Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

President Donald Trump has embarked on his own regime-change mission. And this time the United States intends to keep the oil.

American Special Operations Forces captured Nicolás Maduro in a daring raid, nabbing the Venezuelan leader from his bed early Saturday morning before sending him north aboard the USS Iwo Jima to New York, where he will face criminal charges related to an alleged narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The leftist strongman had ruled the South American state for more than a decade.

Now Trump will take over. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he told reporters during a Mar-a-Lago press conference, deputizing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to manage in the interim as “a team.”

Though long a critic of the foreign entanglements that defined the presidencies of his Republican predecessors, Trump insisted he could do regime change right. “We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally,” he said. “We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world going in.” He will not, however, clean house.

Trump claimed Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist and the current Venezuelan vice president, was already willing to work with the United States to remake the country. He said it would be “very tough” for opposition leader María Corina Machado to assume power. Just hours after perhaps the most consequential decision of his tenure, the once ostensibly isolationist president was suddenly and remarkably open-ended in his commitment to rebuild a nation thousands of miles away from his own. Of a potential American occupation force, Trump said, “We are not afraid of boots on the ground.”

Even if the newly announced nation-building mission may be something of a flashback to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Trump did not echo the language of the War on Terror. He spoke for nearly an hour. Not once did the president, or his assembled people, say the word “democracy.”

He ordered the removal of the foreign head of state to instead preserve American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela under Maduro had opened its arms to China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia by way of both trade and military cooperation. The White House alleged that this amounted to a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century precedent named for then-President James Monroe’s opposition to colonial meddling in the Americas by the Europeans. “They are now calling it the ‘Donroe Doctrine,’” the current president quipped before the press.

The turn of phrase was new. The strategy is not. The White House has shifted its focus to North and South America to establish what the new National Security Strategy released late last year described as “the Trump corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. The stated goal: U.S. dominance in the region. The specific application as described by the president last month: Any nation harboring drug cartels is “subject to attack.” Even as the administration designated drug cartels as terror organizations, sanctioned Maduro and members of his own family, and sent the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to blockade Caracas, the Venezuelan authoritarian doubted Trump.

The two leaders spoke as recently as last week in an attempt to avoid a conflict. The negotiations eventually broke down, according to Rubio, after Maduro failed to accept one of the “multiple opportunities to avoid” the kind of military intervention that led to his arrest. “We’ll talk and meet with anybody but don’t play games while this president is in office,” the diplomat warned, “because it’s not going to turn out well.”

Democrats feel they woke up hoodwinked. Trump had sidestepped calls last year to go to Congress for war authority even as momentum tipped toward conflict. The subsequent operation to capture Maduro caught lawmakers by surprise. Many learned of the strike like the rest of the country – through news reports. While Rubio spent the morning calling different members of Congress, he defended the decision to keep Capitol Hill in the dark.

“This is not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notifications on,” the diplomat said, insisting the decision to go was dependent on a number of factors. “It was a trigger-based mission.” The president offered another explanation. Congress, Trump said, “has a tendency to leak.”

Trump is not the first president to condemn Maduro as illegitimate. Former President Joe Biden briefly suspended oil sanctions on the now deposed leader in hopes that economic relief could entice him to hold free and fair elections. Those hopes were dashed when Maduro claimed victory, and a third consecutive six-year presidential term, in elections in 2024 that outside observers condemned as fraudulent.

But while there is broad agreement that Maduro is an authoritarian, there is no bipartisan support for overthrowing his government.

“Because the President and his Cabinet repeatedly denied any intention of conducting regime change in Venezuela when briefing Congress, we are left with no understanding of how the administration is preparing to mitigate risks to the U.S. and we have no information regarding a long-term strategy following today’s extraordinary escalation,” New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Saturday.

Trump justified the strike against Venezuela saying it was necessary to stop narcoterrorism and reclaim American oil assets seized by Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez. When pressed to explain how regime change fit with his America First mantra, the president replied, “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors.”

Most Republicans have accepted that explanation – but not all of them.

Outgoing Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a staunch Trump ally, asked a series of uncomfortable questions for the administration, including why the White House hadn’t launched military operations against Mexican drug cartels and why Trump had pardoned a former Honduran president found guilty of trafficking cocaine. “Americans disgust with our own government’s never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, always keep the Washington military machine funded and going,” she wrote on social media. “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy, were we wrong.”

