President Donald Trump has told the New York Post that a classified system he dubbed “the Discombobulator” was used during a U.S. raid on January 3 that, according to U.S. and Venezuelan accounts cited by the Post and later reported by The Daily Wire, ended with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, taken into U.S. custody. Key operational details—such as the weapon’s nature, the scale of casualties, and the status of Venezuela’s leadership—remain difficult to independently verify from official U.S. statements.
U.S. President Donald Trump said a classified technology he called “the Discombobulator” played a “decisive” role in the Jan. 3 operation in Caracas that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said the system prevented Venezuelan forces from using their weapons during the raid. “The Discombobulator. I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said from the Oval Office, before adding: “They never got their rockets off. They pressed buttons and nothing worked.” Trump also said Venezuelan forces had “Russian and Chinese rockets” but could not respond.
The Daily Wire, summarizing the Post interview and earlier accounts, reported that U.S. forces disabled Venezuelan air defenses, communications and command-and-control systems before inserting a small assault team into the capital. The outlet said the raid lasted 88 minutes and that the Pentagon reported no U.S. casualties.
The Daily Wire also reported that Venezuelan security personnel described disorientation and sudden system failures during the operation, citing the Post’s account of witnesses who likened the effects to an intense wave that caused severe pain and confusion. Those descriptions were presented as claims that could not be independently verified.
On casualties among Venezuelan defenders, the Daily Wire reported that U.S. officials said “hundreds” of Maduro loyalists were killed, but it did not cite a public Pentagon document or briefing detailing that figure.
The Daily Wire said Maduro, 63, is being held in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn awaiting trial on narcoterrorism charges, and that his longtime ally Delcy Rodríguez has assumed the role of interim president.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the mission as a demonstration of U.S. military and technological superiority and a warning to potential adversaries, the Daily Wire reported. Trump declined to provide technical details about the classified system, and the White House has not publicly released specifics about the technology he referenced.
