EXCLUSIVE: Inside Donald Trump's Trillion-Dollar Coup of the Century Against Venezuela — Including Why VP Vance Was MIA During Maduro Mission
The details of Donald Trump's capture of Nicolás Maduro have been revealed.
Jan. 16 2026, Published 4:32 p.m. ET
Donald Trump's capture of Venezuelan despot Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, been hailed as one of the most stirring and controversial military operations in U.S. history – and RadarOnline.com can reveal inside details of the trillion-dollar coup, including why Vice President J.D. Vance was seemingly nowhere to be found during the mission.
On January 2, Operation Absolute Resolve wrested the country from Maduro's grasp and seized over $17trillion in oil reserves that were lining the tyrant and his cronies' pockets for 13 years.
Operation Absolute Resolve Planning
Sources said the Army's Delta Force troops trained for months at a replica of Maduro's compound.
The late-night raid was carried out with lightning precision and exposed "extraordinary insights" into Maduro's movements, which were extracted by a CIA unit sent into South America as early as August 2025, sources claimed.
Military insiders said the Army's elite Delta Force troops spent months training at a replica of Maduro's Caracas compound, similar to the exercise the Navy Seals used before capturing Osama Bin Laden in 2011 when President Barack Obama was in office.
Insiders said the troops even practiced with "massive blowtorches" so they could be prepared to blast through Maduro's metal safe room door.
Trump Offered Maduro Chance to Surrender
Sources claimed Trump offered Maduro a chance to surrender before the raid.
Leading up to the despot's capture, the U.S. applied intense pressure on Maduro's regime to abandon his criminal drug-trafficking enterprise by targeting boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean.
The controversial strikes destroyed at least 35 vessels, resulting in 114 deaths.
Sources claimed Trump even offered Maduro an out before the raid in a private phone conversation. The president later revealed he told Maduro, "You got to surrender."
But Maduro's brazen refusal to do so effectively signed his own arrest warrant – and Trump gave the order to move forward with the raid, which was initially planned to take place before Christmas 2025 until bad weather postponed plans.
150 U.S. military aircrafts descended upon Caracas and took down Maduro's air defense.
When conditions were more favorable, 150 U.S. aircrafts descended upon Caracas from 20 different bases. Trump ordered electricity in the capital cut off to provide cover while jet fighters destroyed Maduro's air defenses.
With air defenses down, a path was cleared for helicopters carrying service members and law enforcement officers, who set out at 10:46 P.M.
"It was dark, and it was deadly," the president said, with military experts speculating the raid utilized a blackout bomb, a munition that takes out electrical supply equipment.
VP Vance Didn't Want to 'Alert Spies'
Sources claimed VP Vance was not with Trump as the raid took place to avoid 'alerting spies to the coming invasion.'
Trump followed the operation from his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Interestingly, VP Vance was nowhere to be seen in photos from the tense makeshift situation room.
Sources claimed Vance met with Trump earlier that day but purposely left for his Cincinnati home, which was recently burglarized, to avoid alerting spies to the coming invasion.
Meanwhile, a helicopter flying only 100 feet above the water to avoid radar detection carried commandos to Maduro’s heavily fortified fortress, Fuerte Tiuna, where the cowardly leader and his wife scrambled to escape into a safe room.
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But they weren't quick enough.
"He got bum-rushed so fast that he didn't get into that," Trump noted of Maduro's capture.
The couple was then taken to the USS Iwo Jima, which was stationed around 100 miles offshore. American troops reportedly engaged in heavy gunfire after the pair was captured, but suffered no fatalities. By 3:30 A.M., all U.S. forces were safely out of the country, the CIA announced.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the mission for being "meticulously planned."
Maduro and his wife, who are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in Manhattan federal court, with the despot insisting, "I'm the president of Venezuela."