While Attorney General Pam Bondi characterized the operation as “an arrest with military support,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie wondered how that legal characterization applied to Trump’s promise to take over and run the country. That question will soon be litigated on Capitol Hill, though Democrats don’t have the numbers, nor Republicans the appetite, to check the White House.

Trump has offered different condemnations of Maduro at different times. He first condemned him as being complicit in the drug trade that brought “poison” to American shores, then reproached the authoritarian as a puppet of foreign adversaries, before finally flaying his regime for the nationalization of American oil producers in the region.

Perhaps a combination of those irritants has inspired Trump’s latest foreign policy evolution. Once averse to intervention, he now welcomes the opportunity to rebuild a regime immediately after he removed its leadership. He remains consistent on at least one count. After criticizing the Bush administration for not turning a profit in the War on Terror, Trump seems hell-bent on avoiding that same mistake.

He said that U.S. energy companies would rebuild the nation as they return to Venezuela and seeknew revenue streams. Any costs incurred would quickly be deferred by the new oil revenue, or what the president described as “the money coming out of the ground.”

Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.

Our reporting on Saturday, spanning from early morning through late night, covered the incremental developments as U.S. Delta Force operators successfully executed Operation Absolute Resolve. This operation led to the capture of Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, his immediate transport to the U.S., and the filing of federal charges in New York, including a highly visible “perp walk” designed to send a clear message to other left-wing-controlled countries in the Western Hemisphere that America is back.

In a late-night press briefing, Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine disclosed that the operation involved the deployment of more than 150 air assets, underscoring the air-dominant posture of the Delta Force-led mission.

“Last night, on the order of the President of the United States and in support of a request from the Department of Justice, as the President said, the United States military conducted an apprehension mission in Caracas, Venezuela, to bring to justice two indicted persons, Nicolás and Cecilia Maduro,” Caine told reporters.

He continued:

“This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet and precise, conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd, and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal, an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake.

In an unprecedented operation, we leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and years of experience hunting terrorists. We could not have accomplished this mission without the extraordinary work of multiple intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NGA.

We watched, we waited, we prepared, and remained patient and professional. This mission was meticulously planned, drawing lessons from decades of operations. It was an audacious effort that only the United States could execute. It required the highest level of precision and integration within our joint force.

Even the word ‘integration’ fails to capture the sheer complexity of this mission.”

Caine then revealed a key operational detail:

Such a precise extraction involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all converging at the right time and place to layer effects for a single purpose: inserting an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining tactical surprise.

Failure of any single component would have endangered the entire mission, and failure is never an option for America’s joint force. Those in the air over Caracas last night were prepared to give their lives for those on the ground and aboard the helicopters.”

Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “This operation, known as Operation Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise, and… the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal — an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could undertake.” pic.twitter.com/VdcL5kbu7j

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 3, 2026

Caine did not specify what the “150 aircraft” consisted of, but some open-source intelligence accounts on X shared footage that appears to show a stealth unmanned aerial vehicle used during the operation.

Clash Report posted footage that appears to show an RQ-170 Sentinel drone returning to a U.S. military base in Puerto Rico following the operation.

The stealth drone, a flying-wing platform with radar-absorbing skin designed to minimize detection, was likely tasked with covert surveillance to support the raid, the capture of Maduro, and any related kinetic operations.

VERY RARE: Footage shows a U.S. RQ-170 stealth drone returning to Puerto Rico after reportedly supporting last night’s U.S. strikes on Venezuela.

The RQ-170 Sentinel is a stealthy, high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. pic.twitter.com/R2qQI3TyvK

— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 3, 2026

There has been no confirmation from the Department of War that the RQ-170 was involved in yesterday’s operations in Venezuela.

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

A.I. is fast expanding as a plague all along the internet spectrum. That’s quite predictable, considering the Big Tech model for A.I. is techno-feudalism, relying on profit and mind/social control, and not on sharing/expanding knowledge and creating better conditions for a well-informed citizenry.

A.I. in many aspects is the antithesis of civitas. Prior to the A.I. boom, several layers of the internet had already been distorted into a series of minefields across a large-than-life sewer. A.I. – as controlled by Big Tech – in many aspects had already revealed itself as a fraud. Now it’s a weapon.

There are several channels on YouTube manipulated by A.I., stealing the image and voice by some of us, independent political analysts. A not-extensive list includes as targets John Mearsheimer, Larry Johnson, Richard Wolff, Glenn Diesen, Yanis Varoufakis, economist Paulo Nogueira Batista and myself.

