. There is always a chance that we'll be tasked to do this type of mission again. Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience of 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, 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. We watched, we waited, we prepared. We remained patient and professional. This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from many missions over these last many years. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do. It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force. 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, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose-- to get an intradiction 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. Those in the air over Caracas last night were willing to give their lives for those on the ground and in the helicopters. Let me talk a little bit about the preparation. 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, what were his pets, in early December, our force was set, pending a series of aligned events. He was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise and minimize the 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 the year. And 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 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 PM Eastern time last night, the president ordered the United States military to move forward with this mission. He said to us-- and we appreciate it, Mr. President-- good luck and Godspeed. And 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, intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, rotary wing-- were in the air last night. Thousands and thousands of hours of experience were airborne. Our youngest crew member was 20, and our oldest crew member was 49. And there's simply no match for American military might. As the night began, the 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 Marines, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard. The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-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 the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area. The goal of our air component is, was, and always will be to protect the helicopters and the ground force and get them to the target and get them home. As the force crossed the last point of high terrain where they'd been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise. As the helicopter force ingressed towards the objective at low level, we arrived at Maduro's compound at 1:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, or 2:01 AM Caracas local time, and the apprehension force descended into Maduro's compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline towards their objective and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons. On arrival into the target area, the helicopters came under fire, and they replied with that fire with overwhelming force and self-defense. One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable. And 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 at the compound, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces 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 incredible US military, with professionalism and precision, with no loss of US life. After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prep for departure. Helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the extraction force, while fighter aircraft and remotely piloted aircraft 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, and the force was over the water at 3:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, with indicted persons on board, and both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Iwo Jima. 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 that we cannot get it wrong. Our jobs are to integrate combat power so when the order comes, we can deliver overwhelming force at the time and the 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 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 our interests in the region. This operation is a testament to the 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. Well, I don't have much to add to what you've heard now, other than the following points. Nicolas 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, the second Trump administration-- none of those three recognize 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, which I guess we saved $50 million. We should make sure. Yeah, exactly. Don't let anybody claim it. Nobody deserves it but us. But I want to be clear about one thing-- Nicolas Maduro had multiple opportunities to avoid this. He was provided multiple, very, very, very generous offers and chose instead to act like a wild man, chose instead to play around. And the result is what we saw tonight. The other message here is the following. You have a guy-- like many people around the world, they like to play games. You have a guy who decides he's going to invite Iran into his country, is going to do the confiscation of American oil companies, is going to flood our country with gang members, is going to take Americans prisoner and try to hold them hostage and trade him like he was able to do with the Biden administration. Basically, he likes to play games all the time and thinks nothing's going to happen. And I hope what people now understand is we have a president-- the 47th president of United States is not a game player. When he tells you that he's going to do something, when he tells you he's going to address a problem, he means it. He actions it. I can tell you, I've watched this process now for 14, 15 years. I've been around it. Everybody talks-- I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. When I get there, we're going to do this, we're going to take-- this is a president of action. I don't understand yet how they haven't figured this out. And now if you don't now, now you know. Because this is the way it's going to play out. And I think people need to understand that this is not a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences. And if he says he's serious about something, he means it. And this is something that was a direct threat to the national interest to the United States, and the president addressed it. This is a president of peace, by the way. I told you what I just said earlier. This guy had multiple opportunities to find his way somewhere else and figure out another-- he could have been living somewhere else right now very happy. But instead, he wanted to play big boy. And so now he's got other sets of problems on his hands. But I think the message here should be, for the world-- look, the president doesn't go out looking for people to pick fights with. He generally wants to get along with everybody. We'll talk and meet with anybody, but don't play games. Don't play games when this president's in office because it's not going to turn out well. I guess that lesson was learned last night, and we hope it'll be instructive moving forward.

