Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

James Stavridis Says Trump Admin Pulled Off ‘Extraordinary Military Operation’

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Retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, praised the Trump administration’s Saturday operation that led to the capture and removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

President Donald Trump announced the development in a Truth Social post, saying U.S. forces conducted “a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader.” CNN host Michael Smerconish asked Stavridis on “Smerconish” how Iran, Russia and China were reacting to the operation, which the former NATO commander described as “extraordinary.”

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“All three, predictably, will deplore this kind of activity publicly. Privately, they will be impressed with the military capability here,” Stavridis said. “I would argue none of those three militaries could have executed an operation like this … the idea of finding, fixing, kidnapping, taking him [Maduro] out alive with his wife, no casualties on the side of the U.S — that’s an extraordinary military operation.”

“So, I think while there will be a lot of public condemnation of the United States, predictably from those three nations, privately they’ll be saying to themselves, ‘Hmm, that’s a very capable military.’ That’s not a bad thought to pop up in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran these days,” he added.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Trump’s Venezuela strike “an act of armed aggression” and “[i]deologized hostility” in a Saturday morning statement.

Trump asserted during a Saturday press conference that the United States would take over Venezuela until it could conduct a “judicious transition” of power.

“We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So, we don’t want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years,” Trump said. “So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition, and it has to be judicious because that’s what we’re all about.”

“We want peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country,” the president added. “It’s their homeland.”

Trump also said that the U.S. would strive to repair the infrastructure of Venezuela’s oil industry “and start making money for the country.”

Moreover, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a Saturday X post that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug trafficking and firearms charges.

The U.S. Army’s Delta Force executed the operation, CBS News reported, citing unnamed officials. The attack represented an escalation of U.S. military action in the area, following moves including the positioning of multiple Navy warships, the seizure of two oil tankers and strikes against at least 30 alleged drug boats intelligence believed to be heading to the U.S.

The U.S. also launched a strike on a “big facility” inside Venezuela on Dec. 24, Trump revealed during an impromptu interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC radio in New York on Dec. 26. U.S. officials told The New York Times that Trump was referencing a drug facility.

“[Maduro has] offered everything,” Trump warned on Oct. 17. “You know why? Because he doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States.”