It’s not an accident that all of us are independent geopolitical and geoeconomic analysts, mostly know each other personally, and are guests in roughly the same podcasts.

In my own case, there are channels in English, Portuguese and even Spanish: I rarely do podcasts in Spanish, so even the voice is fake. In English, usually the voice is approximately cloned. In Portuguese it comes with an accent I don’t have. In several cases, audience numbers are huge. Essentially, these come from bots.

In all cases, as far as we, the targets are concerned, all these channels are fake. I repeat: all these channels are fake.

They may at least in some cases be set up by “fans” – certainly with an eye for profit via monetization.

Or the whole scam may be part of something way more sinister: a strategy bent of loss of credibility.

As in an operation by the usual suspects to sow confusion amongst the – large – audience of several independent thinkers.

It’s not an accident that quite a few viewers are already deeply puzzled. Cue to the most common question: “Is this really you, or A.I.?” 

Many apparently have denounced these fake channels, but YouTube, so far, has done absolutely nothing about them. The algos keep suggesting these channels to large audiences.

The only realistic way to fight the scam is to file a complaint with YouTube. But that, in practice, is pretty useless. YouTube management seems to be more interested in occasionally erasing “inconvenient” channels displaying critical thinking and analysis.

Cracking the code of the scam

Quantum Bird, a physics and HPC (High Performance Computing) expert, formerly with the CERN in Geneva, has cracked the code of the scam:

“The proliferation of agents of deep learning digital neural networks capable of emulating writing, voice and video of human beings was inevitable, and their impact on scientific research, production of knowledge and art in general has a negative potential that has not been yet fully analyzed.”

He adds: 

“While writers and academics are detailing the springing up of texts attributed to them, and replicating to a certain extent their style and opinions, the latest fad is the blooming of whole channels on YouTube, and other notorious Big Tech platforms, that offer videos of popular content producers, communicating in their native language or other languages. In several cases, the quality of this synthesized material is sufficiently high not to allow immediate identification by an average viewer. In the context of the political analysis community, the impact is obvious: historic revisionism, erosion of reputations and distortion of news and analysis.”

And here Quantum Bird lays out the tech clincher:

“The synthetization of this type of content requires the availability of abundant samples and massive computational capacity, way beyond the reach of domestic users. While the popularity of the YouTube victims guarantees the first condition, the second one suggests the activity of large-scale state or corporate actors, since advanced deep learning models must be developed and trained by processing a huge quantity, in terms of “disk space”, of audio and video. The monetization of the content does not cover the costs of this operation. Ironically, it’s the availability and the excess exposure of voice and video online that allows this type of attack.”

Here we go. Welcome to A.I. turning the net into an infernal machine bent on erasing meaning, culture and History – and sowing deep intellectual confusion. Exactly like Techno-Feudalism wants it.

President Trump soon after the overnight into early Saturday brief invasion of Venezuela and nabbing of President Nicolas Maduro – now in US custody on American soil – put more Latin American countries on notice, calling them essentially “cocaine mills” which ship ‘poison’ into the United States.

The not-so-veiled warnings and threats were issued to the governments of Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba – the latter which has been a Washington enemy stretching many decades back into the height of the Cold War.

In the comments, Trump again called Maduro as a “narco-terrorist” while fielding a question about the implications for neighboring countries, before linking the Venezuelan leader to his ally Colombian President Gustavo Petro.

“He has cocaine mills, he has factories where he makes cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States” Trump said of the Colombian leader, adding, “he does have to watch his ass.” 

And on Cuba, the warning was more veiled, as he described his administration is “going to be something we’ll end up talking about” as Washington suppose wants to “help the people” of this “failing nation” akin to Venezuela. 

“It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we also want to help the people who were forced out of Cuba and are living in this country,” he continued, in reference to Trump’s own significant support base among Cuban-Americans.

Among the more interesting and somewhat post-Venezuela regime change remarks by Trump were aimed just south of the border. Trump again put Left wing, or perhaps more accurately center-left Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo on notice.

Trump described that the drug cartels are basically running the country, and that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico” and that the government is “frightened” of them.

“They’re running Mexico. I’ve asked her numerous times: ‘Would you like us to take out the cartels?’ ‘No, no, no, Mr. President, no, no, no, please.’ So we have to do something,” he said in a phone interview with Fox.

