02a U.S. Politics – Conservative

“We’re gonna run it. Fix it. We’ll have elections at the right time,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed back to the White House from Mar-a-Lago.

Protests erupted in cities such as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City after it was announced that the U.S. captured Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Video footage posted to X showed protesters marching through New York City carrying signs that said, “Free Pres. Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, Now!” and “No Blood For Oil.”

According to ABC7NY, “a group of people demonstrated in Times Square” over Maduro’s capture. The protesters claimed that Maduro’s capture was not “about drug trafficking or democracy,” but that it was “about stealing oil and dominating Latin America.”

The ruling is in accordance with Venezuela’s constitution, which states that the vice president handles presidential duties in the event of an absence. The court said in its order that Maduro is currently in a “material and temporary impossibility to exercise his functions.”

Who paid for all of this?

Real Venezuelans are stormed NYC to counteract the white liberal Democrats protesting against Trump’s Maduro capture and strikes

Actual Venezuelans are ecstatic right now.

The Democrats are apoplectic. Democrats screaming over the arrest of the blood-soaked dictator Nicolás Maduro is the perfect hill for them to die on—after defending Barack Obama, who dropped 26,171 bombs in a single year without congressional approval, and Joe Biden, who launched strikes across Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia the same way—hypocrisy laid bare.

Anything coming from Venezuela at this point should be treated with a grain of salt.

Venezuela’s military officials have reported that 40 people were killed after the U.S. conducted strikes on Venezuela.

President Trump, in his own press conference, revealed that no U.S. service members died during the military operation.

The New York Times reported more details on the Venezuela death toll:

At least 40 people were killed in the U.S. attack on Venezuela early Saturday, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports.

President Trump, speaking on Fox News on Saturday, said that no American troops had been killed. He suggested, however, that some service members had been injured. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said later in the day at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago with Mr. Trump that U.S. helicopters moving to extract President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had come under fire. He said that one helicopter had been hit but “remained flyable,” and that all U.S. aircraft “came home.”

The brilliantly executed US operation to snatch Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro benefits American citizens in many different ways.

1. It took out the head of a major international organized crime cartel. The cartel, which the US has labeled the “Cartel de los Soles,” or Cartel of the Suns, is responsible for cocaine trafficking into the United States. Maduro had turned the upper levels of the Venezuelan government, military, and security services into a huge organized crime entity. The Department of Justice is prosecuting Maduro and others for running what a federal grand jury indictment calls “a corrupt and violent narco-terrorism conspiracy.” While no evidence indicates that Maduro’s cartel directly trafficked fentanyl into the U.S., the Treasury Department sanctioned the Cartel of the Suns last July for providing material support to the Sinaloa cartel of Mexico, which the DOJ described as “flooding the United States with fentanyl.”
2. It took out the leader who flooded the United States with hardened criminals, organized terrorist gangs like Tren de Aragua, and millions of refugees. Once a new leadership is established in Venezuela, the country can take back its criminals and terrorists, and its refugees can return home and rebuild.

Now, in the latest chapter in “San Francisco goes completely bat-guano nuts,” San Franciscans are taking to the streets (I’m sure it’s genuinely spontaneous) to protest Trump’s ouster of Venezuela’s tinpot dictator Nicolás Maduro.

NOW: Massive crowd in San Francisco, CA says “Hands Off Venezuela”! pic.twitter.com/GB5uHe3IGN

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 3, 2026

After President Donald Trump ordered the capture and arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro for charges of narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, and other crimes, Democratic lawmakers want to impeach the president and remove him from office. All the while, Venezuelans around the world have been seen celebrating the fall of Maduro.

Early on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social, “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Maduro and his regime had corrupted the institutions of that country, including its military, its intelligence apparatus, its legislature, and its judiciary, all to aid his cartel’s massive criminal operations.

The Cartel de los Soles originated in Venezuela, and has been involved in the illicit drug trade, human smuggling and trafficking, extortion, sexual exploitation of women and children, and money laundering, along with other criminal activities. Reports are that the cartel’s name is derived from the sun insignias often portrayed on the uniforms of Venezuelan military officials; the relationship is that symbiotic.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has been assigned to preside over the federal criminal case against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the Southern District of New York.

The toppled socialist dictator faces sweeping narco-terrorism and weapons charges in the U.S. after being captured by American forces in Venezuela on Saturday.

Hellerstein, 92, was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1998 and confirmed by the Senate that same year.