BREAKING: United States Invades Venezuela, Captures Venezuelan President

What this episode is about

The United States has launched a military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, while signaling intentions to directly govern the country through a team of U.S. officials. Following the initial strike, Trump indicated that further military actions could occur, raising the possibility of a prolonged U.S. military presence and control over Venezuelan politics, leaving local opposition groups sidelined in the new regime.

Key takeaways

• Regime change in Venezuela? More like a hostile takeover with questionable legality and moral implications.
• Trump's new role as 'Viceroy' of Venezuela begs the question: Who elected him, and what’s next on his empire agenda?
• Strategic intervention or mere imperialism? The fine line defines America’s legacy and its role in Latin America.
• With a military operation called 'Absolute Resolve,' can the US maintain credibility while acting like a global babysitter?
• While Venezuela struggles with a vacuum of leadership, who's really in charge—the elected government or a US cabal?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Tommy Vietor (Host) · 9 min speaking
• Ben Rhodes (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Venezuela, United States (states), Donald Trump, Pete Hexath
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Venezuela, United States (states), Congress, Miriam Machado
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Venezuela, Inside Job, Military Occupation, Delta Force
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Venezuela, Congress, United States (states), Delta Force
5. 12:00 – 14:34: Venezuela, Pod Save the World, United States (states), Oil

Notable quotes from "BREAKING: United States Invades Venezuela, Captures Venezuelan President"

• Hey Ben, new year, new regime change. early Saturday morning, the United States launched a regime change operation in Venezuela where US special forces troops along with FBI…

  about Venezuela · at 0:00

• Though, Trump said he's not afraid to put US boots on the ground. more of that in a bit. So, this could be trending towards a military occupation.

  about Military Occupation · at 1:13

• Or, they're probably going to announce some transition plan. Maybe Miriam Machado is going to fly back in the opposition leader and say there's going to be an election or that, because the last election should.

  about Miriam Machado · at 4:24

• Air defenses all around to facilitate these helicopters going in and out. the Delta Force troops did the operation itself with the FBI. Delta Force are sort of like a codery of…

  about Delta Force · at 6:35

• The Reuters reporter that there was an inside job aided by the military. so it does seem like there was a lot of, conversations happening behind the scenes, trying to…

  about Inside Job · at 7:45

• Look that raises questions which we'll get to later Tommy because that means that they were lying to Congress the whole time because there are people that were going up there…

  about Congress · at 9:50

• That's a question I have. Then the question is like under what possible legal basis is the United States running this country? How does that work? Like there are ministries who's going to be providing services in Venezuela if there.

  about United States (states) · at 12:31

• Brought to justice, etc. But we all we know about what's coming next is that the US oil companies are going down there. That's like literally the only thing we know. all the…

  about Oil · at 13:20

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Primary decision-maker discussed / referenced spea · 2 mentions · first at 0:16
  He is described as ordering and publicly justifying a U.S. regime-change operation in Venezuela and claiming the U.S. will 'run' the country, framing it around oil and threats of further strikes.
  Trump said the Maduros are now on a US warship, the USS Euima, their end route to New York City for prosecution. They are calling this operation absolute resolve. Got to love these names.
• Pete Hexath — Person · Key U.S. official discussed · 3 mentions · first at 0:52
  Named by Trump as part of the group that would 'run' Venezuela, indicating a defense role in post-operation governance.
  Well, it's largely going to be for a period of time the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it.
• Dan Raisen Kaine — Person · Referenced military official · 1 mention · first at 0:54
  Cited as providing operational details (e.g., number of planes), anchoring the account of the strike/raid.
  Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hexath, John Rackcliffe, the CIA director Dan Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Steven Miller. So, he's a viceroy.
• John Rackcliffe — Person · Referenced intelligence official · 1 mention · first at 0:54
  Named as CIA director within Trump's team purportedly administering Venezuela, linking intelligence leadership to governance claims.
  Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hexath, John Rackcliffe, the CIA director Dan Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Steven Miller. So, he's a viceroy.
• Miriam Machado — Person · Referenced opposition leader · 1 mention · first at 4:26
  Raised as an expected democratic-transition figure who is notably absent from Trump's stated plan, underscoring the critique that this is not about democracy.

