Trump touts ‘brilliant’ Venezuela attack in remarks at House Republicans retreat

Donald Trump has received rapturous acclaim from congressional Republicans as he touted a “brilliant” and “incredible” attack on Venezuela that led to the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The US president is facing accusations from former allies, such as ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, that he abandoned his “America First” commitment to avoid foreign entanglements and eschew regime change.

But when Trump delivered a near 90-minute speech to House Republicans at their annual retreat in Washington on Tuesday, he was given a warm reception and there was little sign that the deadly weekend assault on Venezuela had caused cracks in his support.

“It was an amazing military feat that took place,” Trump said, prompting a whoop from the audience and sustained applause. “Well, thank you. You know, people are saying it goes down with one of the most incredible – it was so complex, 152 airplanes – many talk about boots on the ground – we had a lot of boots on the ground but it was amazing.”

The president celebrated the lack of fatalities among US special forces while acknowledging that troops guarding Maduro died in the assault. “Nobody was killed, and on the other side a lot of people were killed. Unfortunately: I say that.

“Soldiers – Cubans, mostly Cubans, but many, many killed, and they knew we were coming and they were protected and our guys weren’t. You know, our guys are jumping out of helicopters and they’re not protected, and they were. But it was so brilliant.”

Trump complained that Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, and other Democrats failed to thank him for removing a repressive dictator. He then earned laughter from House Republicans by making reference to Maduro’s dancing.

“They’ve been after this guy for years and years and years and you know he’s a violent guy. He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit. But he’s a violent guy and he’s killed millions of people. They have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they’re closing up, but he’s tortured people.”

Maduro regularly appeared on stage dancing to a techno remix of his mantra “no war, yes peace” as US forces massed in the Caribbean in late 2025. Trump is known for bopping to the disco song YMCA at his rallies.

The New York Times has reported that Maduro’s regular public dancing and other displays of indifference helped convince some in Trump’s inner circle that he was mocking them and failing to take their threats seriously.

The president went on to claim, without evidence, that the “radical left” have paid protesters to carry “Free Maduro” signs. “Do you know they’re paid when they have brand new beautiful printed signs by like the highest quality printer?”

Trump was speaking at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, recently renamed by his handpicked board as the “Trump-Kennedy Center”, to rally House Republicans ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.

Republicans must win, he warned, or he will be impeached by Democrats for a historic third time. “You gotta win the midterms ‘cos, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be – I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” he said. “I’ll get impeached.”

He urged Republicans: “You have so many good nuggets. You have to use them. If you can sell them we’re going to win. We’ve had the most successful first year of any president in history and it should be a positive.”

Trump’s digressive, freewheeling speech came on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 US Capitol attack by supporters furious at what he falsely claimed was a fraudulent election loss to Joe Biden in 2020. He was impeached for the second time over the riot.

Trump claimed: “Do you know that the news never reported the words, ‘Walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol’ … they never reported it – it’s a scandal. The unselect committee never reported that. They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 soldiers.”

Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 rioters on his first day back in office last January. On Tuesday, he repeated his false claim, “the election was rigged”, told Republicans to insist on voter ID, and again railed against mail-in voting.

He also mused about unconstitutionally seeking a third term as president. “I guess I’m not allowed to run,” he said. “I’m not sure. Is there a little something out there that I’m not allowed to run? But let’s assume I was allowed to run. There’s gonna be a constitutional movement.”

Now 79, Trump claimed that he had successfully passed cognitive tests that Democrats such as Tim Walz, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom would surely fail. “Do you think Walz could pass a cognitive test? Do you think Kamala could? I don’t think Gavin could. He’s got a good line of crap but, other than that, he couldn’t pass.”

He also returned to the theme of his dancing. While discussing his administration’s banning of transgender women from women’s and girls’ sports, Trump performed an exaggerated imitation of what he said was a trans weightlifter. “My wife hates when I do this,” he said. “She said: ‘It’s so unpresidential.’”

Trump added: “She hates it when I dance.” He also asked: “Could you imagine FDR dancing?” President Franklin D Roosevelt, who was in office from 1933 until 1945, was paralysed from the waist down by polio in 1921 and used a wheelchair.