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Ahead of the overnight strikes, the US had accused Maduro of running a “narco-state” and rigging the 2024 election.
The Venezuelan leader, a 63-year-old former bus driver handpicked by the dying Hugo Chavez to succeed him in 2013, has denied those claims and said Washington was intent on taking control of his nation’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
US sources said Maduro was captured by special operations forces and whisked by helicopters to the Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship in the Caribbean, ahead of his transfer to New York.
The 79-year-old Republican posted a picture of Maduro in custody on a US naval ship wearing a blindfold, handcuffs and what looked like noise-canceling ear muffs. He and his wife were being taken to New York to face narcotics and terrorism charges.
US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, posted on social media: “the hour of freedom has arrived.”
She called for the opposition’s candidate in the 2024 election, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, to “immediately” assume the presidency.
But Trump scotched any expectation that Machado should emerge as Venezuela’s new leader. She doesn’t have “support or respect” there, he said.
He indicated he could instead work with Maduro’s deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, saying “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.”
Trump also made clear that the US presence is unlikely to be short.
“We’re there now, but we’re going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.”
Venezuelans had been bracing for attacks as US forces, including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, spent months massing off the coast.
Caracas residents woke to explosions and the whir of military helicopters around 2:00am (0600 GMT). Airstrikes hit a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, for nearly an hour, AFP journalists said.
The bombing turned out to be only part of the more ambitious plan to topple Maduro and bring him to US soil to face narco-trafficking charges.
Trump said the assault began with a partial blackout caused by US “expertise.”
The top US military officer, General Dan Caine, said 150 aircraft took part in the operation, supporting troops helicoptering in to seize Machado with the help of months of intelligence into the leader’s daily habits -- down to “what he ate” and what pets he kept.
Maduro, 63, and his wife “gave up” without a struggle and there was “no loss of US life,” he said.
The US and numerous European governments already did not recognize Maduro’s legitimacy, saying he stole elections both in 2018 and 2024.
Maduro was captured by a team that included elite US special forces, including the US Army’s Delta Force, a US official told Reuters. Republican US Senator Mike Lee said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had told him Maduro would stand trial on criminal charges in the US and that no further action was anticipated inside Venezuela.
Maduro was indicted in US federal court in 2020 on narco-terrorism and other charges for running what prosecutors called a scheme to send tonnes of cocaine to the US through an alleged “Cartel de Los Soles”. He has always denied that.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X about Maduro and his wife.
In the run-up, Trump had sought a “blockade” of Venezuelan oil, expanded sanctions against the Maduro government and staged more than two dozen strikes on vessels the US alleges were involved in trafficking drugs, killing more than 110 people.
It was unclear under what legal authority the latest US strikes were carried out.
Trump’s move risks a backlash from the US Congress, which has the constitutional right to declare war, and from his own political base, which favours an “America first” policy and largely opposes military intervention abroad.