Mexico had quickly condemned the US military action in Venezuela, as predictably the Colombian leader too. Petro has described Washington’s actions as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America – and many other BRCIS and other global south countries have said the same.

As for Cuba, the US has over decades been essentially ‘looking for an excuse’ in a ‘give us a reason’ kind of way while all along keeping brutal sanctions on Havana. Will Trump now have his ‘reason’ for getting more muscular on Cuba?

Authored by Alex Berenson via Unreported Truths,

Almost six years ago, Democrats published the world’s longest political suicide note — their 2020 election platform on immigration.

CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM has now vanished from the Democratic Party Website. But the Internet is forever, and the archived document remains easily findable. It makes a fascinating read.

In almost 2,000 words, the platform does not mention “border security” once. It does use the word “illegal” — referring to “President Trump’s illegal, chaotic, and reckless changes” to immigration. “Undocumented” comes up once too, in a promise to offer citizenship to “millions of undocumented workers, caregivers, students, and children.”

Among the platform’s other high notes:

We will protect and expand the existing asylum system and other humanitarian protections… Democrats will end Trump Administration policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers… we will end prosecution of asylum seekers at the border and policies that force them to apply from “safe third countries,” which are far from safe.

We will also eliminate unfair barriers to naturalization…

Democrats believe family unity should be a guiding principle for our immigration policy. We will prioritize family reunification for children still separated from their families…

[W]e will end workplace and community raids. We will protect sensitive locations like our schools, houses of worship, health care facilities, benefits offices, and DMVs [Note: this may be the first time anyone has ever called a DMV office a “sensitive” place] from immigration enforcement actions…

We believe detention should be a last resort, not the default. Democrats will prioritize investments in more effective and cost-efficient community-based alternatives…

—

(You want reckless? We’ll give you reckless!)

(SOURCE)

—

In other words: Come on in. The water’s fine.

The platform promises an interlocking series of guarantees and policy changes that would not merely reduce but as a practical matter end any restrictions against immigration, legal or otherwise.

Basically, the Democratic Party vowed that if it ran the federal government, it would open American borders to anyone and everyone in the world who could reach them.

The asylum promises were especially important.

As even the “American Immigration Council” — which despite its anodyne name is funded by immigration lawyers and relentlessly pushes open borders — has explained:

Since the second term of the Obama administration, however, U.S. asylum policy has become hopelessly entangled with border management. As part of global displacement challenges, many more people than ever before started coming to the United States to request asylum; at the same time, those people came from places beyond Mexico and had more complex needs than the working-age adults who had made up most migration in the past.

“More complex needs” is a polite way to say “people uninterested in working.”

The Democratic platform explicitly encouraged those arrivals. All they had to do was make an asylum claim, with or without credible evidence. How could border officials possibly check their stories? At that point they would be allowed in — and would not face any meaningful enforcement, ever.

—

Given these incentives, it is no surprise immigrant caravans started moving north only weeks after Election Day in 2020 — even before Joe Biden was officially sworn in.

And the flood continued, as migrants very quickly realized the Democrats had meant every word. They understood they would be greeted with open arms — and checkbooks. An increasingly professionalized industry of smugglers emerged to organize and transport them.

Supply creates its own demand, whatever the product.

In January 2023, the Biden Administration took the inevitable final step, a creating what it called a “Humanitarian Parole Program.” The plan allowed in another 360,000 migrants a year from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela without even requiring them to reach the southern border or have any legal basis for admission. If they could afford a plane ticket and find someone — anyone — in the United States to sponsor them, they could fly in.

The goal of the Bidenites was nakedly political. They hoped to make the border look better. But as a practical matter the program eliminated the last barrier to entry — that would-be migrants physically arrive at the border. Even the 2020 Democratic platform hadn’t (explicitly) gone that far.

—

(Sometimes the truth, like the devil, is in the details. Help me explain them.)

How the Democrats got to this point is its own story, and worth exploring. So is the question of what happens next.

But for now it is simply worth understanding that the collapse of any immigration restrictions was a feature, not a bug. Nearly 10 million people came to the United States under the Biden Administration — the largest surge either in raw numbers or as a percentage of the population at least since the Civil War.

The only surprise is that the total wasn’t even higher.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

This refers to keeping the targeted state’s power structure in place but after some (at times significant) changes that advance the meddling state’s interests.

