President Donald Trump hailed the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as “brilliant” but refused to say whether he consulted Congress before carrying out airstrikes on the South American country.
Maduro and his wife were captured early Saturday from their home within the Ft. Tiuna military installation and flown out of the country as part on an U.S. operation.
In a phone call with The New York Times shortly after 4:30 a.m. E.T. Saturday, a “tired” sounding Trump celebrated the planning and execution of the mission, the newspaper reports.
“It was a brilliant operation, actually,” Trump told the outlet. “A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.”
When asked by the Times whether he sought congressional approval before carrying out the “large scale” attack on Venezuela, he said, “We’ll discuss that, we’re going to have a news conference,” before hanging up the phone. The entire call lasted 50 seconds, the Times reports.
Top congressional leaders and chairs of intelligence committees were notified of the attack only after it began, according to officials.
The president has repeatedly said he would not necessarily seek permission from Congress to launch a land war in Venezuela, saying instead that military assets are “just going to kill people” there instead.
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them,” Trump said during a White House roundtable with administration officials in October.
Also in October, the president said he “authorized” CIA operations inside Venezuela, granting intelligence operatives to take “covert action” against Maduro and his government, including as part of a wider military operation.
In remarks to reporters at the time, Trump said he “authorized” CIA operations because Venezuela “emptied their prisons into the United States of America” and flooded the country with drugs.
The president also spoke with Fox News, where he said he watched the capture of Maduro unfold in real time from his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
“We watched it from a room ... we were surrounded by lots of people, including generals,” Trump told Fox & Friends. “It was very complex, extremely complex, the whole maneuver, the landings ... the number of aircraft ... the different type of fighter jets.”
“They just broke in and they broke into places that were not really able to be broke into,” he continued. “Steel doors that were put there for just this reason and they got taken out in a matter of seconds, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The president told the network that the United States would be making decisions on what is next for Venezuela after capturing Maduro and flying him out of the country.
“We’ll be involved in it very much” as to who will govern the country, Trump said. “We can’t take a chance in letting somebody else run and just take over what he left, or left off.”
Maduro and his wife are on a U.S. warship en route to New York.
In a Truth Social post hours after the attack, Trump said: “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.”
Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodriguez said the location of Maduro and his wife is unknown and said: “We demand proof of life.”
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