President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States was prepared to mount a second attack on Venezuela if need be — though he suggested it was no longer necessary after military personnel were able to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid.
“We were prepared to do a second wave if we needed to do so — we actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not,” Trump said in remarks from Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday as he recounted the operation.
“The first wave, if you’d like to call it that, the first attack was so successful, we probably don’t have to do a second, but we’re prepared to do a second wave, a much bigger wave, actually,” he continued.
The president reiterated comments that the operation conducted in the early hours of Saturday morning, which saw elite US forces drag Maduro and his wife from their bedroom, was as “pinpoint” operation.
And he added that subsequent military operations in Venezuela were in the planning phase but that the administration “probably won’t have to do” them.