Some critics of the US’ “special military operation” in Venezuela claim that it didn’t succeed despite President Nicolas Maduro’s capture since the “Chavismo deep state” that he presided over remains in place.

This refers to the explicitly ideological elements of his country’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies but can be expanded to include governors and trade unions among other groups.

The point is that removing Maduro from the political equation didn’t result in regime change.

That’s true, but the premise that US wanted to achieve such a goal is debatable since Trump 2.0 is comprised of figures who’ve criticized previous regime change operations for destabilizing their regions and leading to unpredictable consequences that ultimately harmed US interests.

It’s therefore plausible that they never intended to forcibly carry out regime change in Venezuela due to concerns that a civil war might follow, which could engender a large-scale migrant crisis and destroy energy infrastructure.

Rather, the immediate goal can be described as regime tweaking, which refers to keeping the targeted state’s power structure in place but after some (at times significant) changes that advance the meddling state’s interests.

In the Venezuelan context, the US forcibly removed Maduro so that he’d be replaced by his Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who Trump publicly expects to “do what we want” (likely at Marco Rubio’s direction).

That’s arguably what he meant by “running the country” till its transition is complete.

Such a transition might not result in regime change after Trump ruled out Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado leading Venezuela since “She doesn’t have the support or the respect”.

He also didn’t mention “democracy” once during his press conference in a sign that he’s uninterested in a radical regime change from the Chavismo model to a Western one (at least at this time). This hints that he’s open to Rodriguez or some other Chavista who he thinks the US can work with succeeding Maduro.

They’d have to enjoy the support of the powerful armed forces and militias in order to prevent a civil war, which ipso facto entails preserving at least some of their privileges, especially economic-financial ones.

That said, the armed forces barely put up any resistance on Saturday so it’s possible that Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Interior Minister Diosdado already clinched a deal with the US, only to talk tough in front of the cameras afterwards like Rodriguez has for domestic political reasons.

If an election is held within 30 days like Article 233 of the Constitution calls for, then the Defense and Interior Ministries would have to help secure it, thus reinforcing the importance of their chiefs supporting the US’ envisaged transition in Venezuela.

The US doesn’t care how Venezuela is governed or who (at least nominally) rules it, just that US influence is restored, which could take the form of its oil only being sold to US-approved buyers and foreign rivals like China no longer having a foothold there.

Of course, de-ideologizing the Venezuelan “deep state” so that more easily manipulatable pro-Western figures replace the Chavistas would entrench the US’ newfound influence, but this can only be done gradually since moving too fast could spark a civil war and thus risk ultimately harming US interests.

Some of the Chavismo model’s socio-economic programs and neighborhood organizations might also have to be preserved to prevent this.

It’ll therefore be interesting to monitor how the transition unfolds.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

President Trump and Elon Musk grabbed dinner together at Mar-a-Lago following the US military’s operation to arrest and remove Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. 

Trump had dinner with Elon at Mar-a-Lago and within an hour Starlink was being deployed to Venezuela to aid in the transition and the U.S. oil operation.

He never stops working. It’s amazing. pic.twitter.com/4HaSmEKCSh

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) January 4, 2026

Musk called the arrest a “win for the world, that would send “a clear message to evil dictators everywhere.”

Congratulations, President Trump!

This is a win for the world and a clear message to evil dictators everywhere. https://t.co/GRI0XOxQFU

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2026

During the dinner, which included several Trump advisers and Silicon Valley executives, Trump reportedly praised Musk for his support – noting the billionaire’s offer to provide free Starlink internet access to Venezuelan citizens. 

In support of the people of Venezuela 🇻🇪 https://t.co/JKxOFWsikP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 4, 2026

The dinner all but solidifies Musk and Trump’s reconciliation after he publicly criticized Trump’s legislative package in June 2025, which added to the national debt and reversed cuts to waste, fraud and abuse found by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump hit back, with Musk warning that Trump appears in unreleased Jeffrey Epstein files, to which Trump called Musk ‘CRAZY.” 

Obviously this is water under the bridge, as the two began mending fences at Charlie Kirk’s memorial last year, and Musk offering a public apology along with deleting offending posts that he said went “too far.” 

Maduro was captured by elite Delta Force operators, who stormed his compound in Caracas’s Fuerte Tiuna complex in an overnight raid – with air defenses disabled via precision strikes before they handcuffed and blindfolded Maduro, who was taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima and flown to New York where he faces federal charges for narco-terrorism, cocaine importation, and ties to terrorist-designated groups. 

