President Trump: 'Brilliant' U.S. Military Operation Captured Maduro

President Donald Trump called the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro “brilliant” in a brief phone interview with The New York Times moments after announcing the raid.

“A lot of good planning and a lot of great, great troops and people,” Trump told the newspaper in a 50-second phone interview at 4:30 a.m., ten minutes after he announced on social media that the United States had captured Maduro.

“It was a brilliant operation, actually,” the President added.

“President Trump sounded tired,” the Times reported, adding that the president picked up the phone after three rings when a reporter called him, apparently on his private line.

When the newspaper asked the president if he had sought congressional authority prior to the strike, Trump said, “We’ll discuss that.”

Trump announced in an early morning Truth Social post:

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. The operations was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow.

A news conference is expected at Mar-a-Lago late Saturday morning.

Fox News was reporting in the morning that Maduro and his wife were being flown to New York, presumably to face criminal charges in connection with Venezuela’s narcotics trafficking.

The U.S. attack comes after threats from Trump and U.S. officials toward Maduro, “who the U.S. government has accused of heading a drug cartel and deemed an ‘illegitimate leader’,” the Hill reported.

“Since August, the U.S. military has been establishing a massive military presence in the Southcom area,” according to the Washington news outlet, “sending warships, at least one submarine, F-35 fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones and spy planes in what the administration argued was a buildup to curb the flow of illicit drugs in the region and protect the U.S.”

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.