Companies & orgs

• Congress — Company · Referenced oversight/authorization body · 4 mentions · first at 1:50
  Discussed as potentially bypassed: speakers allege the administration lied to Congress and did not notify it before strikes.
• Delta Force — Company · Referenced military unit executing raid · 2 mentions · first at 6:40
  Identified as the elite unit conducting the capture operation, used to explain U.S. capability for 'night raid' style missions.
• FBI — Company · Referenced operational participant · 2 mentions · first at 0:04
  Described as participating alongside special forces in the raid/capture, raising questions about domestic law enforcement roles abroad.
  Air defenses all around to facilitate these helicopters going in and out. the Delta Force troops did the operation itself with the FBI. Delta Force are sort of like a codery of…

Products & tech

• USS Euima — Product · Referenced military asset / location of detainees · 1 mention · first at 0:18
  Named as the U.S. warship allegedly holding Maduro and his wife en route to New York for prosecution.
  Trump said the Maduros are now on a US warship, the USS Euima, their end route to New York City for prosecution. They are calling this operation absolute resolve. Got to love these names.

Concepts & topics

• Oil — Concept · Core motive / economic driver discussed · 1 mention · first at 13:25
  Speakers argue oil is the real rationale for intervention, including bringing U.S. oil companies in and potentially deploying troops to guard facilities.
• Military Occupation — Concept · Potential outcome discussed · 2 mentions · first at 1:16
  Speakers warn Trump's plan could trend toward occupation, especially if troops are deployed to secure oil infrastructure and maintain order.
• Inside Job — Concept · Explanatory hypothesis for Maduro's capture · 2 mentions · first at 7:45
  Cited via reporting that elements of the Venezuelan military and/or insiders aided the arrest, shaping expectations for stability and complicity.
• Seismic Event — Concept · Descriptor of global significance · 1 mention · first at 5:43
  Used to emphasize the magnitude of the U.S. action and its implications for international norms and U.S. domestic politics.
  Congress and with Trump's own kind of authoritarian trends how it plays out around the world. But boy, this is a this is a seismic event. And you're right, it's it's just, for…

Places & events

• Venezuela — Place · Primary setting / target country · 17 mentions · first at 0:03
  The episode centers on a purported U.S. military operation to depose Venezuela's leader and the implications of U.S. control/occupation and oil extraction.
• United States (states) — Place · Primary actor country · 6 mentions · first at 0:01
  The U.S. is described as conducting the operation, potentially occupying Venezuela, and asserting control tied to oil and executive power vs. Congress.

Media & podcasts

• Pod Save the World — Media · Primary show / source of discussion · 2 mentions · first at 13:49
  The transcript is an excerpt promoting and discussing a breaking-news episode of this podcast.
  Thank you for watching that excerpt of Pod Save the World. If you want to watch the full thing, click over to the Pod Save the World YouTube feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe.
• Pod Save America — Media · Referenced sister show (promotion) · 1 mention · first at 13:56
  Mentioned in the outro as part of a broader media strategy and cross-promotion.
  Operation in Venezuela is the greatest thing to ever happen to our country. So, subscribe to Pod Save the World.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Uh, hey Ben, new year, new regime change. Uh, early Saturday morning, the United States launched a regime change operation in Venezuela where US special forces troops along with FBI agents blew up key Venezuelan military infrastructure and captured Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife. Trump said the Maduros are now on a US warship, the USS Euima, their end route to New York City for prosecution. They are calling this operation absolute resolve. Got to love these names. Um, Trump and Rubio both suggested that the military operation is over for now, but that US troops are ready to conduct a second wave of strikes if necessary.

0:34 Trump said that second wave would be even bigger than the first. U, but in the interim, Donald Trump said that we, the United States of America, will be running the country of Venezuela. He literally said that the team of guys behind him would be in charge of a foreign uh country. that that group was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hexath, uh John Rackcliffe, the CIA director Dan Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Steven Miller. So, he's a viceroy. Now, I guess that that that collection of great minds is going to dictate terms to Maduro's former vice president, Deli Rodriguez, who has since been sworn in as president, and I guess just run Venezuela as a vassal state through her.