Top US officials have been eager to capitalize on the Trump-ordered military raid on Caracas, which saw the Venezuelan capital bombed and its longtime socialist leader Nicolás Maduro captured without major incident and transferred to US soil where’s facing federal drug charges related to narco-trafficking and gun-running.

Hawkish pundits are already clamoring for more muscular action targeting Tehran (and other supposed ‘rogue’ actors) at a moment of ongoing economic protests in Iran pressuring Islamic Republic leaders. Trump is issuing veiled threats to the governments of Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico – but many are asking: is Iran next? Various open source intelligence channels (OSINT) on Sunday have highlighted some unusual American military activity in the UK and Europe, for example…

Something unusual appears to be going on today at RAF Fairford near Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom, with at least 10 C-17A Globemaster IIIs with the U.S. Air Force arriving at the base or currently crossing the Atlantic from the United States. Almost all of the C-17s… https://t.co/LfyTSdEsQr

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 3, 2026

It’s hard to know if this constitutes the usual Pentagon logistical operations in Europe, but it does indeed raise questions regarding Washington’s force posture vis-a-vis Iran. 

One theme of the last several months of Trump’s military build-up in the southern Caribbean has been that in sending so many warships to Venezuelan waters, including at least one nuclear-powered submarine and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, is that this level of military asset concentration in Latin America means less deadly or long-range assets in the Middle East (CENTCOM) area of operation.

But could we be witnessing a quick pivot, now with Maduro awaiting trial in New York?

There are various things to consider when it comes to potential White House discussions on the matter. First, it must be recalled that Trump wisely declared mission accomplished when US bombers ‘obliterated’ (in the US estimation) Iran’s three most important nuclear development sites at the tail-end of the June Israel-Iran war, which lasted just 12 days. There was no sustained American bombing campaign against Iran, also as Trump knows that “doing another Iraq” would be hugely unpopular at home.

There’s another difficult reality when it comes to US actions targeting Iran, which behind Venezuela also possesses among the world’s biggest proven reserves of crude oil. Iran is a country of over 90 million people, has a large military overseen by the elite IRGC, has long been ‘military tested’ (the 1980’s Iran-Iraq war comes to mind), and has one of the world’s premier arsenals of mid and long-range ballistic missiles. It even posses hypersonic capabilities (which the Israelis also learned). Because of this, last June Israeli warplanes were careful to operate largely outside Iranian airspace, and even though many anti-air missile sites were allegedly destroyed, this threat remains strong.

Reports of more IRGC missile tests over Iran Sunday night into Monday…

First images have already appeared, in Iranian and Israeli media. https://t.co/6BbvbNo9m7

— Conflict Radar (@Conflict_Radar) January 4, 2026

Trump will of course leave people guessing in his ‘shoot from the hip’ fashion. After all, the operation to topple Maduro was held as a tightly guarded secret even from many top Pentagon officials (in terms of the timing and “need to know” details just before it was launched). Here’s what one Conservative, anti-Iran pundit has to say:

First Venezuela, next Iran. These military flights signify a barrel of whoop-ass, not just a can. Likely, these show deployments of the 101st Airborne AND the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

The US Navy Fleet Tracker is oddly dark as well. We have 11 Aircraft Carriers, look at the 12/29/25 update compared to the 03/17/25 update. We are no longer posturing, we are in OPSEC mode. In Kuwait, the USA maintains roughly 13,500 troops at any given time. These troops serve as a Middle East response force (among other missions).

So why are the 1/75 Rangers and 101st Airborne deployments significant? The 75th Ranger Regiment’s primary mission is airfield seizures. The 101st is an Air Assault unit. The USA just moved a huge strategic asset designed to open the gates of hell into whatever country we choose.

And as for keeping people guessing, there was this remark from Trump just days ahead of the operation to kidnap Maduro. “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump posted on Truth Social last Monday.

Would Russia comes to Iran’s defense if it is threatened with large-scale military action? Certainly the vehement condemnations would fly from Moscow, but Russia’s military is obviously busy doing other things…

Team Trump is tough and cynical in advancing its country’s interests. Removing Maduro had nothing to do with drugs – only oil, and they openly admit this. Lex fortissimum is clearly stronger than ordinary justice, but whether they can run Venezuela remotely is a big question.

