Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia, were reportedly captured by a specialized Delta Force unit while they were asleep in their bedroom. The left-wing leader was arrested in the early hours of Saturday and stood trial in New York City on drug and weapons charges, according to CNN.
A source told the network that the coordinated operation targeted five locations across Venezuela, including three in the capital, Caracas, and was carried out without any loss of life. Trump said that the Maduros were taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima, an assault ship, and later flown to New York City, where he appeared in court along with his wife.
Arrested from Bed
Trump praised the mission as "brilliant" in a short interview with The New York Times early Saturday. He later phoned into Fox News' morning show Fox & Friends, sounding energized as he described watching the operation unfold. "I mean, I watched it literally like I was watching a television show," he said. "If you would've seen the speed, the violence — it was an amazing thing."
The president also announced that he will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Meanwhile, explosions were reported across Caracas during the high-risk raid. Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab claimed that civilians were caught in the violence, saying "innocents" had been "mortally wounded" as a result of the U.S. operation.
The developments come at a sensitive moment. On Friday, Maduro said he was willing to negotiate an agreement with the United States aimed at tackling drug trafficking in a bid to avoid capture.
Speaking to a Spanish journalist, Maduro said: "The American people should know they have a friendly, peaceful people here, and a friendly government as well.
"They should know that our message is very clear: 'Not War. Yes Peace.'"
In the same interview, Maduro said he was open to cooperating with the United States to help curb drug trafficking. Trump, however, has accused Maduro of leading a narcotics cartel that he says has flooded the U.S. with illegal drugs.
Speaking to The New York Times at around 4:30 a.m. on Saturday—just nine minutes after announcing the raid on his Truth Social account—Trump credited the operation to careful preparation and the efforts of what he called "great, great troops and great people."
"It was a brilliant operation, actually."
Not That Difficult
Maduro appeared in a Manhattan court on Saturday and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same federal jail currently housing Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO.
Despite Maduro's past claims that he was prepared for any assault, U.S. forces reportedly met little resistance from the Venezuelan military during the operation.
The security-conscious Maduros had been under CIA surveillance in the days before their capture, and Trump authorized the mission just two days earlier, according to CNN.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has since demanded "proof of life," raising fears that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, may have been killed during the operation.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab echoed those concerns, accusing the United States of carrying out a "criminal terrorist attack" and claiming that innocent civilians were fatally wounded while others were killed. He urged the public to respond with peaceful protests.
Trump, who campaigned as an anti-war "president of peace," now faces potential backlash from parts of his MAGA base, as the dramatic action against oil-rich Venezuela could prove controversial.