Is that a message for Cuba? [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

You said that the US is going to run Venezuela. So who's in power right now? Well we're going to be running it with a group, and we're going to make sure it's run properly. We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It will be paid for by the oil companies directly. They will be reimbursed for what they're doing, but it's going to be paid. And we're going to get the oil flowing the way it should be. As you know, it was just a minor flow. It was actually a minor flow for what they have. But we're going to run it properly, and we're going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of. We're going to make sure the people that were forced out of Venezuela by this thug are also taken care of. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Mr. President does the US running the country mean that US troops will be on the ground? How will that work? Well, they always say boots on the ground. So we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have-- we had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually. We're not afraid of it. We don't mind saying it. But we're going to make sure that that country is run properly. We're not doing this in vain. This is a very dangerous attack. This is an attack that could have gone very, very badly-- could have gone very badly. We could have lost a lot of people last night. We could have lost a lot of dignity. We could have lost a lot of equipment. The equipment is less important, but we could have lost a lot. And we're going to make sure that this is proper. We're there now. We're ready to go again if we have to. We're going to run the country right. It's going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. It's going to make a lot of money. We're going to give money to the people. We're going to reimburse people that were taken advantage of. We're going to take care of everybody. It's very important. We couldn't let them get away with it. They stole our oil. We built that whole industry there, and they just took it over like we were nothing. And we had a president that decided not to do anything about it. So we did something about it. We're late, but we did something about it. Yeah, please. Mr. President, can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate a US official to coordinate? Can you unpack that? It's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. We're designating various people. And we're going to let you know who those people are. Mr. President, who are the group you mentioned that would run Venezuela? Well, it's largely going to be, for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back. I talk about a dead country. A year and a half ago, we were a dead country. Now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We're a country doing better than any country anywhere in the world. And it required leadership. Venezuela has a lot of bad people in there, a lot of bad people that shouldn't be leading. We're not going to take a chance at one of those people taking over for Maduro. So you can look at-- and others. We have fantastic people, including people in the military. So we're going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for the people, and give people a great way of life. And also reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of Venezuela. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] You said earlier today that you weren't going to back Machado to come back and be the opposition leader in your Fox and Friendsinterview. And then you also mentioned the vice president of Venezuela. Are you going to work with the Vice President of Venezuela? Or how do you foresee the relationship going? From what I understand, she was just sworn in. But she was picked by Maduro. So 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, very simple. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] Mr. President. So Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a couple weeks ago, you said he's got to watch his ass. And today he said he's not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation. So just what your message is? He has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine. And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He's making cocaine, they're sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Did you notify any members of Congress in advance? Marco, do you want to talk about that? Because you were involved in that. Sure. We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days, so it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days. But it's largely a law enforcement function. Remember, at the end of the day, 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. Now, there are broader policy implications here, but it's just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] If I could add one thing to that, Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good. If they leaked, General, I think it would have been maybe a very different result. But I have to say, they knew we were coming at some point. A lot of ships out there-- they knew we were coming. But Congress will leak, and we don't want leaks. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

You were one of the only people to watch this all play out live. What was Maduro doing when the US forces entered what I assume would be his home? And also, was there any point where the US was considering, if Maduro pushed back or resisted, killing Maduro? It could have happened. It could have happened. He was trying to get into a safe place. The safe place is all steel. And he wasn't able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast. They went through the opposition so fast, and there was a lot of opposition. People were wondering, do we get them by surprise? Surprised, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire. You saw some of it today. But he was trying to get to a safe place, which wasn't safe because we would have had the door blown up in about, I think, 47 seconds, they say, on average, regardless of how thick the steel was. It was a very thick door. It was a very heavy door, but he was unable to get to that door. He made it to the door. He was unable to close it. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Where is Maduro going to be in the time being right now? Do you know his exact whereabouts? Well, eventually, ultimately, in the near future, he's going to be brought to New York.

Where is he going to be held in New York? That's going to be up to the officials that do these things.