1:13 Though, Trump said he's not afraid to put US boots on the ground. Uh more of that in a bit. So, this could be trending towards a military occupation. So, we're doing this uh the breaking news episode on the fly. We're learning information in real time, but we're going to try to cover what we know about the military operation, how the US is going to run Venezuela going forward, and what comes next sort of internally there, including what it means for the Venezuelan opposition that desperately wanted this outcome, but now doesn't seem to be part of Venezuela's future, at least according to Trump. We'll talk about Trump's threats to Cuba and Colombia, what lessons he might learn from this, including very bad ones. Uh we'll talk about the international reaction such as it is at this moment, the legal questions, Congress's role, and then who Maduro is. And I don't know, we'll we'll try to be a little bit

1:55 hopeful, like maybe try to sketch out what a good outcome could look like, but I don't think either of us feel like we're trending that direction. Um but first, Ben, just I have to say like this is so much crazier than I ever could have expected. like we we've been watching this troop build up for a while. We've been covering this. Um you know, we both I think felt like you don't amass 15,000 troops and a couple aircraft carriers in the Caribbean to do nothing. But Trump launching this capture operation against Majuro and then explicitly saying that his team of aids including you know Viceroy Rubio Hexath Steven Miller are now going to run Venezuela until some transition point TBD is just batshit crazy. Uh you know Trump is now overtly saying also that this was about taking back war that was or sorry oil that was stolen from the United States. Um, but yeah, I guess we now have like a pro vassal state in

2:50 South America, Ben. That's how we're starting 2026. Apparently, Tommy, and uh, happy new year to you and and to the world here. Uh, there there's, um, there's the thing with Trump where you have to to take him on his own terms, right? Um, and the reality is he's been basically telling us who he wanted to be in his second term since he got elected. And keep in mind, one of the first things he started talking about after he was elected were Greenland and Panama. And and the reason that's important is because yes, that's not who was on the punch card today. But we are kind of moved from yesterday into today from one era into a new era here where the United States is back in the empire of business in this hemisphere.

3:33 And let's be clear, that's not hyperbole. Like that's what he said. Now, you know, you go through the roller coaster of the last few hours. It starts with this operation. It says, you know, I'm saying to myself, okay, we're we're doing this now. Like we we've been saying for months on this podcast, clearly this is about regime change. Clearly, it was a decapitation exercise. And so when the targets started to leak out, you know, the presidential compound, the defense, some, you know, defense ministry associated buildings, it's like, okay, they're trying to decapitate this regime. They did. They got Maduro, they got him on a plane. By the way, the US military, its capacity to conduct these kinds of operations, this is what it does best. the kind of going in and getting somebody. Um, it's night. It's what happens after. Exactly.

4:16 It's a night rate essentially on on on steroids literally. Um, but you know, you felt this sense of, okay, what's going to happen next? Or, you know, they're probably going to announce some transition plan. Maybe Miriam Machado is going to fly back in the opposition leader and say there's going to be an election or that, you know, because the last election should have gone the other way. we're going to put these people in charge and and that there'll be some kind of familiar at least rhetoric around this. Um, but I think what was really driving the home point home for me was that press conference where Trump is just like, "Yeah, we're running this country." You know, Marco Rubio, he's already the archivist and the secretary of state and, you know, the national security adviser. Now, he's also, you know, the, you know, proconsul of Venezuela. And, and that's why this is such a to me dangerous moment. Look, look, if I I I

5:01 had no Venezuelans who are happy today. They hate Maduro. They've wanted to seem gone for a long time. But normalizing the idea that not just any US president, and I don't think any US president should do this, but this US president in particular can just with no authorization, no legal basis, depose the leader of a foreign country and announce that we're now running that country. And he didn't even talk about drugs really in his press conference. He just talked about oil.

5:25 Barely. Yeah. Um the oil companies are going to get down there. This is like early 1900s stuff that we're uh back in the soup on. And so there's a lot of different angles on how that plays out in Venezuela, in this country um with the role of Congress and with Trump's own kind of authoritarian trends uh how it plays out around the world. But boy, this is a this is a seismic event. And you're right, it's it's just, you know, for him to come out and just say this. Now, when he does it, you think, well, of course that's what he was going to do is say that we're just running the country. But when you hear him say it in those blunt terms, you realize, man, we're not even one year into the Trump presidency and we're already running foreign countries, that is not the best case scenario when it comes to having an autocrat as your president.

