Transcription
Late last night, at my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. In the early morning hours of January 3rd, 2026, President Donald Trump successfully ran a CIA covert operation to capture Nicholas Maduro, the illegitimate dictator of Venezuela. The whole world is talking about this operation, and people are shocked. But I want to give you three important insights about this operation that most people don't understand about CIA and Donald Trump's vision for the future of Venezuela.
The first thing to understand is that, without a doubt, this operation is going to be contested as potentially illegal. What we saw here was something called an extraordinary rendition. Something we haven't seen since the global war on terror, when US military forces were recruited by CIA in order to go out and capture terrorists and bring them back to the United States for trial. That's exactly what you saw happen with Nicholas Maduro. You saw the CIA use military forces to go into a sovereign country to capture not just any terrorist, but their actual sitting president. Even though Nicholas Maduro was not seen as the legal president of Venezuela by the United States or many other countries in the world, he was the de facto leader in that country because of the fact that he had been a sitting president for so long, and he was hand-selected for the role by the previous dictator, Hugo Chavez. In the eyes of the Venezuelan people, they only had one leader. Even if they didn't like him, even if they disagreed with him, even if they didn't vote for him, the entire country was built off of an administration, a series of federal and government systems that were dependent on Maduro. So, in Maduro's absence, we can expect to see chaos across Venezuela. We can expect to see institutions fail. We can expect to see conflict in the streets. Police are going to be without leadership. The continuation of government is going to be confused and disoriented. And that's assuming the United States does not carry out any more additional strikes inside the country. All of that chaos, all of that confusion, any potential deaths, any continued conflict is all going to be tied back to this idea of an extraordinary rendition by the United States against Nicholas Maduro, the sitting president of Venezuela.
Without a doubt, the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians, the Cubans are all going to condemn the action. It's uncertain how many parts of Europe and parts of Asia are also going to respond to this because it's diplomatically sensitive. Nobody's going to want to applaud the United States for illegally going into a sovereign country and taking the sitting leader. Think about what that would mean for all the other sitting leaders around the world. But at the same time, many American allies will want to celebrate the fact that Nicholas Maduro has been taken out of his seat. Even here in the United States, you can expect that there will be legal scholars and sitting Congress people who are going to have different points of view on whether this action was justified, legal, or not.
The second point to understand here is that CIA did not carry out this operation alone. This operation is what's known as a joint counterterrorism operation. And that's important because prior to the Trump administration labeling Nicholas Maduro and the Venezuelan government as a narco-terrorist and narco-terrorist state, they didn't have the ability to use counterterrorism laws in order to carry out operational actions inside Venezuela. So, the Department of Justice and Department of State decision to formally assign Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) status to the Cartel de los Soles, which is the cartel associated with the government of Venezuela, is an important decision because it opened up all the laws and all the authorities of counterterrorism to operations inside Venezuela. One of the reasons that's important is because by labeling Maduro a terrorist and labeling the government a terrorist-supporting organization, it meant that we could use joint resources across the United States in order to carry out counterterrorism operations. That's why you see formal statements from the US government saying that this was a joint operation that included law enforcement, military, and intelligence assets. Without labeling Maduro and the government of Venezuela as a narco-terrorist organization, the Trump administration wouldn't have been able to carry out operations against the sovereign state of Venezuela itself.
Another important thing to understand when it comes to these joint operations is something called authorities or titles. The US military and CIA are governed by two different sets of titles. Title 10 for the US military, Title 50 for the CIA. Title 10 grants the US military the operational authority to carry out military operations of an overt nature against foreign threats. Title 50 grants the CIA the ability to carry out covert operations against foreign targets. That means the military has to operate under Title 10 overt military operations. And if the military is going to carry out anything that is covert, it has to operate under Title 50, which is controlled by the CIA. This is why CIA, in order to carry out their covert operations, pulls from the US military elite services like Delta Force and Navy SEALs in order to carry out their most sensitive and most tactical military strikes. Very similar to the bin Laden compound raid in May of 2011. The raid on Maduro's compound in January of 2026 also included months of preparation and planning in advance of the actual strike. This suggests that military Tier One operators were seconded by CIA under the correct title authorities in order to plan, prepare, and execute this operation. So, when you start to hear people saying that this was a CIA operation, or a military operation, or a special operations operation, the truth is that it's all of those things together. Without a doubt, the DEA was involved. Without a doubt, the FBI was involved. Without a doubt, the State of New York was involved because all of these organizations had to come together and work together because the US government has to create a case for why they were able to render from a foreign country a valid target who was indicted under a legitimate American law. All of these things may sound detailed and bureaucratic, but they're very important to understand because inside the United States, we continue to exercise freedom and democracy, which means we have to follow the rule of law. And there are laws that dictate exactly how we can carry out all sorts of covert operations with the correct authorities and the correct judicial oversight in order to bring a criminal like Nicholas Maduro to justice.
The third and final point I want to talk about is what comes next for Venezuela. And that is the question that's on the tip of everybody's tongue, even though only half the people you talk to are actually asking that question. If you haven't discovered your natural-born spy skills, then somebody else may be using theirs against you. CIA teaches us there are only three types of people: those who manipulate, those who motivate, and those who are being controlled by one of the other two. I built a three-minute CIA-style quiz designed to help you unlock your secret psychological advantage and identify your biggest blind spot. This quiz will help you weaponize your natural gift and use it to get ahead of 99% of people in power, money, and purpose. Click on the first link in the description below or scan the QR code on your screen right now to take the test. I want you to discover your hidden spy skill and use it before someone else uses theirs against you.
