{"id":52096,"date":"2026-01-03T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52096"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:22:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:22:52","slug":"five-key-takeaways-on-trumps-stunning-toppling-of-maduro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52096","title":{"rendered":"Five key takeaways on Trump\u2019s stunning toppling of Maduro\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>sent shockwaves throughout the world when the U.S. successfully carried out an operation to capture<\/u><\/a> Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The large scale operation<\/u><\/a> took place in the early hours of Saturday and involved more than 150 U.S. aircraft. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores,<\/u><\/a> were swiftly charged<\/u><\/a> in the Southern District of New York and are en route to New York aboard the USS Iwo Jima.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump made several headlines during a news conference detailing the operation, including his announcement that the U.S. will run\u2002the South American country<\/u><\/a> until a new government is installed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Republicans have lauded the administration\u2019s action to oust Maduro, Democrats were quick to condemn<\/u><\/a> the operation and Congress\u2019s lack of involvement.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are five takeaways on Trump\u2019s stunning toppling of Maduro.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump seeks to \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela, threatens more strikes <\/strong> <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the biggest headline out of Trump\u2019s new conference was his revelation that the U.S. would run Venezuela until a new leader is safely and peacefully installed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,\u201d Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be involved with having somebody get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked to clarify specifically who will run Venezuela, Trump said the U.S will be running it with \u201ca group.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be running it with a group and we\u2019re going to make sure it\u2019s run properly,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of and we\u2019re going to make sure the people of Venezuela who were forced out by this thug are taken care of.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela\u2019s Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez assumed power following Maduro\u2019s capture on Saturday. When asked if the U.S. would work with Rodr\u00edguez, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio\u2002<\/u><\/a>had had a conversation with her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,\u201d he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump warned that the U.S. was prepared to carry out a second strike if one was deemed necessary.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe actually assumed a second wave would be necessary but now it\u2019s probably not.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats cry foul  <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Democrats on Capitol Hill slammed the attacks, noting that Congress was not notified prior to the strikes being carried out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.H.), who is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that the operation was \u201centirely inconsistent\u201d with what Trump\u2019s Cabinet briefed members of Congress.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to hear directly from the President on why his varying justifications to date warrant dragging America into an armed conflict without a clear end,\u201d Shaheen said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Gregory Meeks\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has jurisdiction over war powers and the deployment of Armed Forces, condemned the operation<\/u><\/a> as \u201ca violation of international law and further undermines America\u2019s global standing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Jim Himes\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also questioned the military action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaduro is an illegitimate ruler, but I have seen no evidence that his presidency poses a threat that would justify military action without congressional authorization, nor have I heard a strategy for the day after and how we will prevent Venezuela from descending into chaos,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump claimed Congress would leak the details and compromise the mission, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio backing up that assertion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission,\u201d Rubio said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operation spurs fear over precedent for Russia, China<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump said the impact on U.S. relations with Russia, China and Iran \u2014 key Maduro allies \u2014 centers around oil<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Trump did not provide any, the strong implication was that Trump could use U.S. sales of Venezuelan oil to undercut Iran and Russia\u2019s oil exports. China is a primary purchaser of Russian oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn terms of other countries that want oil, we\u2019re in the oil business. We\u2019re going to sell it \u2026 in other words, we\u2019ll be selling oil \u2026 . We\u2019ll be selling large amounts of oil to other countries, many of whom are using it now,\u201d the president said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did not explicitly address how his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2002<\/u><\/a>might be affected by the Venezuelan operation, suggesting at one point that Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine is getting \u201cstraightened out\u201d and then saying he\u2019s \u201cnot thrilled\u201d with the Russian leader.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president\u2019s allies, however, sought to strike fear in U.S. adversaries. Trump on Friday had threatened<\/u><\/a> to launch military operations in Iran in defense of popular protests against the high cost of living.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen he tells you that he\u2019s going to do something, when he tells you he\u2019s going to address a problem, he means it. He actions it,\u201d Rubio said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNicol\u00e1s 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,\u201d Rubio continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the result is what we saw tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump seeks control of Venezuelan oil <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

President Trump said Saturday that he wants the U.S. to control Venezuela\u2019s oil sector as the country holds the world\u2019s largest proven reserve<\/u><\/a> of the commodity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust, for a long period of time,\u201d Trump said during his press conference on Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,\u201d he added.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., individual oil companies, not the government, decide whether and when to pump oil, as the U.S. does not have a state-run oil firm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One U.S. company, Chevron, was already operating in Venezuela at the time of Maduro\u2019s capture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro accused of drug trafficking, but indictment is slim on gang ties <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Maduro, along with his wife and other members of his regime, face a four-count indictment that alleges the Venezuelan leader leveraged government power to protect and promote vast criminal conduct \u2014 from drug trafficking to terrorism \u2014 for the benefit of himself and his allies.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the indictment<\/u><\/a> accuses Maduro of involvement with six different terrorism and drug trafficking groups, in some cases it offers few details about those connections or makes only passing references to the organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York assert that, for more than 25 years, Venezuelan leaders abused their positions of public trust and power to corrupt government institutions and import tons of cocaine into the U.S.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting with his early days in government, Maduro allegedly provided diplomatic passports to drug traffickers and enabled diplomatic cover for planes carrying laundered money.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro and his wife are also accused of running their own cocaine trafficking operation between 2006 and 2015, ordering the kidnappings, beatings and murders of people who undermined them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while president, the government alleges Maduro coordinated with Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) to aid in drug trafficking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the indictment is otherwise slim on longstanding accusations made by the Trump administration. While the Trump team has said Maduro has ties to the Tren de Aragua gang as well as Cartel de los Soles, the indictment does not offer any specific details about his connection to the groups other than to charge the gang\u2019s leader alongside him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though it also accuses him of having ties to two major Mexican cartels, the indictment offers little about the operations of Sinaloa Cartel or the Zetas.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal battle is also sure to be dogged by questions over whether Trump had the authority to remove the leader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2002sent shockwaves throughout the world when the U.S. successfully carried out an operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.   The large scale operation took place in the early hours of Saturday and involved more than 150 U.S. aircraft. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were swiftly charged in the Southern District of New York and are en route to New York aboard the USS Iwo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":52097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[27654,1205,1230],"class_list":["post-52096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-maduro","tag-president","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52099,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52096\/revisions\/52099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}