6:10 Yeah, he made some quip about how the Monroe doctrine is now the Donro doctrine, which even the like kind of little codery of fluffers behind him couldn't find a way to fake laugh at. But yeah, uh it feels like a very big moment. But let's let's quickly talk about what we know. So according to Dan Kane, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, there were 150 planes involved in this operation. They hit uh a military airirstrip in Kacus. They hit the most important military base in Kacus and then seemingly took out a whole bunch of air defenses all around to facilitate uh these helicopters going in and out. Um the Delta Force troops did the operation itself with the FBI. Delta Force are sort of like a codery of some of the most elite uh US special forces operators in the US military. They are, you know, it's so sensitive and uh secretive that the I think the existence of a lot of these operators and teams is

6:59 actually classified, but they actually do a lot of the night raids and things uh that have been conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan and other war zones over the past many years. Um, Trump said Maduro when they got to his compound, he tried to make it to a safe room, but he was too slow and got arrested with his wife as he was trying to close the door. No service members were killed that we know of. They said a helicopter was damaged in the process of the raid, but it could still fly. Um, this operation was apparently uh approved earlier, but they waited until last night because uh of weather essentially. And the New York Times and and Reuters have both reported that the CIA had a source in Maduro's inner circle. Uh and then Reuters reported that members of the Venezuelan military worked with the US to s sec secure Maduro's arrest and someone told the Reuters reporter that there was an inside job aided by the military. Um, so

7:50 it does seem like there was a lot of, you know, conversations happening behind the scenes, um, trying to facilitate the ouster of Maduro, but not necessarily the regime. And, you know, Ben, that's a lot of detail that's leaking quickly about like CIA assets inside another government. But it does it does um make interesting Trump's sudden fondness for the current vice president and Trump saying that Rubio has been talking with her and that she seems willing to do whatever the new team of Trump aids uh that will be running Venezuela says. Um so we'll see if this really was an inside job. I'm sure a lot more will leak out. Um but again the craziest part was um to me at least Trump saying the US is now going to run Venezuela. And here he is answering a reporter's question about how that would actually work and whether the US military will now be in Venezuela occupying the country. Let's play that clip.

8:40 Does the US running the country mean that US troops will be on the ground? How will that work?

8:44 Well, you know, they always say boots on the ground. Oh, so we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to.

8:49 What are you explaining the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate a US official to coordinate?

8:55 It's all being it's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. We're designating uh various people and we're going to let you know who those people are.

9:05 The group you mentioned that would run Venezuela. Well, it's largely going to be for a period of time the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it.

9:13 So, the plan seems to be like these guys are going to figure it out. I mean, this is like making the post Iraq war planning look uh crystal clear to me at the moment.

9:23 Yeah. Uh wasn't subtle, but also wasn't detailed. Uh, and I think that kind of sums this up. Uh, on on the operation, look, they were clearly planning this for months. You know, they were pre-positioning all these military assets. They're probably sneaking in CIA assets, probably Delta Force guys into the country um, so that they could have this kind of multifaceted operation. They were probably putting the squeeze on people in Maduro's inner circle and in the military at the same time that they were doing that. Um and and and look that raises questions which we'll get to later Tommy because that means that they were lying to Congress the whole time because there are people that were going up there and testifying that this wasn't about regime change. We're not planning regime change. We'll come back to Congress and ask you if you do regime change. So they were that that that's a you know

10:04 Trump's chief of staff very recently told Vanity Fair that uh air strikes within Venezuela would require congressional approval. But then when asked today about whether Congress had even been notified in advance, Rubio said no because this was like a hair trigger operation and it could have leaked. And then Trump like jumped in and was like, well, in a lot of ways they knew we were coming and have for a long time because there were a lot of boats out in the Caribbean. But yeah, know we still couldn't have told Congress, which is, you know, again, he's completely undercutting his rationale. But sorry, continue.