Mr. President, the US has something of a mixed track record of ousting dictators without necessarily a plan for what comes afterwards. Did that weigh on your decision? Well, that's why we had different presidents. But with me, that's not true. With me, we've had a perfect track record of winning. We win a lot. And we win-- if you look at Soleimani, you look at al-Baghdadi, you look at the Midnight Hammer. Midnight Hammer was incredible. Right now, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. We have essentially peace in the Middle East because of that. If we weren't successful with Midnight Hammer, you wouldn't have peace in the Middle East. So with me, you've had a lot of victory. You've had only victories. You've had no losses.

Mr. President, how long do you expect the US to run Venezuela? And how soon do you want the Venezuelan people to hold elections? So I'd like to do it quickly, but it takes a period of time. We're rebuilding. We have to rebuild their whole infrastructure. The infrastructure is rotted. It's actually very dangerous. It's blow-up territory. Oil is very dangerous. It's a very dangerous thing to take out of the ground. It can kill a lot of people. It has killed a lot of people doing just that. The infrastructure is old, it's rotted. Much of it is stuff that we put there 25 years ago, and we're going to be replacing it. And we're going to take a lot of money out so that we can take care of the country. Mr. President, China, Russia, and Iran have interests in Venezuela. How does this operation affect your relationships with them when it comes to-- Well, in terms of China and Russia-- well, Russia, when we get things straightened out. But in terms of other countries that want oil, we're in the oil business. We're going to sell it to them. We're not going to say-- in other words, we'll be selling oil probably in much larger doses, because they couldn't produce very much because their infrastructure was so bad. So we'll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now. But I would say many more will come. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Mr. President, thank you. What is your message to the people of Venezuela today? Of course, the civilian population, specifically-- they have a lot of questions. What is your message to the people of Venezuela? You're going to have peace, justice. You're going to have some of the riches that you should have had for a long period of time that were stolen from you. But you're going to have peace and you're going to have safety. You're going to have justice. You're going to have a country. You're going to have a real country. You're going to have potentially a great country. If you go back 20 years, maybe even a little longer ago, that was a great country, and they destroyed it. Remember, I said that if we lose this election, the United States will be Venezuela on steroids. That's what would have happened. Had we lost the 2024 election-- we suffered so badly. When you look at the border from 2020, what they did, what the Joe Biden administration did to our country should never be forgotten. But if we had to go through another year of that, we wouldn't have. We would be exactly where Venezuela was in terms-- I used to say, if they win, we're going to be Venezuela on steroids. And that's what would have happened. Mr. President, thank you. Are you saying that Secretary Hegseth and Rubio are going to be running Venezuela? And will you be sending in US military troops? They're going to be a team that's working with the people of Venezuela to make sure that we have Venezuela right. Because for us to just leave, who's going to take over? There is nobody to take over. You have a vice president who's been appointed by Maduro. And right now she's the vice president, and she's, I guess, the president. She was sworn in as president just a little while ago. She had a long conversation with Marco, and she said, we'll do whatever you need. I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn't have a choice. We're going to have this done right. We're not going to just do this with Maduro, then leave like everybody else. Leave and say, let it go to hell. If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back. We'll run it properly. We'll run it professionally. We'll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in and investing billions and billions of dollars and take out money. Use that money in Venezuela. And the biggest beneficiary is going to be the people of Venezuela. And also, I can't stress this strongly enough, the people that got thrown out of Venezuela that are now in the United States-- and frankly, some want to stay and some probably want to go back, yeah. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] What is being done to protect Americans in the country? And were any of the detained Americans-- Well, right now, they're very protected because nobody's going to mess with us. They're very protected, the people. And we let them know that you better not touch one of them. Are you concerned that bad elements of the Maduro regime will remain in place? Well, we know who they are. We're on them, and they're acting much differently now than they would have acted two days ago. Wait, behind you, please. Mr. President, why is running a country in South America, America first? Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy. We have tremendous energy in that country. It's very important that we protect it. We need that for ourselves. We need that for the world, and we want to make sure we can protect it. Yes, sir. Please go ahead. Is a message here for Cuba Diaz-Canel? Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now-- very badly failing nation. And we want to help the people. It's very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country. Do you want to say something about that, Marco, please? Well, I just gave you a statement a few minutes ago about when the president speaks, you should take him seriously. Suffice it to say, Cuba is a disaster. It's run by incompetent, senile men. And in some cases, not senile, but incompetent nonetheless. It has no economy. It's in total collapse. And by the way, all of the guards that helped protect Maduro-- this is well known. Their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans. It's amazing. This poor island took over Venezuela, in some cases. One of the biggest problems the Venezuelans have is they have to declare independence from Cuba. They tried to basically colonize it from a security standpoint. So, yeah, look, if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I'd be concerned, at least a little bit.

