President Trump launches large-scale attack on Venezuela

U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife overnight in the midst of an astonishingly large-scale attack on the country. U.S. authorities announced Saturday morning that the couple had been indicted in New York on drug trafficking charges.

In an early morning post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said the US military operation was carried out in coordination with US law enforcement officials.

“The United States successfully launched a major attack on Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who was captured and expelled from the country along with his wife. This operation was conducted in coordination with U.S. law enforcement,” Trump said.

President Trump is scheduled to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the attack on Venezuela. Before the press conference began, the president appeared to post a video of the operation on Truth Social.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were indicted in the Southern District of New York.

According to Bondi’s post, the Maduros are charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of weapons and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.

“They will soon face the full wrath of the American judiciary on American soil and in American courts,” she wrote.

CBS News reported that the US Army’s elite Delta Force unit was involved in the capture of Mr Maduro.

President Trump said in an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Saturday that the U.S. suffered some injuries but no deaths, and that weather conditions forced U.S. forces to wait four days before launching the attack.

President Trump also said that after their capture, the Maduros would be transferred to Iwo Jima and then flown to New York to face narco-terrorism charges.

“They’re going to New York… They’re going to get on a ship and go to New York. A helicopter will take them away,” the president said.

The Pentagon declined to answer CNBC’s questions, referring questions to the White House. The White House, which reposted President Trump’s “Society of Truth” statement on the X account, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who had previously questioned the constitutionality of the U.S. attack, said on Saturday’s X-Post that he was told by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. operation was “deployed to protect and protect the arrest warrant enforcers.”

“This action is likely within the President’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. military personnel from actual or threatened attack,” Lee added.

Meanwhile, Rubio responded to the operation by reposting a statement he made in July 2025 on social media, saying, “Mr. Maduro is not the president of Venezuela, and his regime is not the legitimate government. Mr. Maduro is the head of the Cartel de los Soles, a narco-terrorist organization that has taken over the country. And he is charged with pushing drugs into the United States.”

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a post on X that Maduro “will ultimately be brought to justice for his crimes.”

There was no immediate confirmation from the Venezuelan government.

Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, in an interview with state TV station Venezlana de Televisión, demanded that the United States provide proof that Maduro and his wife are alive.

President Maduro’s official Facebook page posted a video stating that the attacks occurred in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, according to a Google translation of the Spanish-language statement.

The statement in the video added that the United States’ goal of owning Venezuela’s oil and minerals will fail, adding that President Maduro has declared a national emergency and mobilized the National Defense Force.

The official spokesperson for Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Colina Machado, who heads the Venezuelan rebel group, said in a post on X that she would not comment on the operation.

President Trump told the New York Times that the operation was the result of “a lot of good planning.”

“Actually, it was a great operation,” Trump told the Times.

An explosion was reported in the Venezuelan capital Caracas at around 2 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT), according to images circulating on social media, but could not be independently confirmed.

Oil production and refining at Venezuela’s state energy company PDVSA is normal and initial assessments indicate no damage to major facilities, two sources familiar with the company’s operations told Reuters.

The port of La Guaira near Caracas, one of the country’s largest but not used for oil operations, was reportedly severely damaged, Reuters reported.

President Trump has repeatedly threatened action against President Maduro. On December 23, 2025, he said it would be “wise” for Maduro to leave power.

Last month, President Trump announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters, saying Venezuela was “completely surrounded by the largest armada in South American history.”

The strategy to put pressure on Mr. Maduro comes as the United States and Venezuelan opposition parties claim that Mr. Maduro rigged elections last year to stay in power. Trump also accused Maduro of running a “narcostate.”

In a post on X, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Caracas was under attack and called for an emergency meeting between the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chávez in 2013, has said the US government wants control of the world’s largest oil reserves.

—CNBC’s Terry Cullen contributed to this report.

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