PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump has given the Venezuelan leader one last chance to resign.
In a private phone call a week ago, Trump told President Nicolas Maduro he had to go.
By that point, a fleet of U.S. warships was floating off the coast of Venezuela. A CIA team had sneaked into the country to track Mr. Maduro’s movements and habits: where he slept, what he ate, and where he traveled.
“We have to surrender,” Trump said Saturday, recalling the conversation at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago home.
Maduro took a gamble with his life. Trump said he came “close” to giving in but held back.
This act of defiance began the final stage of a secret and dangerous plan to oust Mr. Maduro by force. At 10:46 p.m. ET on Friday, President Trump issued the final order for the launch.
This account of Operation Absolute Resolve, President Trump’s most daring military action in either term, is based on interviews with more than a dozen White House, administration and Congressional officials, as well as public statements.
The CIA secretly sent a small unit to Venezuela in early August to provide “extraordinary insight” into President Maduro’s movements, according to people familiar with the matter.
Even his pets were known to U.S. intelligence, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan “Rigin” Cain said at a press conference Saturday.
President Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the elite troops had been training for months and had even come to the point of using a replica of the presidential mansion based on intelligence collected by the United States. This was the same method that the unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 trained on a model of the presidential palace in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They trained with what Trump called a “giant torch” in case they had to break through the ironclad walls of President Maduro’s secure room.
At the same time, the Trump administration’s core team has been working on the project behind closed doors for months, holding regular meetings and phone calls to brief the president, people familiar with the matter said.
The group was made up of some of the people Trump said would be running Venezuela going forward, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the people said.
Throughout the fall, Mr. Trump steadily increased the pressure on Mr. Maduro. In September, the Trump administration began sinking ships in the Caribbean that it said were sending drugs to the United States, but which experts said were sending cocaine to Europe. Overall, the regime has attacked at least 35 drug containers so far, resulting in 114 deaths.
The rationale for boat strikes changed over time. Was it the drugs that Trump wanted to destroy, or the Maduro regime? Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair in November that the goal was to attack boats until Maduro was “crying uncle.”
She also said in the interview that any attack on mainland Venezuela would require Congressional approval, which the White House has not yet received.
“If he were to authorize any activity on land, it would be war, in which case Congress (would be needed),” Wiles told author Chris Whipple.
That same month, America’s state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, entered the Caribbean Sea as part of a military buildup that Trump believed had drawn Maduro’s attention.
“There are a lot of ships out there,” President Trump said at a press conference.
President Trump left the White House for the holidays on December 19, and Mar-a-Lago became his headquarters for final planning. The president approved the surgery before Christmas, but the exact date was unclear, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the plan.
Venezuela wasn’t his only concern. On Christmas Day, he announced that he had ordered strikes against armed groups in Nigeria in response to alleged persecution of Christians.
At a New Year’s Eve party at his home, Trump, wearing a tuxedo with first lady Melania Trump, was asked by reporters about his resolutions for 2026.
“Peace on Earth,” he said.
The Venezuela attack was so secret that even the exact timing was not widely known, even within the Pentagon, until Friday night, two U.S. officials told NBC News. The timing of such military operations typically requires extensive coordination.
Vice President J.D. Vance visited Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach and met with Mr. Trump during the day on Friday to discuss the strike. But Vance’s spokesman said he departed before the attack began, given concerns that the late-night convoy would tip off Venezuelans to the coming attack.
Wind and cloud cover in Caracas delayed the attack for several days, but the weather improved on Friday. The moon was full and the sky was mostly clear, providing acceptable conditions for the pilot and crew.
The mission was underway.
Kaine said Trump told military leaders, “Good luck and God speed,” and that’s what they’ve been passing on.
Trump spent much of the night and early morning at home watching the attack unfold. A photo released by the White House shows him sitting at a table with his fingers crossed, wearing a jacket but without his usual tie, staring intently at what is likely a video screen outside the frame. Rubio is standing to his left. To his right is Ratcliffe. Miller sits with his arms crossed. Congress was not notified until the attack began. President Trump said Saturday that he did not want lawmakers to divulge details.
At least 150 aircraft flew to Caracas from 20 different bases on land and sea. Cain said the fleet included bombers, fighters and aircraft specializing in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance. The age range of the crew ranged from 20 to 49 years.
Darkness has fallen over the Venezuelan capital. President Trump suggested that the US may have cut off power to Caracas to gain an advantage in the battle. The helicopter flew 100 feet above the water and carried special forces and law enforcement officers who removed Maduro from his residence, Cain said. Other aircraft fired weapons to disable Venezuela’s air defense systems and clear the path for the helicopter, it added.
Fort Tiuna, a large military installation in Caracas, was seen bursting into flames.
By 1 a.m. ET on Saturday, U.S. soldiers had arrived at the Caracas compound where President Maduro was staying. President Trump called it a “heavily fortified military fortress.”
Cain said he and his wife were “completely surprised” when Delta Force entered President Maduro’s mansion. Maduro tried to escape into what Trump described as a “steel safe” but was unable to make it in time. The military detained Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Kaine said a gunfight broke out after Maduro was captured, and a U.S. military helicopter crashed into the area. No Americans were killed, but several U.S. soldiers were injured, all of whom are stable, U.S. and White House officials said.
By 3:30 a.m. ET, U.S. troops were safely out of the country, Cain said. At that time, the air in Caracas smelled of gunpowder and smoke. The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela has warned U.S. nationals in Venezuela to evacuate to designated locations.
Less than an hour later, President Trump broke the news to the world on social media.
“The United States has successfully launched a major attack on Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro. President Maduro was captured and exiled along with his wife,” he wrote.
A photo posted by the White House on Saturday morning showed Maduro handcuffed and blindfolded in a sweatsuit aboard the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima.
By 4:30 p.m. ET, Mr. Maduro was in New York. He arrived at Stewart Airport in New Windsor, north of New York City. Dozens of law enforcement officers flanked Maduro as he limped toward the hangar. He and his wife were scheduled to be transferred to a New York City jail later that day. Maduro is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Monday.
The indictment alleges that he and his alleged co-conspirators could be charged in a scheme to “create a chain of drug-based corruption that enriches the pockets of Venezuelan government officials and their families while benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and assist in the production, protection, and transportation of large quantities of cocaine to the United States.”
After the airstrike, President Trump made it clear that Operation Absolute Solution would not be a one-off. Nor was the goal solely to apprehend people the United States considers fugitives. The military operation represents a dramatic expansion of presidential power as President Trump seeks to shape the hemisphere toward a modified version of an “America First” foreign policy.
In a twist on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which asserted a clear sphere of influence for the young American nation, President Trump has signaled he intends to use hard power to advance American interests and create favorable conditions for business.
President Trump called it the “Donroe Doctrine.”
He said the United States would not be leaving Venezuela anytime soon.
“That’s basically what we’re going to do until we have a proper transition.”
Reflecting on his fateful phone call with Maduro, President Trump suggested at a press conference that he made the wrong choice in disobeying Maduro’s orders.
“I want to do that now,” President Trump said.
