President Donald Trump has taken a bold step in his campaign to pull Venezuela back from the brink and keep China out of the Western Hemisphere.
Operation Absolute Resolve was a stunning tactical success for the US military. Now comes the hardest part of remodeling Venezuela without creating a swamp.
The capture of illegitimate President Nicolás Maduro was another masterpiece orchestrated by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan “Razin” Caine. Like the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in June, the operation involved more than 150 aircraft and built on complete U.S. air dominance. Caine cited the “years of experience in hunting terrorists.”
Intelligence agencies tracked every moment of Maduro’s routine down to his pets.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and MDC Brooklyn. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images; Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We watched, we waited, we prepared,” Caine explained Saturday. American ships and planes were on trigger alert for days. Then the weather broke and the coastal fog lifted just enough for “the world’s most skilled pilots” to fly in to capture Maduro, while joint forces built a corridor of layered effects.
American forces achieved total surprise. Venezuela’s Russian-supplied air defenses went down, while the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Cyber Command obscured and blinded Venezuela’s military coordination to “create a path” for the helicopters, in Caine’s words. Special Forces helicopters brought troops to the Maduro complex. American troops seized Maduro on foot just before the dictator fled.
“He tried to go to his safe place, but he couldn’t close the door,” Trump said.
This was no piece of cake. The extraction forces were in enemy airspace at 1:01 a.m. Eastern Time. It was 3:29 a.m. before the extraction force helicopters carrying Maduro fought their way out after several self-defense actions. That’s a very exciting time on the ground.
Fortunately they had full tactical air cover. U.S. Air Force F-22s, F-35s and B-1 bombers were part of the troop, along with the F/A-18EF Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, EA-18G electronic attack aircraft and E-2D Hawkeye radar aircraft. This included what Caine described as ‘lots of drones’ and undoubtedly a variety of ‘black’ Special Forces aircraft.
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Through those drones and other indicators of his own troops, Trump saw every moment of the attack unfold.
Imagine the shock of the Chinese delegation in Caracas. Xi Jinping had just sent diplomats to audit the $67 billion China has invested in Venezuela. Too late. They were guests of honor at the last cocktail party hosted by Maduro at the Miraflores presidential palace, hours before the airstrikes began. Then they saw another breathtaking display of American military precision, with tactics that could be applied “against any enemy, anywhere in the world,” Caine said.
Saturday’s arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife draws sharp comparisons to the 1989 arrest of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. (Bill Gentile/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images and Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Despite all the military success, Trump’s Operation Absolute Resolve will ultimately be judged by Venezuela’s outcome. Americans remember the words of Colin Powell: “You break it, you own it.” The advice, also called the Pottery Barn Rule, was given by the Secretary of State to President George W. Bush before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It was not followed.
The difference with Trump is already clear. Trump believes that a successful partnership with the US “can make the people of Venezuela rich, independent and secure.”
Yes, Trump was angry at Venezuela for the “human destruction” caused by drugs and criminal gangs.
“They sent everyone to the United States in a bad way,” Trump said on Saturday.
“They took all our oil a long time ago. We want it back,” Trump said on December 17.
But Trump’s policy motivations are also prescient. His team appears to have long been planning Venezuela’s next chapter. It gave Maduro the opportunity to surrender. The foolish Maduro turned down “several generous offers” and decided to “act like a wild man,” Rubio said on Saturday.
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Rubio has already spoken extensively with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. She was “merciful” but “had no choice,” Trump said. Rodriguez can cooperate and perhaps take Maduro’s former henchmen with him, or a second attack is ready, Trump said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, watches as President Donald Trump meets with Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured) in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 14, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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Trump then plans to entrust Venezuela to those who know the country well: the oil men. With 303 billion barrels of reserves, Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia or any other country in the world. However, exports are meager. Some of the oil is difficult to extract and the infrastructure for oil production fell into disrepair under socialism and Maduro. Think of the long-term benefit of American partnership and investment, and the strategic logic of Operation Absolute Resolve falls into place.
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Make no mistake: Trump’s action against Venezuela goes far beyond boosting oil production. Venezuela is a crucial strategic chess piece in what will be a decades-long, multi-polar competition with China. In this global struggle, a free, prosperous Venezuela is a valuable asset. Or it will if Trump’s team can create that “right, judicious transition” he described during the Mar-a-Lago briefing.
Trump wants Venezuela on America’s side.
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