Who Was In Trump’s Mar-a-lago War Room For Maduro’s Ouster

Photos of major U.S. military operations, like the famous image of then-President Barack Obama receiving a briefing on the mission against Osama bin Laden, offer a rare glimpse into the rooms where history was made.

Usually, those pictures are taken in the White House situation room. Photos of the Trump administration’s weekend Venezuela war room took place at a more unusual location: Mar-a-Lago.

After the operation, the White House released a series of photos of President Donald Trump and top national security officials sitting on gold-backed chairs, monitoring the U.S. snatch-and-grab of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife from what appeared to be a makeshift situation room in Florida.

The photos are notable because of both who is and isn’t present, and because of the very different environment created by standing up an attack on a foreign country from Trump’s resort.

Alongside the president were the familiar faces of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

POLITICO identified some of the lesser-known people lining the back of the room: Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, and military assistant, Thomas Whitfield II; White House deputy chief of staff for operations William “Beau” Harrison; Naval Officer Marshall Boyd; and someone with the last name Mueller who appears to be a U.S. Air Force service member wearing a Joint Chiefs pin. POLITICO was not able to identify a 12th person pictured.

Notably absent: Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

A spokesperson for the vice president told NBC News over the weekend that while Vance was at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club on Friday and discussed the upcoming strikes with him there, he departed before the operation launched because of concerns that his motorcade's movement could alert the Venezuelans about the mission.

Vance quickly took to social media over the weekend to rebut criticisms of the operation, insisting that the raid was a legal operation and a counter-narcotics mission.

Gabbard — who has a history of vocal opposition to U.S. interference in Venezuela — has been relatively quiet on Maduro’s ouster.

On New Years day, a mere 72 hours before the operation launched, Gabbard posted a series of tranquil beach photos on her personal account on New Years Day with the caption “my heart is filled with gratitude, aloha and peace.”

Gabbard broke her dayslong silence on Maduro’s capture Tuesday, posting a congratulatory message on social media in which she lauded servicemembers “for their flawless execution of President Trump’s order to deliver on his promise thru Operation Absolute Resolve.”

And, despite the administration’s insistence that its capture of the Maduros was a law enforcement operation, two prominent law enforcement officials — FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi — do not appear in the photos.

The White House declined a request for comment for this story. However, a White House official asked about Patel and Bondi’s apparent absences said that "the president’s entire national security and law enforcement team was closely involved in the operation, as we have noted numerous times." The official was granted anonymity to discuss national security matters.

Former national security officials, granted anonymity to discuss typical security procedures for such moments, cautioned that the photos didn’t instill confidence in the room’s operational security.

One former official described the setup seen in the photos as “flimsy,” while another said the photos raised questions about whether the room met usual protocol for securing against intelligence threats.

But the White House official stressed that "White House staff built out the space to be secure for President Trump and his national security team in line with military protocols,” adding that such a space is always made available to Trump when he travels.

When any president is away from the White House and doesn’t have immediate access to the secure situation room, normal protocol involves setting up a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, in which the president and top officials can receive briefings from top military officials and monitor events as they unfold on the ground real time.

Outside of the security question, the former national security official pointed to one surprising element of the photos: An X page pulled up on the screen behind officials with the search bar reading “Venezuela.”

“It seemed like a pretty rudimentary way of tracking,” he said.

A version of this story previously appeared in POLITICO’s National Security Daily newsletter. Like this content? Consider signing up!