10:30 No, that's right. And and also lying. I think there were even officials that testified this similar to what Susie Wells said. Then on the on the what happens now, um it's clear what they the path that they're going to try to execute here, which is that you have Maduro, an ideological guy clinging to power, running the place as an autocrat, but you have like powerful actors inside Venezuela, like the military that controls, you know, not only a lot of the guns, um but also kind of some of the black economy that's emerged. And essentially what Trump's trying to do is go and keep this kind of rotted state in place underneath uh essentially the United States running the the place say to them starting with the vice president

11:12 you know if you don't basically allow us to run your country we might just arrest you like Maduro you know and he kind of made threats like this and he's kind

11:21 ofite threats. Yeah. Yeah. And so what's interesting is he's not saying what you'd expect, which is we're going to come in, we're maybe we're going to install the the person we think ran the last election or we're going to say that there's going to be an election in 60 days. And who knows, maybe we'll get some of that later. But actually, they're just going to try to kind of keep this, you know, they don't want to antagonize the military because that's how you might get a civil war. And so maybe if we just give everybody a cut here, um you know, we'll bring the American oil companies in and he was very clear about that. A and start pumping oil and spread the money around enough that um people in Venezuela will, you know, let us do that. Now, that's a pretty big roll of the dice. Let me just raise a few questions. Uh Tommy, the boots on the ground, I think, would be for the oil facilities because he's

12:05 talking about, you know, the US oil companies going in there and rebuilding infrastructure. By the way, it sounded like American taxpayers might have to foot some of the bill on that. Um, so you'd need to guard the oil facilities. You'd probably have to guard the oil refineries, which by the way are not next to the oil facilities in Venezuela. The oil facilities are in the middle of the country. The refineries are up in the north. So then are we going to be guarding the pipelines, too? We could be looking in a scenario where are US troops going to be literally guarding US oil company companies in Latin America?

12:31 That's a question I have. Then the question is like under what possible legal basis is the United States running this country? How does that work? Like there are ministries who's going to be providing services in Venezuela if there is violence and there are a lot of people that have a lot of reason to be pissed off in Venezuela. Um who's going to deal with the violence in the country? Um you know what is the role of the opposition is Mar? He you know he basically was dismissive of her. He was asked about her and he said she's a nice lady but she doesn't have a lot of support in the country. So, so much for this being about democracy, you know.

13:03 Um, it's not. It's about oil. Spoiler alert. Um, so, you know, US regime change operations always look the best on the first day. Uh, when the military does something extraordinary, then there's a pictures of a guy like Maduro who's a bad guy on a US aircraft being brought to justice, etc. But we all we know about what's coming next is that the US oil companies are going down there. That's like literally the only thing we know. um all the things underneath that about how this country will be run, what the role of our military will be. Uh Tommy, I got how what's your over under when Eric Prince puts in a bid um to basically become the Venezuelan security services. So, there is a lot of grift and probably a fair amount of violence to come here. Um there's a lot we still need to to see play out.

13:49 Thank you for watching that excerpt of Pod Save the World. If you want to watch the full thing, click over to the Pod Save the World YouTube feed or wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe to Pod Save the World and please subscribe to Podsave America. We are trying to build a progressive media empire so that we can push back on all the right-wing idiots who are going to try to tell you that this regime change operation in Venezuela is the greatest thing to ever happen to our country. So, subscribe to Pod Save the World.

14:11 Subscribe to Potsave America. And thank you for watching.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "BREAKING: United States Invades Venezuela, Captures Venezuelan President"?

Tommy Vietor (Host), Ben Rhodes (Guest).

What is "BREAKING: United States Invades Venezuela, Captures Venezuelan President" about?

The United States has launched a military operation in Venezuela, capturing President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, while signaling intentions to directly govern the country through a team of U.S. officials. Following the initial strike, Trump indicated that further military actions could occur, raising the possibility of a prolonged U.S. military presence and control over Venezuelan politics,…

What is mentioned in this Pod Save America episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Venezuela, United States (states), Donald Trump, Oil, Congress, Military Occupation. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "BREAKING: United States Invades Venezuela, Captures Venezuelan President"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 3,086 words in 28 timestamped sections.

More from Pod Save America

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on Pod Save America
• People mentioned on Pod Save America
• Sponsors mentioned on Pod Save America
• Topics mentioned on Pod Save America