Donald Trump has ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — and is now TAKING OVER the country!
On Saturday morning, the controversial President took to his far-right social media platform Truth Social to announce the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores. Trump revealed the two were captured in an overnight raid and brought aboard the USS Iwo Jima in handcuffs and blindfolds. See the shocking photo HERE.
Trump has accused Maduro of drug trafficking and “forcing” migration into the US, and claims he uses money obtained through oil to fund his alleged drug-trafficking crimes. However, Maduro has denied all Trump’s claims, according to CBS News.
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On Saturday, Trump claimed in a statement from Mar-a-Lago that the US will now “run” Venezuela until a judicious transition occurs:
“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 someone else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country.”
Elsewhere, he claimed:
“No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved, successfully capturing Maduro in the dead of night. We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be…we’re gonna run it properly. We’re gonna make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of … We’re not afraid of boots on the ground. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level. We’re going to make sure that country is run properly. This is not in vain … We’re going to run the country right. It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. And it’s gonna make a lot of money. You know they stole our oil. We built that whole industry and they just took it over like we were nothing. So we did something about it. We’re late, but we did something about it. We’ll be selling large amounts of oil [from Venezuela] to other countries.”
Watch his address (below):
Trump began bombing the country’s capital Caracas in an illegal military operation prior to capturing Maduro. This all comes months after a growing US military presence in the region.
On X (Twitter), Trump has been met with widespread criticism, with many accusing him of unconstitutionally ordering the military action to seize control of the country’s oil. See (below):
My statement on President Trump’s actions in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/AiHPASu3iO
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 3, 2026
I’m demanding Congress vote on a War Powers Resolution to stop Trump’s illegal war with Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/l4NtXzi5Fd
— Congressman Greg Casar (@RepCasar) January 3, 2026
Statement in connection with the Trump Administration military actions in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/n74tdiNDtg
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) January 3, 2026
Rachel Maddow on Venezuela: “There are very few Americans right now who have any idea why the United States did this. If this was about drug trafficking then why did President Trump just pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted of sending hundreds of tons of… pic.twitter.com/KJ5A9b90vx
— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) January 3, 2026
Trump wants to “run” Venezuela but he can’t even run the United States. Nobody can afford anything. Healthcare, groceries, rent, tuition, medicine etc. Nobody wants this except him.
— Harry Sisson (@harryjsisson) January 3, 2026
President Trump’s unilateral military action to attack another country and seize Maduro — no matter how terrible a dictator he is — is unconstitutional and threatens to drag the U.S. into further conflicts in the region. What does it mean that the U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela, and…
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) January 3, 2026
???? Chris Murphy when asked about possible military strikes on Venezuela: “It’s pretty clear it’s just an effort to distract people from the rising prices and the Epstein scandal. No one wants a war with Venezuela … and by the way, it’s wildly illegal.”
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) January 3, 2026
9 months before the 2024 election, Trump said he wanted Venezuela to collapse so he can take them over for oil, and now he’s bombing Caracas on the first full moon of 2026. This was never about drugs. It was always about oil.pic.twitter.com/se7limfQDi
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) January 3, 2026
The thing about Trump’s war in Venezuela is that he still hasn’t released 5 million pages of the Epstein files
— Liam Nissan™ (@theliamnissan) January 3, 2026
Venezuela is ruled by an illegitimate regime, but the Administration has not made the case that an urgent threat to America’s national security existed to justify the use of U.S. military force.
President Trump has made no secret of his intentions to effectively abolish the…
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 3, 2026
What are your reactions??
[Images via MEGA/WENN]