First, it's important to understand that Maduro was not the only corrupt leader in the country of Venezuela. Maduro had been connected to the Cartel de los Soles for more than a decade. Maduro goes all the way back to the Chavez administration when Maduro was in charge of making sure that Chavez was getting his paycheck from the cocaine that was being produced in Colombia and transiting through Venezuela. So you can see that Maduro has been at the game for a long time. And as he started to climb through the political hierarchy, he would backfill the positions beneath him with trusted loyalists who were also part of the Cartel de los Soles. That means that the current sitting vice president, Deli Rodriguez, is also part of the Cartel de los Soles. And the defense minister of Venezuela, Pedrino Lopez, is also part of the Cartel de los Soles. In fact, both people have been named in formal indictments by the Department of Justice against Maduro. And the list goes on from there to senior lieutenants that are in all the different branches of the military, including the Air Force and the Navy, because those are the organizations that are relied upon in order to take the smuggled cocaine out of Venezuela and across the ocean into the United States. So, the entire chain of command of Venezuela is in question. The top two people who would most likely be the continuation of government are also part of the cartel, which means they are also part of the target list for the United States. They know that, and they must recognize now that the capability of the United States to come in and carry out a covert lethal strike against any one of them is imminent. Many of the top leaders of the country could actually flee or be granted some sort of asylum by any of America's enemies, including Iran, China, Russia, or Cuba.
In that vacuum of leadership, the question is: who will step up? Who will step up? Considering the fact that the entire system of government in Venezuela has been built on the back of Chavez and Maduro, has been built on the back of supporting the Cartel de los Soles, the Donald Trump administration knows that, without a doubt, this government is a house of cards waiting to collapse. And the Trump administration also recognizes that the best way to get the people of Venezuela to accept any kind of interim government is going to be to allow the current government to fail. So, the Trump administration is very likely going to sit and watch as the economy and political foundation of Venezuela collapses. Very similar to what happened when the United States went in and took Manuel Noriega from Panama in 1989.
Following that economic and political collapse of Venezuela, you'll very quickly see the United States step in to support an opposition government. That's a transition government in Venezuela built completely separate from the cartel. Once that opposition government is in place, you'll see the US release aid packages to Venezuela. You'll see the US release sanctions against Venezuelan oil. You'll actually see the US start to offer investment into the infrastructure of Venezuela for two important reasons. First, Venezuela sits on the largest reserve of oil in the world. Let me say that again: Venezuela controls the single largest deposit of crude oil in the world. It's approximately 15% larger than the reserve held by Saudi Arabia, and it's just off the coast of Florida. So that means the largest reserve of crude oil in the world is just across the Gulf from the United States. And the predominant type of crude oil is known as heavy crude, which is the exact type of crude oil that Texas oil refineries were built to refine. So, the Venezuelan economy stands to gain from cooperating with the United States, and the United States economy stands to gain from cooperating with Venezuela. Donald Trump recognizes, more so than any previous president, the economic benefit that stands for the United States by seeing a political change in Venezuela because that Venezuelan oil could almost overnight start being refined by Texas refineries, which would massively decrease the price of oil and the price of energy across the United States, while simultaneously making us less dependent on Middle East oil. That means we can leave all the corruption, all the violence, all the scandal of the Middle East behind, and we can focus on sourcing our primary oil from Venezuela.
The parallels between the 1989 capture of Manuel Noriega from Panama and the 2026 capture of Nicholas Maduro from Venezuela are powerful. Which means that we can also predict that the transformation of Venezuela will be very similar to the transformation of Panama in the early 1990s. In the ensuing months and years immediately following the fall of Noriega, Panama suffered economically and politically. Their systems failed, their currency failed, many parts of their government failed. As I've already said, I expect the same thing to happen in Venezuela, especially in the first few months and even the first year after the loss of Maduro. However, in the first three years following the end of Manuel Noriega, Panama was completely transformed. An opposition government was put in place that was pro-American. Sanctions were lifted, and US aid packages started to flow in, creating a very strong and healthy Panamanian economy. That means that in the next 1 to 3 years, we can expect something very similar to happen in Venezuela. An opposition government will be put in place that is pro-American. That opposition government will come with the release of sanctions from the United States, as well as foreign investment and aid packages from the United States in order to rebuild the infrastructure, the political foundation, and the economy of Venezuela, particularly since a strong Venezuelan economy is going to benefit the United States economy, and Donald Trump is trying to transform the US economy in his second term.
Over the next few days and weeks, you and I will continue to see these three questions played out over and over again in media: Was the rendition of Nicholas Maduro legal or illegal? Who takes credit for that clandestine operation? And what will the United States do to support or suppress the economy and political foundation of Venezuela? I will continue paying attention to this because my family is Venezuelan. My wife was born in Venezuela. My father-in-law is a Venezuelan citizen. Many of our closest family members are all American citizens who were once Venezuelan immigrants. I am confident that the United States has better days ahead because of the capture of Nicholas Maduro. I am confident that the Venezuelan people have better days ahead because of the rendition of Nicholas Maduro. And whether or not we find that that rendition was legal or illegal, whether CIA or the Department of War takes credit for the rendition, whether or not the United States helps Venezuela or allows Venezuela to crumble, it's all irrelevant because in the long run, we will see the American economy benefit from the improvements that will happen to the Venezuelan economy and the reduction of Venezuelan cooperation with America's closest enemies: China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba. This is good news for me. It's good news for you.