Are you cutting off the oil flow to Cuba from Venezuela? Well, the president already announced a week ago that anything that's sanctioned-- it's sanctioned oil, it's not going to be allowed to get there. So that's an example. [REPORTERS CLAMORING] The answer is yes.

Mr. President, is the US is aware of the location of opposition leader Machado? And have you been in contact with her? No, we haven't. No, we haven't. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Do you have any hesitations about Machado as president? Oh, I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect.

Mr. President, is it possible that the US ends up administrating Venezuela for years? Well, it won't cost us anything because the money coming out of the ground is very substantial. So it's not going to cost us--

So the US isn't going to-- Well, we want safety there. We want to be surrounded by countries that aren't housing all of our enemies all over the world. That's what was happening, and you don't want to have that. But we're going to be rebuilding. And we're not spending money. The oil companies are going to go in. They're going to spend money. We're going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We're going to get reimbursed for all of that. We're going to get reimbursed for everything that we spend. It's going to be a very important-- this is a very big evening that took place last night. We have to be surrounded by safe, secure countries. And we also have to have energy-- very important. We have to have energy that's real energy, not where they're getting 4% and 5% of the energy out of the ground. You take a look, it was such a disaster. So what's going to happen with Venezuela, I think, over the next period of a year is going to be a great thing. And the people of Venezuela will be the biggest beneficiaries. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Mr. President, thank you. What did you last speak to Maduro about when you spoke? Well, I don't want to get into the conversations, but I did have conversations with him. And I said, you got to surrender. And I actually thought he was pretty close to doing so, but now he wished he did.

Mr. President, can you explain? You said that Maduro is responsible for drug trafficking. You recently pardoned the former president of Honduras who was convicted of drug trafficking. Can you explain how these two situations are different? And would you ever pardon Maduro? I endorsed, as you know, 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. The man that I pardoned was-- if you could equate it to us, he was treated like the Biden administration treated a man named Trump. That didn't work out too well for them. This was a man who was persecuted very unfairly. He was the head of the country. He was persecuted very unfairly. And there are a number of them, and we felt that it was a very unfair situation that happened to him. He's also a party member of the man who won, so obviously the people liked what I did. And one of the reasons that was done is because of the fact that the party in power felt very strongly that that man was treated very badly. I studied it very quickly, and then I studied it in great detail. I went to a lot of the people standing behind me, and they felt that that man was persecuted and treated very badly. That's why I gave him a pardon.

You referenced boots on the ground earlier. Can you just button this up? Do you envision the US military having a presence in Venezuela as the US runs that? Well, no, we're going to have presence in Venezuela as it pertains to oil, because we're sending our expertise in. So you may need something, not very much. But no, we're going to be taking out a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground. And that wealth is going to the people of Venezuela and people from outside of Venezuela that used to be in Venezuela. And it goes also to the United States of America, in the form of reimbursement for the damages caused us by that country. So I want to thank you all very much. Thank you. Do you have one? Yes, please. You were so nice before, I'm going to give you the final question.

Thank you, Mr. President. Unless a bad question, in which case I'll go one way.

It's about Putin. It's about Putin? That's always nice.

You had a phone call with him on Monday. Did he talk at all about Maduro? Did y'all talk about this? No, we didn't. We never spoke about Maduro.

Are you mad at him right now? I'm not thrilled with Putin. I'm not thrilled with Putin. He's killing too many people.

