Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia were captured by a unit of elite Delta Force soldiers while they slept in their beds.
The left-wing leader, who will now stand trial in New York City on drugs and weapons charges, was taken in the early hours of Saturday morning, CNN reported.
A source told the network the operation – which struck five Venezuelan sites including three in the country’s capital Caracas – did not result in any casualties.
Trump said the Maduros have been taken to the USS Iwo Jima assault ship and that they’ll later be transported to New York City.
He hailed the operation as ‘brilliant’ in a brief New York Times interview early Saturday.
The president later called into Fox News‘s breakfast show Fox & Friends, excitedly telling its hosts: ‘I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show. If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence – it was an amazing thing.’
President Trump says he will hold a press conference from his Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida, at 11:30am ET on Saturday.
Explosions were seen ripping across Caracas during the daring raid, with Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Saab insisting that ‘innocents’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the US operation.