Praising US special forces again for successfully capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, US President Donald Trump has said that while a “couple of guys” were hit, no American lives were lost during the operation.
Speaking to Fox News hours after the operation on Saturday, Trump also said he watched the raid to capture the authoritarian leader live, and recalled that it was like watching “a television show”.
Calling his evening “slightly busy” and saying it was dark all over, “especially in Venezuela”, the US president bragged, “I was told by real military people that there’s no other country on Earth that could do such a manoeuvre. If you would have seen what happened… I watched it literally like I was watching a television show. And if you would have seen the speed, the violence… it was an amazing thing, an amazing job that these people did. Nobody else could have done anything like it.”
Describing the operation as very complex, he said a massive number of aircraft, including helicopters and fighter jets, were involved.
In his rambling way, Trump continued, “We had a fighter jet for every possible situation. And they just broke in, and they broke into places that were not really able to be broke into (sic), you know, with steel doors that were put there for just this reason. And they got taken out in a matter of seconds… And don’t forget, I have done some pretty good ones in other parts of the world, okay? I have done some pretty good ones, but I have never seen anything like this. Don’t forget, we did another one not so long ago. It was called the knocking out of the Iranian nuclear threat, the nuclear power.”
On US casualties, Trump asserted no lives were lost. “And to have a few injuries but no death on our side is really amazing,” he said.
Maduro On Warship
Putting an end to speculation about where Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been taken after his capture, Trump said the couple were aboard the US warship Iwo Jima and were on their way to New York, where they will be prosecuted.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi had announced the charges against the couple earlier and said they will “face the full wrath of American justice”.
“Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States,” she posted on X.