In an interview with the New York Post published Saturday, Trump described the device as a key factor in neutralising Venezuelan defences.
'The Discombobulator. I'm not allowed to talk about it,' he said. 'They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off. We came in, they pressed buttons, and nothing worked. They were all set for us.'
The operation, carried out on January 3, resulted in the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at their Caracas compound. Trump has previously described how U.S. personnel used cyber tools to knock out power across the capital, leaving Venezuelan forces largely incapacitated.
While the U.S. military possesses a directed-energy weapon known as the Active Denial System, which emits an invisible radio frequency beam causing a burning sensation, it is unclear whether this was the technology Trump referenced.
Beyond Venezuela, Trump reiterated that the U.S. could extend military strikes against drug cartels to North America. 'We know their routes. We know everything about them. We know their homes. We know everything about them. We're going to hit the cartels,' he said. Asked whether these strikes could occur in Central America or Mexico, Trump responded: 'Could be anywhere.'
On Friday, the U.S. conducted a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, marking at least 36 known strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since early September that have killed at least 117 people.
Trump also said that the U.S. has seized oil aboard seven Venezuelan tankers, though he did not disclose the ships' current locations. 'I'm not allowed to tell you,' he said. 'But let's put it this way, they don't have any oil. We take the oil.'
Wycliffe Nyamasege
