Flanked by top military and government officials and with his steely gaze fixed on the mission at hand, President Donald Trump sat at the center of his Mar-A-Lago situation room as commandos flew into Venezuela and extracted Nicolás Maduro.
But key figures were notably absent from the dramatic black-and-white photo set released by the White House, revealing the figures most involved in the successful operation.
Since the president was at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, the group of top officials gathered in a temporary sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) at the president’s Palm Beach club to watch the US military perform ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’.
On the president’s right was CIA Director John Ratcliffe and on his left was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Further to the left was Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, one of the president’s closest advisers on Venezuela.
Meanwhile there was no sign of Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who previously expressed vehement opposition to military intervention in Venezuela during the president’s first term. It is not known why she was not present and the Daily Mail approached her spokesperson for comment.
Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles was also not in the room, with no explanation as to why. Her absence came after she said in November that military action in Venezuela would need congressional approval – something the Trump administration did not receive before the ‘large scale strike’ on the country.
Vice President JD Vance was also nowhere to be seen at Trump’s Florida resort Friday night, instead monitoring the operation from another location.
The scenes during the daring mission were reminiscent of previous high-stakes national security moments, such as the famous photo of President Barack Obama and his advisers monitoring the military strike to take out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
In the 2011 situation room photo of Obama, the then-Vice President Joe Biden was seen sat next to the Democrat president, who was flanked by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top government and military officials.
The White House released photos Saturday afternoon of President Donald Trump (center left) at a Mar-a-Lago surrounded by key aides including CIA Director John Ratcliffe (left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right of Trump) and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller (right)
The president’s advisers monitor details of the successful military mission at Mar-a-Lago
President Donald Trump’s pictures from his temporary ‘situation room’ at Mar-a-Lago were compared to this image from the actual White House Situation Room showing members of the Obama administration watching the Osama bin Laden raid in 2011
US President Donald Trump (C), alongside CIA Director John Ratcliffe (L) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R), watching ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’
Also present in Trump’s situation room were Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, America’s highest-ranking military officer.
Photos published by the White House showed the president’s military advisers pointing out details of the raid to the president and monitoring their laptop computers.
Hegseth was wearing a quarter-zip fleece under his suit coat while Caine was in civilian clothes, instead of his military uniform.
Rubio, who was deeply involved with Friday night’s operation, spent most of his Christmas vacation with the president to advise him on a host of foreign policy issues.
As the president’s national security adviser, Rubio received rave reviews from Trump shortly before Christmas for a lengthy press conference he gave setting out the administration’s foreign policy priorities.
Days earlier, the president had made final preparations to launch the mission, but his military leaders were waiting for the right conditions to strike.
Lena Shyrokova, a guest who was at Mar-a-Lago after attending the president’s New Year’s Eve party, told the Daily Mail she did not notice any more heightened security than usual.
‘It was a very festive evening and everybody was in amazing spirits,’ she said. ‘Everyone was very friendly and nice to each other … lots of dancing and fun.’
But after the party was over and many of the guests had left Mar-a-Lago, Trump gave the final order to launch on Friday, 10:46 p.m. ET.
The weekend raid was long anticipated by officials within the president’s Cabinet, but many were not personally present as the commander-in-chief launched the operation.
The late night raid kicked off on the final weekend of the holiday season, as some of the president’s closest staff members were still away due to previously scheduled vacations.
Vice President JD Vance had traveled from Cincinnati to the president’s golf club in Palm beach on Friday morning and spoke briefly with the president about the upcoming strikes, a spokesman to the vice president told the Daily Mail.
A handout picture made available by the White House Press Office shows US President Donald Trump alongside US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (left) and CIA Director John Ratcliffe (center), watching ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’
A handout picture made available by the White House Press Office shows US President Donald Trump (R) alongside CIA Director John Ratcliffe (L), watching ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’
The vice president remained off-site and did not travel to Mar-a-Lago for the operation, as news of his motorcade arriving at the club might have tipped off Venezuelans who were closely monitoring the president for any movement.
Vance monitored the operation with a secured video conference at an undisclosed location away from Mar-a-Lago before returning to Cincinnati.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House communications director Stephen Cheung spoke to the president prior to the raid and after, coordinating the president’s press response remotely according to a White House official.
Attorney General Pam Bondi monitored the raid from CENTCOM in Tampa, Florida, a senior administration official said.
On Saturday she announced on social media that both Maduro and his wife Cilia had been indicted in the Southern District of New York.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was not at Mar-a-lago a White House official confirmed, but did not specify where she was.
‘Susie was also obviously read in from the beginning and played a key role,’ the official told the Daily Mail.
The White House stressed that everyone on the president’s team was involved with the successful mission, even if they were not personally with the president at Mar-a-Lago.
‘Everyone named in this story played a key role in the operation’s incredible and historic success,’ White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told the Daily Mail.
On Saturday the president was joined by Miller, Ratcliffe, Rubio, Hegseth, and Caine at his press conference at Mar-a-Lago where he gave further details the operation.
Caine, by then wearing his military uniform, revealed a timeline of the mission, earning high praise for the president.
US President Donald Trump sitting next to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as they watch the US military operation in Venezuela
General Dan Cain details the mission operations to President Trump at Mar-a-Lago
A photograph posted by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account shows him in the room with his closest military advisors on the mission in Venezuela
‘This guy is fantastic,’ Trump said about Cain, praising him for the ‘most precise’ mission.
FBI Director Kash Patel, Senator Bernie Moreno, and the president’s friend Steve Witkoff were spotted at the press conference but did not join the president on stage for details of the successful mission.
The president called on Rubio multiple times during the press conference asking him to detail what the United States had in store for Venezuela and other countries in the region like Cuba.
Trump had nothing but praise for his team who helped operate the successful mission, but as the press conference continued, it was clear the work was not finished.
His team would be ‘running’ Venezuela, the president confirmed, until it was ‘back on track’.
‘Well, it’s largely going to be for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me,’ he told the press. ‘We’re gonna be running it. We’re gonna be bringing it back.’