There was that intelligence-- I thought that would be. I settled 8 and 1/4 war. You know what the 1/4 quarter was? Thailand and Cambodia. I did it again. They broke out, and I did it in about five hours. And I settled it. I'm giving myself 1/4. So I'm up to now 8 and 1/4. In other words, I settled the war, but then they broke out. They had a pretty bad breakout over the last four days. I got them to go back to peace. So I only give 1/4. I thought the easiest one would be-- one of the easier ones would be Russia-Ukraine. It's not. And 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 lives-- did you see where last month 30,000? This last, it was 27,000 the month before. 30,000 mostly soldiers were killed this last month. 30,000-- I want to stop that. I got NATO to pay 5% instead of the 2% that they weren't paying. They weren't paying 2%, and now they pay 5%. And we send them a lot of munitions. We send them a lot of things, missiles, and various other things-- a lot. And 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. We're losing 25,000, 30,000 human beings. They come from two places that are very far away. But if I can stop, because it's something I've been pretty good at doing-- deals, I guess. It's all a deal. Life is a big deal. But if I can stop that war and stop 30,000 young people, in addition to the fact that people are being killed in Kyiv, people are being killed in other cities throughout. A much smaller number, but they're being viciously killed. So I'm not happy about it. I thought that would be something that would get solved. We have Mr. Witkoff here. I think that we're making progress. But that's a war that should have never happened. If I were president, it would have never happened. Putin says it, everybody says it. If I were president, that would have never happened. But I inherited that war. That was Joe Biden, Zelenskyy, and Putin. I came into the situation, and it's a mess. And I will say this-- I watched an operation last night that was so precise. It was 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, that I can tell you. To use an old term, that war has become a bloodbath, and we want it to get solved. Thank you very much. [REPORTERS CLAMORING]

