Trump: Secret Weapon Used in Venezuela 01/26 06:10

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump said the U.S. used a secret weapon 
he called "The Discombobulator" to disable Venezuelan equipment when the U.S. 
captured Nicols Maduro. Trump also renewed his threat to conduct military 
strikes on land against drug cartels, including in Mexico.

   Trump made the comments in an interview Friday with the New York Post.

   The Republican president was commenting on reports that the U.S. had a 
pulsed energy weapon and said, "The Discombobulator. I'm not allowed to talk 
about it."

   He said the weapon made Venezuelan equipment "not work."

   "They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and 
they never got one off," Trump said in the interview. "We came in, they pressed 
buttons and nothing worked. They were all set for us."

   Trump had previously said when describing the raid on Maduro's compound that 
the U.S. had turned off "almost all of the lights in Caracas," but he didn't 
detail how they accomplished that.

   The president also indicated the U.S. will continue its campaign of military 
strikes and could extend it from South America into North America as the 
administration tries to target drug cartels.

   "We know their routes. We know everything about them. We know their homes. 
We know everything about them," Trump said. "We're going to hit the cartels."

   When asked if the strikes could occur in Central America or Mexico, Trump 
said: "Could be anywhere."

   The U.S. on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat 
in the eastern Pacific Ocean, the first such action since Maduro's capture.

   It marks at least 36 known strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern 
Pacific since early September that have killed at least 117 people.

   Trump said the U.S. has removed the oil aboard seven oil tankers connected 
to Venezuela that it has seized but wouldn't reveal where the ships are now.

   "I'm not allowed to tell you," Trump said. "But let's put it this way, they 
don't have any oil. We take the oil."

   During the interview, the president also said that he was still trying to 
figure out where to hang the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to Venezuelan 
opposition leader Mara Corina Machado, which she gave to him earlier this 
month. The prize was leaning against a statue in the Oval Office.

   Trump also told the newspaper that the framework of an Arctic security deal 
he struck with NATO chief Mark Ruttte would give the U.S. ownership of the land 
where American bases are located.

   "We'll have everything we want," Trump said. "We have some interesting talks 
going on."

   Much of the potential deal remains unclear. Leaders of Denmark and Greenland 
have said the island's sovereignty was non-negotiable and a NATO spokesperson 
said Rutte, in his conversations with Trump, did not propose any "compromise to 
sovereignty."

   The president said he would not go to the Super Bowl and called it a 
"terrible choice" for Bad Bunny and Green Day to perform at the game. He 
attended last year's Super Bowl in New Orleans.