Jan 10, 2026  UNITED STATES
 

At 10:46 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 2, President Donald Trump gave the final authorization.

With that decision, nearly 200 American operators from Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 would soon be on the ground in Caracas — and Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power would begin to collapse.

What followed was not a spontaneous raid.

It was the execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, a mission refined over months, rehearsed repeatedly, and designed to move fast, stay hidden, and end decisively.

 

By the time most of Caracas was asleep, U.S. forces were already in motion.

Across the Western Hemisphere, aircraft began launching from airbases and carrier groups, converging toward a single objective.

This operation did not begin inside a compound.

It didn’t begin with troops on the ground.

It began with control of the air.

President Donald J. Trump has scored another remarkable foreign policy triumph: the bold capture and extradition of Nicolas Maduro, the indicted narcoterrorist and socialist dictator who plunged Venezuela into chaos, starved its people, and menaced American security, now detained on U.S. soil to face long-overdue justice.

Democrats spent years howling that Maduro was a ruthless tyrant who had to be delegitimized, pressured, and removed. But the instant President Trump succeeds where they failed, they erupt in furious hypocrisy — prioritizing their unhinged hatred of President Trump over American interests and national security.

Here are just a few of the many hypocritical Democrats then vs. now:

Sen. Chuck Schumer

• THEN: “And the President brags about his Venezuela policy. Give us a break. He hasn’t brought an end to the Maduro regime. The Maduro regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the President began.” (2/5/20)
• NOW: “This is reckless. And the American people are just, this morning, in fear of what’s going to happen here.” (1/4/26)

Sen. Dick Durbin

• THEN: “The people of Venezuela deserve better than this. We can’t allow this President’s short attention span to stop us from delivering on our promise to help the Venezuelan people rebuild their country… Though President Trump may seem ready to throw in the towel, I stand committed to aiding the people of Venezuela.” (6/20/19)
• NOW: “I disagree with President Trump’s use of U.S. military forces without Congressional approval & worry deeply about this Admin’s follow through on foreign policy interventions.” (1/3/26)

Sen. Chris Van Hollen

• THEN: “[T]he United States is now going to use its levers and influence to push for a negotiation to have a transition to the truly elected leader… Obviously, we know Maduro and his cronies do not want to go quietly into the night, but the United States needs to work with its partners and allies in the region to ratchet up the pressure…” (8/2/24)
• NOW: “It is an illegal act of war to replace Maduro.” (1/3/26)

Sen. Chris Murphy

• THEN: “If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes.” (1/23/19)
• NOW: “The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela is not a security threat to the U.S.” (1/4/26)

Sen. Tim Kaine

• THEN: “This is a deeply concerning development for Venezuelans and for the entire region, since instability abroad impacts us here at home, too.” (9/2/24)
• NOW: “President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro… is a sickening return to a day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere.” (1/3/26)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

• THEN: “I have of course supported bringing in the new president and delegitimizing the Maduro government. You always leave things on the table.” (5/2/19)
• NOW: “I have strongly opposed sending American forces into harm’s way in Venezuela without authorization from Congress. We should not put Americans at risk in this way without careful deliberation among the people’s elected representatives. Wars for regime change can lead to unintended consequences.”(1/3/26)

Sen. Elizabeth Warren

• THEN: “Maduro is a dictator and a crook who has wrecked his country’s economy, dismantled its democratic institutions, and profited while his people suffer. The United States should lead the international community in addressing Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis and supporting regional efforts to negotiate a political transition.” (7/30/2019)
• NOW: “What does it mean that the U.S. will ‘run’ Venezuela, and what will Trump do next around the world? The American people voted for lower costs, not for Trump’s dangerous military adventurism overseas that won’t make the American people safer.” (1/3/26)

Rep. Jamie Raskin

• THEN: “The democratic world must stand up for the rule of law in Venezuela and oppose Maduro’s assault on the electoral process and free speech. The right-wing attack on democratic institutions anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.” (8/2/24)
• NOW: “Trump is not only violating our Constitution, but he is shredding the rules-based international order created after World War II, whose essential building block is the political sovereignty and territorial integrity of each nation.” (1/4/26)

Rep. Darren Soto

• THEN: “Honored to speak with @cdvorlando yesterday about Venezuelan TPS, raising the reward for Maduro’s capture to $100M, and bringing democracy back to Venezuela. #VenezuelaLibre” (10/6/24)
• NOW: “Trump’s trading one dictator for another just to get oil? This will do NOTHING to help my constituents’ family members who just lost their TPS and still can’t return home.” (1/5/26)

RUBIO: This Is Our Hemisphere — and President Trump Will Not Allow Our Security to be Threatened The White House | January 4, 2026 This morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined multiple news programs to discuss the Trump Administration’s decisive operation that successfully apprehended indicted narcoterrorist and illegitimate former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. Secretary Rubio underscored President Donald J. Trump’s ironclad commitment to preventing the Western Hemisphere from becoming a safe haven for drug traffickers, Iranian proxies, or hostile regimes that endanger our national security — declaring the days of weakness are over and the U.S. will deploy every tool to eradicate these threats from our backyard. “There’s not a war. We are at war against drug trafficking organizations — not a war against Venezuela.” (Watch) “We don’t have U.S. forces on the ground in Venezuela. They were on the ground for about two hours when they went to capture Maduro… What the President is saying is very simple — and that is as President of the United States, he is not going to go around telling people what he’s not going to do.” (Watch) “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States.” (Watch) “The first steps are securing what’s in the national interest of the United States and also beneficial to the people of Venezuela, and those are the things that we’re focused on right now. No more drug trafficking. No more Iran, Hezbollah presence there. No more using the oil industry to enrich all our adversaries around the world.” (Watch) “This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This is not an extended military operation… We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. Otherwise, they’ll get congressional notification.” (Watch) “The whole foreign policy apparatus thinks everything is Libya, everything is Iraq, everything is Afghanistan. This is not the Middle East, and our mission here is very different. This is the Western Hemisphere.” (Watch) “The most immediate changes are the ones that are in the national interests of the United States. That’s why we’re involved here — because of how it applies and has a direct impact on the United States.” (Watch) “We’ve seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country. They’re not going to do it in the Western Hemisphere. That is not going to happen under President Trump. Read our national security strategy. He is serious about it.” (Watch) “What we are going to react to is very simple: what do you do? Not what you’re saying publicly, what happens… Do the drugs stop coming? Are the changes made? Is Iran expelled? Is Hezbollah and Iran no longer able to operate against our interests from Venezuela?” (Watch) “It’s running policy — the policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it’s good for the people of Venezuela, it’s in our national interest.” (Watch) “We retain all the options we had before this raid and this capture and this arrest… until such time as changes are made.” (Watch) “In the Biden Administration, they had a $25 million reward for [Maduro’s] capture — so we have a reward for his capture but we’re not going to enforce it? That’s the difference between President Trump and everybody else… President Trump did something about it.” (Watch) “Until they address [the problems], they will continue to face this oil quarantine. They will continue to face pressure from the United States. We will continue to target drug boats if they try to run towards the United States. We will continue to seize the boats that are sanctioned with court orders. We will continue to do that and potentially other things until the things we need to see addressed are addressed… The number one thing we care about is the safety, security, wellbeing, and prosperity of the United States.” (Watch) “Maduro is not just an indicted drug trafficker; he was an illegitimate president. He was not the head of state. I continue to see these media reports referring to him as ‘President Maduro’ and the ‘head of state.’ He was not the head of state.” (Watch)