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Trump Holds a Press Conference, Jan. 3, 2026: The Maduro Capture Announced

January 3, 2026 · The White House · 1:46:30

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump announced at a Palm Beach press conference on January 3, 2026, that United States armed forces had conducted an operation in Caracas overnight and captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. “Overwhelming American military power, air, land, and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault… against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice,” he said — “one of the most stunning, effective, and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history,” as he described it. Maduro and Flores, he said, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York for what he described as a campaign of narco-terrorism against the United States, and were on a ship heading ultimately toward New York, with a decision to be made between New York and Florida, as he stated it. Not a single American service member was killed and not a single piece of American equipment was lost, he said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth framed the operation as America First deterrence restored in the Western Hemisphere. Gen. Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave the operational account: the mission, named Operation Absolute Resolve, was an apprehension mission conducted in support of a Department of Justice request during the darkest hours of January 2, culminating months of planning; more than 150 aircraft launched across the Western Hemisphere, after the President ordered the mission forward at 10:46 p.m. Eastern on January 2 with the words, as Caine quoted them, “Good luck and Godspeed.”

Why it matters

This press conference is the founding document of the Venezuela file that runs through this whole backfill — the capture, the indictment, and the American-justice framing from which the January 4 “we’re in charge” gaggle, the January 9 oil meeting, and the January 11 shipment figures all follow. It is recorded here in full, with every operational figure attributed to the officials who stated it.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the January 3 announcement itself — a completed military operation and a pending federal prosecution, both dated and stated on the record at this conference. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; the entry itself stays review-gated.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Holds a Press Conference, Jan. 3, 2026,” Palm Beach, FL, January 3, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated at the conference.