How the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro
January 3, 2026
President Donald Trump is laying out some of the details of the U.S. military strike against Venezuela that’s led to the capture of leader Nicolás Maduro. Trump says Maduro was being “highly guarded” in a presidential palace that was “like a fortress,” although Maduro wasn’t able to get to a safe room. Trump tells the “Fox and Friends Weekend” show that American forces were armed with “massive blowtorches” and they could have used those blowtorches to cut through steel walls if Maduro had locked himself in that room. Trump says U.S. forces had practiced maneuvers on a replica building as they prepared for the operation.