President Donald Trump announced Saturday morning that the United States carried out a large-scale military strike against Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
In a brief interview, Trump told the New York Times “it was a brilliant operation” and that “a lot of good planning” went into it.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flore, have been indicted on drug-trafficking and weapons charges in the Southern District of New York. “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” she said.
Maduro was indicted in the US in 2020, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio having described him in recent months as a “fugitive from American justice.” On Saturday, Rubio said that Maduro is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela and referenced him being under indictment.
Trump later posted a photo on Truth Social of what appeared to be a handcuffed Maduro, dressed in a gray tracksuit and holding a plastic water bottle, aboard the USS Iwo Jima bound for New York.
For months, the US military has been carrying out lethal strikes on alleged drug boats, prompting scrutiny from lawmakers. This latest strike inside Venezuela, along with the capture of Maduro, raises urgent questions about Trump’s legal authority to act.
When asked by the Times if he had sought congressional authority prior to Saturday’s action, Trump said he’d “discuss that” at an 11 a.m. ET news conference.
Andy Kim, a Democratic Senator from New Jersey, accused Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of lying to Congress, writing on X that they “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 we see now that they blatantly lied to Congress,” he continued. “Trump rejected our Constitutionally required approval process for armed conflict because the Administration knows the American people overwhelmingly reject risks pulling our nation into another war.”
Trump will surely also face questions about the targeting of Maduro after he recently pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for helping move 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. Trump said in November he’d been “told” that the prosecution was a “setup” by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
