Hi everyone, Ben Meiselas here.
First, thank you for tuning in to our late-night coverage as this shocking story broke. MeidasTouch was the first network to go live with the breaking news of the United States’ invasion of Venezuela, and we have been tracking the developments minute by minute. This is a historic escalation with massive legal, geopolitical, and humanitarian consequences. Make sure you are subscribed to the MeidasTouch YouTube channel and podcast so you don’t miss any reports (both at 100% free).
Here’s what we know so far, and then I’ll break down the disastrous press conference Donald Trump just held at Mar-a-Lago. Before I even dive in and give you updates, I think we all know the real reason for this invasion: oil.
Trump said Saturday that the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that he is being taken to New York to face criminal charges. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, had been indicted on drug and weapons charges and “will soon face the full wrath of American justice.” I thought the American justice system was supposed to be about “due process” and not “wrath,” but I digress. The administration has long pointed to a 2020-era U.S. indictment and has repeatedly labeled Maduro the head of a so-called “narco-terrorist” state. This all comes, ironically, just one month after Trump pardoned the former Honduran President who was convicted in a U.S. court of drug trafficking. MeidasTouch has obtained a copy of the new superseding indictment filed by the DOJ against Maduro, his wife, and others, in the Southern District of New York (SDNY). You can read it here:
According to reporting and accounts from people briefed on the operation, U.S. special operations forces captured Maduro with the help of a C.I.A. source inside the Venezuelan government who had been monitoring his location. Trump posted an image of Maduro in custody aboard the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, noting that both Maduro and Flores would be transported to New York.
Trump also suggested there were injuries on the U.S. side, telling Fox News that some troops may have been hurt when a helicopter was hit, even as he claimed no American troops were killed. Venezuelan officials, meanwhile, said Venezuelan citizens had been killed and that the death and injury toll is still being assessed. A state of emergency was declared and Venezuelan authorities denounced the operation as military aggression while calling for mobilization.
Venezuela’s inner circle appears to have survived. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, was reportedly sworn in as interim president in a secret ceremony in Caracas. She went on state television calling the operation “a brutal attack,” though Trump later claimed she spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was “essentially willing to do what we think is necessary.” That claim, like so much of what Trump says, raises more questions than it answers.
After the invasion, Trump appeared at Mar-a-Lago and held what can only be described as an unhinged, reckless press conference.
He declared, “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” The President of the United States is openly claiming the U.S. will “run” a sovereign nation of roughly 28 million people, with no clear plan, no defined timeline, and no meaningful explanation of the authority to do so.
When pressed on whether that means U.S. troops would be on the ground, Trump responded, “We’re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to,” and then admitted, “We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually.”
A reporter asked the obvious: if the U.S. is going to “run” Venezuela, who is in power right now? Trump’s answer was incoherent. He claimed the U.S. would run it “with a group” and then gestured vaguely to people behind him, saying, “The people that are standing right behind me, we’re going to be running it.”
That “group” included Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. During the presser, Hegseth delivered rambling lines meant to sound tough. “He f—ed around, and he found out,” Hegseth said about Maduro. Trump appeared to be dozing off while military details were being presented.
Trump repeatedly framed the invasion as a resource grab, often dropping his pretext regarding drugs. He said the reason the U.S. invaded is because Venezuela “took” American oil and that now “our big, beautiful oil companies” will control Venezuelan oil infrastructure.
He bragged about sending U.S. oil companies to “go and spend billions of dollars,” “fix the badly broken infrastructure,” and “start making money for the country.” Then he insisted this “won’t cost us anything,” because oil companies would front the bill and be reimbursed through the operation itself.
At another point he complained Venezuela “stole our oil,” pointing to the nationalization of Venezuela’s oil industry, and characterized it as “one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country.” His comments are frankly Putin-esque.
Rubio tried to wave away the constitutional issues by calling it essentially an arrest operation. He described it as “largely a law enforcement function,” saying “at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives,” and suggested notifying Congress would be risky because “Congress has a tendency to leak.”
That is not how any of this works. Toppling or detaining foreign leaders and declaring you’re going to run the country isn’t the same as a police officer arresting someone on the street. These are the acts of a lawless administration.
Trump also used the press conference to threaten other countries. When asked about Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, Trump said Petro “does have to watch his ass.” He floated Cuba as another target, calling it a “failing nation” and signaling the U.S. would be “talking about” it next. Earlier on Fox, he said, “Something is gonna have to be done with Mexico.”
He invoked the Monroe Doctrine, saying that it should now be called the “Donroe Doctrine,” adding that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”
These are the words of imperialism.
Then, in a shocking moment, Trump addressed María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s main opposition leader. Despite that fact that she celebrated the mission, and wrote in a statement that “the hour of freedom has arrived,” Trump said the U.S. had not been in contact with her and then undercut her publicly: “I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. Very nice woman. But she doesn’t have the respect.”
Trump also rambled bizarrely from topic to topic, in one breath talking about Venezuela, and in the next, bragging about how he “saved Los Angeles.” Trump told reporters, “If the federal government didn’t come in, we would’ve lost Los Angeles.” It’s all just so deranged and detached from reality.
So here we are… Trump invades Venezuela, claims the U.S. will run it, and then dismisses the primary opposition leader who, by all accounts, would be the obvious person to elevate. That’s because Trump isn’t focused on democracy. He’s focused on control. He’s focused on oil. And Wall Street is already lining up to reap the spoils of this invasion. Per Brian Schwartz of the Wall Street Journal, “About 20 business leaders, including those from some of the top hedge funds and asset managers, are preparing to go on a March trip to Venezuela to look at investment opportunities there incl in energy and infrastructure.”
We are going to keep you posted every step of the way. The situation is moving fast and the fog of disinformation is thick, so we will remain focused not only on getting you information quickly, but more importantly, getting you information accurately. The core facts are clear. Trump has launched an invasion, is claiming open-ended authority to run Venezuela, and is publicly framing the entire operation around oil and dominance.
Thanks again for watching our coverage, sharing it, and helping independent media break through when it matters most.