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) January 4, 2026

Regardless of if the US deescalates ongoing tensions with Tehran, or if Trump chooses to soon escalate, the Ayatollah and Islamic Republic leaders just got a lot more nervous and uncomfortable as they helplessly watch their longtime ally Maduro being hauled before a US federal court on American soil.

For now the most likely scenario is that Trump will be content to see where the now weeklong protests inside Iran go, as they threaten societal stability, and as the US-led sanctions regimen continues to wreak devastation. It is also likely that he would unleash Israel first, and not send US troops for direct action – akin to what happened in the last June bombing raids.

* * *

“It’s time”… another Israeli direct threat aimed at Iran:

הגיע הזמן. pic.twitter.com/yejc37zmr8

— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) January 4, 2026

Since Trump’s Venezuela operation went down just over 24 hours ago, there’s been an avalanche of reporting detailing the high risk gambit of American forces entering the capital of Caracas to kidnap Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

Admin officials appear eager to spike the proverbial football and divulge the details, akin to what happened after the complex SEAL raid which took out Osama bin Laden, or the later special forces killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria.

First, it has been divulged that President Trump a mere week earlier gave Maduro once last chance to relinquish power willingly in a phone call. “You got to surrender,” Trump told the press Saturday in reference to Maduro. Trump referenced that he actually “came close” to stepping down – whereafter he possibly would have headed to safer climes in Dubai, Qatar, or even Moscow (where he could join Assad).

But at the very moment the Venezuelan leader was on the phone with Trump, a CIA team was already in country monitoring his every move. According to a variety of fresh reporting in NBC and others, the CIA closely watched where he stayed, what he ate, and how he moved.

Likely the CIA would have been developing local assets over a period of years. An ‘asset’ can be anyone from local citizens or military officers – or even high ranking Colonels in Generals in the national army. One thing is clear at this point – the Pentagon had ‘insider help’ within the socialist regime.

Details of what was dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve” have at this point been revealed by more than a dozen officials across the White House, administration, and Congress. There have also been very clear public remarks, and the obvious fact of the months-long Pentagon build-up in the southern Caribbean.

For example, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan “Raizin” Caine said Saturday that US intelligence even knew the names of Maduro’s pets.

Elite forces had trained for months, which even involved rehearsals at a mock-up of Maduro’s compound built from intelligence reports, and troops practiced utilizing “massive blowtorches” in the event they would have to breach steel barriers protecting Maduro’s safe room.

One theme of the new reporting on the secretive operations was just how few in the US administration knew about it. The operation was strictly held to only the highest officials. Even Pentagon officials were unaware of the exact timing until Friday night, two US officials told NBC News.

The mission might have been ordered days before if not for unclear skies, but it finally proceeded Friday night when the weather cleared and it was a full moon. “Good luck and Godspeed,” Trump told military commanders upon giving the final order.

The New York Times reports that this is what finally pushed Trump to send Delta Force to storm Caracas and abduct Maduro: https://t.co/e4bmnTgaDy pic.twitter.com/cf1cd03ZCr

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) January 4, 2026

Those most directly involved in the planning will also reportedly play roles in governing Venezuela until there is some kind of agreed-upon political transition – including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Below are highlights of different aspects of how the unprecedented successful raid went down in the heart of Latin America, compiled from various sources [emphasis ZH]:

* * *

Brief mission with ‘significant resistance’

The mission took about two hours and 20 minutes and continued into early Saturday, when Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores “gave up,” General Caine said.

U.S. forces encountered significant resistance, Mr. Trump said. At least 40 people were killed, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports. —NY Times

Helicopters flying low after power cut

At least 150 aircraft flew toward Caracas from 20 different bases on land and sea. The fleet included bombers, fighters and craft that specialized in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, Caine said. The crews ranged in age from 20 to 49.

Darkness cloaked the Venezuelan capital. Trump suggested that the U.S. had cut the electricity in Caracas to gain an edge in the battle. Flying at 100 feet above the water, helicopters carried the special forces and law enforcement officials who plucked Maduro from his residence, Caine said. Other aircraft fired weapons to disable Venezuela’s air defense systems and clear a path for the helicopters, he added.

Flames were seen billowing from explosions at Fort Tiuna, a large military complex in Caracas. —NBC

High placed CIA assets in govt. coordinated the raid

The assets included a CIA source operating within the Venezuelan government who assisted the United States with tracking Maduro’s location and movements ahead of his capture, one source briefed on the operation told CNN.

