FORT BRAGG, N.C. — President Donald Trump headed to North Carolina on Friday where he honored members of the special forces who stormed into Venezuela last month and whisked away Nicolás Maduro, the leader of the South American country, to face drug smuggling charges in the United States.
The president and first lady Melania Trump visited Fort Bragg, military families, and honored service members involved in what the president described as a dramatic operation in Venezuela.
Standing before hundreds of troops, Trump praised the U.S. military’s strength and precision, saying, “that night, the entire world saw what the full might the U.S. military is capable of.”
The visit centered on recognizing special operations forces who carried out what the White House called Operation Absolute Resolve, a mission Trump said led to the capture of Maduro.
“Last month we proved this truth once again when some of our greatest soldiers, right here to ever live, frankly, successfully captured the outlaw dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro,” Trump said.
Hundreds of troops from the 18th Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne Division attended the event, applauding as the president recognized the special forces involved in the mission.
Trump described the operation as unprecedented.
“We did recently in Venezuela, nobody ever saw anything like that happening. A Venezuelan general who was on the site, but he moved out fast enough that he lived … most of them didn’t,” he said.
Fort Bragg is home to the Joint Special Operations Command, which oversaw the mission. According to officials, the operation was notable for its precision. Delta Force operators rehearsed the extraction in a full-scale replica of Maduro’s compound and practiced the layout in total darkness.
Trump also pledged continued investment in the armed forces.
“That’s why this year we’re investing also $1 trillion in our armed forces. We’re also purchasing 30 new and modified Abrams tanks,” he said.
At one point, Trump joked about moving to Fort Bragg with the first lady, drawing laughter from the crowd.
The event had a celebratory tone, with many service members cheering and later taking selfies with the president. Overall, Trump’s visit to celebrate service members resonated with most of them.
Earlier Friday, as he left the White House, Trump cheered government data showing that inflation fell to nearly a five-year low last month as the increase in apartment rental prices slowed and gas prices declined.
“The numbers were surprising, except to me they weren’t surprising,” Trump told reporters. “We have very modest inflation, which is what you want to have.”
Trump has traveled more frequently to states that could play key roles in November’s midterm congressional elections, including a stop before Christmas in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The White House has been trying to promote Trump’s economic policies, including attempts to bring down the cost of living at a time when many people are growing frustrated with his efforts to improve affordability.
The president spoke at Fort Bragg in June at an event meant to recognize the 250th anniversary of the Army. But that celebration was overshadowed by his partisan remarks describing protesters in Los Angeles as “animals” and his defense of deploying the military there.
Trump has since deployed the National Guard to places such as the nation’s capital and Memphis, Tennessee, as well as other federal law enforcement officials involved in his crackdown on immigration. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, announced Thursday that the administration is ending the operations in Minnesota that led to the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens.
“The blue cities are the cities that are unsafe,” Trump said Friday, referring to areas run by Democrats.
Rather than push for elections in Venezuela, Trump says his administration is inviting top oil companies there to rebuild its energy industry. U.S. officials also have seized tankers as part of their broad oversight of the country’s oil industry.
“The relationship is strong, the oil is coming out,” Trump said Friday. He added, “We have our big oil companies going in, they’re going to be pumping out the oil and selling the oil for a lot of money.”
Trump plans a Florida gathering next month of leaders from a number of Latin American countries as the administration spotlights what it sees as concerning Chinese influence in the region.
ABC11’s Penelope Lopez and The Associated Press contributed.
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