Are you concerned a rogue president could take over the country? All right. You've just been listening to a live news conference with President Trump. I think the headline that a lot of people will be taking away from today after hearing about the capture of Nicolas Maduro is the president at 11:44 this morning saying we will run the country, speaking of safe, proper, judicious transitions. At 11:47, doubling down and saying, we will make the people of Venezuela rich and safe. I want to bring in senior White House and political correspondent Ed O'Keefe. The first five or six questions from reporters, as you just heard, were how do you do this? Who's going to be in control? He talked about the men standing behind me, essentially, will be working with the group until there is a proper transition. Also mentioned that he did hear that the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in and that she echoed that she wanted to work with the Trump administration as they make this transition. Ed, your thoughts? So many questions unanswered there by the president and questions that everyone here in Washington, once they get back-- Congress certainly will be asking in the coming days. Yes, this was a limited and precise extraction of a leader and his wife to face charges in the United States. But by saying now that the United States is going to, in essence, run or occupy Venezuela until the transition is completed-- and the president at one point suggested it could last at least a year. That is a significant new endeavor, and one that's going to require obviously military involvement, American funding, a fair amount of political capital and attention spent on a part of the world where the United States has not actively occupied or engaged in several decades. And so remember, against all of this, our polling has shown in recent weeks widespread opposition to military operations there and a widespread lack of understanding from the White House about why this is necessary. Did the president do enough in this exchange with reporters to explain why it's necessary? We'll see. But there will be all sorts of questions. And the fact that he didn't identify whether it's a civilian or military leadership that will be running the country with the world's largest known oil reserves and obviously a place that has caused great instability across South America and the Western hemisphere opens up all sorts of questions that are yet to be answered and will have to be answered in the coming days. Also notable, he did not endorse the opposition government, essentially, that's been waiting, including María Corina Machado, the woman who won that Nobel Peace Prize late last year, saying she doesn't necessarily have the support. That's notable, too, because she of course went so far to credit him for that Peace Prize and was crediting him for pushing for these changes. Much more to be answered in the coming days. That's right. He called her a nice lady, but said she doesn't "have the respect." Exactly. Ed O'Keefe, thank you. Senior National Security Correspondent Charlie D'Agata joins us now. And, Charlie, I couldn't help but take away so much from General Dan Caine, who gave very specific details about the involvement-- the 150 aircraft, the 20 different places. At 1:01 this morning, saying that they descended into Maduro's compound, and that they had him on board the Iwo Jima at 3:29 this morning. What are we to take away from all of the details that we learned about how this happened? I think it underlines the complexity of what he called a multi-layered attack and extraction. It's called Operation Absolute Resolve. Every component of the joint forces were involved-- Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, CIA, other law enforcement agencies. As you said, we've got to repeat that-- 150 aircraft from 20 bases paved the way for those helicopters to come in at around 100 feet as they came in over the sea. They did take fire both coming in and getting out-- engagements, as they call them. But everybody returned home safely-- so did the aircraft. From the time they reached the Maduro compound until the time the president and his wife were extracted and at sea, roughly 2.5 hours, which is a long time to have US forces in peril. Finally, he underlined that those US military assets, this massive US military buildup will remain in place for the time being. All right, Charlie D'Agata. Thank you very much. We want to now turn to Elliott Abrams. He was the special representative to Venezuela during the first Trump administration. Elliott, good to have you. What did you make of the news conference? A lot of surprises, not about the removal of Maduro, but the idea that the Secretary of State was speaking with Maduro's vice president and they hadn't talked to María Corina Machado, the leader of the opposition. Then the president went on to say that María Corina Machado, the Nobel Prize winner, lacked respect to run Venezuela. In fact, she and Edmundo González got 70% in last year's election, so I don't know where that information is coming to the president from. And we're all, I think, completely up in the air about this question of running Venezuela. What does that mean? Does it mean troops? I don't think so. Does it mean opening the US embassy? Sure. Does it mean cooperating? Sure. But he left it in a situation where I think a lot of Venezuelans are going to be pretty unhappy. And Elliott, before you go, can you talk to us about-- Natalie Brand, our correspondent who was there asked, are you concerned about bad elements? And he said, essentially, no, referring to the president saying no, because he felt like they were acting differently now after what we just witnessed and showing that picture again of Nicolas Maduro handcuffed and on his way here to New York. But is there a concern that there are still elements from Maduro, whether it is the vice president or his defense minister, who called this an aggressive attack and that we need to stand firm? What are the repercussions moving forward, just because he still has a team there? Yeah, my fear is not that they're going to fight back against a new government. My fear is that now the United States is going to try to do some deals with those people. They'll be cooperative if we leave them in place, and they can continue to steal money and to brutalize the country. So I think that's something we really have to watch carefully. We should not be making deals with those people. They're under indictment. They need to go. All right, Elliott Abrams. Thank you. I want to bring in CBS News correspondent Lilia Luciano. You heard those comments. I know you spoke to Machado not too long ago, and he basically said she doesn't have the respect. Also Lilia, if we could touch on the oil. Here's a president saying this was about drug cartels, but acknowledging that US companies will be coming in spending billions of dollars, he said, on infrastructure in hopes of making the Venezuelan people rich and also benefiting from that. This is one of the biggest fears of Venezuelans who are in exile or abroad, the people who were expecting this day anxiously and who were expecting that it would be the leader of the opposition, the person who brought that Venezuelan voters, as I saw, on Election Day, on the ground in Venezuela to rise to power. That even though Edmundo González, who won that election because María Corina Machado was banned from running, that it would be her who would be working with the United States and who the United States would support. What Elliott was saying-- I can't stress how important this is for every Venezuelan who was expecting that a regime change would mean that the opposition would rise to power, how different the scenario would be. Now we're talking about cutting deals with the vice president, with the Minister of Oil and Economy, with the person who is closest to Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez. And how it wasn't about regime change, that it was about the oil. That could be the narrative that we would start seeing. And the amount of frustration that that could generate among Venezuelans and Venezuelan voters in the United States, that's something we're going to watch very closely. I'm waiting to hear back from Maria Corina's team to see if they have any response to this, but it was quite shocking. Indeed it was. And to hear again that the administration has been in talks, it sounds like, with Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president there of Venezuela-- again, the president signaling that she is saying, early on at least, that she is willing to work with the administration on their plans. Lilia, thank you.