President Trump on Friday honored the troops and elite special forces soldiers who captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a brazen raid last month.
Speaking to the troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Mr. Trump delivered profuse thank yous and credited them for the foreign policy successes.
“With your help, America is winning again. America is respected again, and perhaps, most importantly, we are feared by our enemies all over the globe. They fear us,” Mr. Trump said in the roughly 30-minute speech.
He also met privately with the special forces soldiers from the mission.
In his speech, the president called the troops “the best warriors” in the world, saying they proved their mettle last month in a daring overnight raid in which American troops stormed the home of Mr. Maduro, capturing him and his wife.
Mr. Maduro and his wife are currently sitting in a New York City jail on federal drug trafficking charges.
First lady Melania Trump joined the president on the trip to Fort Bragg.
Mr. Trump had previously spoken at Fort Bragg in June as part of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary celebration.
“Some of our greatest soldiers — right here — to ever life, frankly, successfully captured the outlaw dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and brought him back to face American justice,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “That was amazing.”
The president recounted the Jan. 3 operation in which U.S. forces swooped in by helicopter under the cover of darkness to seize Maduro and wife, Cilia Flores, from a highly secured compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
No U.S. service members were killed in the operation, but 83 people charged with protecting Mr. Maduro died and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, which began with U.S. bombing raids on Venezuelan military targets.
“That night, the entire world saw what the full military might of the U.S. military is capable of,” he said.
Ahead of his visit to Fort Bragg, Mr. Trump said that he plans to visit Venezuela, though he did not give a time frame for when such a visit could happen.
“I’m going to make a visit to Venezuela,” he told reporters at the White House.
Mr. Trump said he hadn’t decided when he’d make the trip and offered no other details.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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