President Donald Trump said Saturday the United States military could have killed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro during its overnight operation if necessary.
“It could have happened,” Trump told reporters at a news conference at his Florida estate. “He was trying to get into a safe place. You know, the safe place’s all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.”
Trump reiterated how the US military “went through the opposition so fast,” while also noting that “there was a lot of opposition.”
“People were wondering, do we get them by surprise? Sort of surprised, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire,” he said.
Maduro is aboard the USS Iwo Jima ship, and Trump posted an image of him in US custody shortly before the news conference began.