The detailed timeline and the revelation that a CIA team has been operating inside Venezuela for so long sheds new light on the administration’s pressure campaign on Maduro for the past several months, even as senior officials publicly stated their goal was not regime change. —CNN

The extraction of a sitting head of state

The helicopters with the extraction team reached Maduro’s compound at 2 a.m. local time in Caracas, the general said. Upon arrival, the helicopters came under fire and one was hit but remained flyable. The US returned fire in defense, Caine added.

“As the operation unfolded at the compound, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk,” he said.

Caine said Maduro and his wife “gave up” to the US military personnel before being flown out of the country. Maduro and Flores were placed aboard the USS Iwo Jima… —CNN

* * *

More information on the highly secretive op is likely to come out in the next days and weeks, as the history books are already being written.

Authored by Eric Peters,

It is six years now since the advent – and normalization of – sickness psychosis (also known as weaponized hypochondria) and it shows a remarkable persistence.

Because of course it has been normalized.

More than that, actually. It continues to be affirmed as a reasonable rather than aberrant behavior.

This business, that is, of seeing but pretending not to notice people walking around with a surgical mask over their porthole.

More finely, of normal (in the head) people seeing such people – interacting with them, even – and pretending they’re not seeing something indicative of serious mental illness.

Seeing a person wearing a “mask” and pretending not to see it is not unlike seeing a person who is in the process of wetting their pants while talking to you and pretending not to see it.

We saw three such “maskers” the other day at the supermarket. One was working behind the counter, where food is handled.

They are becoming a more common sight – probably because they’ve been told about the Super Flu that’s flitting about.

It’s no longer just the flu, of course. Just as it’s no longer just raining – or snowing. Or winter now – and then summer. It’s a bomb cyclone or some other fearful-sounding term, engineered to arouse panic.

Keeping the masses in a state of perpetual panic being the ideal state – from the point of those engineering these now-endless panics.

One follows the next like the night follows the day such that the masses never get a breather from the panic; such a breather might result in them calming down and using their heads again.

H.L. Mencken wrote about this a century ago. Unfortunately, probably not one in a hundred Americans knows who H.L. Mencken was.

Hospitals – those dens of science – are re-imposing “mask” requirements on visitors. It is a metric of the metastasization of the engineered sickness psychosis that has afflicted this country for six years now. Medical professionals (sic) who presumably have some understanding of how viruses are transmitted and who by now have no excuse for continuing to believe that people who aren’t sick can make others sick (the “asymptomatic spreader” idiocy) when it comes to viral bugs because people who aren’t contagious don’t cough spittle or sniffle.

They therefore don’t emit viral particles.

And even if they did, a “mask” doesn’t (for Christ’s sake) “stop the spread” of particles so small they sneeze right through the porous to viral-sized-particles “mask.”

Besides which, it is insane to spend your life in morbid dread of catching a cold. It is part of normal life to get sick occasionally.

One does not need to spend several years at medical school to understand these facts. Yet there are still apparently lots of people who did spend years at medical school who either do not understand the facts or play along with the lies. This latter is almost certainly the thing going on. It is understandable why it is going on.

Most doctors are just employees – like most of the rest of us – and they must do what their employer says, if they wish to remain employed.

In the case of most doctors, it is mostly the big hospital/health care chains and the insurance cartels that are the employer and when they say “jump” (or “mask” up) the doctors say how high?

And that wearing is caring.

Doesn’t this instill in you great confidence in the independent judgment of your doctor? What else are they telling people they need to do that they (the doctors) have been told they’d better tell people they need to do?

It brings to mind a rhetorical question voters were asked once about Richard Nixon: Would you buy a used car from this man? Well, would you buy into the pills (or surgery) your doctor is trying to sell you? The same guy who says you’ve got to wear a “mask” to be allowed to sit in his waiting room?

Integrity, once sold, is not easily re-purchased.

Just as sanity, once lost, is not easily regained.

We may soon see just how many people have not yet recovered. Not just their sanity. Their balls.

The symptoms are passivity and compliance when they are told they must – once again – “mask up” to be allowed within.

How many won’t believe the lies but will go along with them – again – to avoid a confrontation or some inconvenience? I need to see the doctor. Then maybe it will be I need to go to the store.

How many will defy the social pressure to be compliant and refuse to play along, no matter the inconvenience?

Everything depends on such people.