As part of the dramatic operation early on Satuday that knocked out electricity in parts of Caracas and included strikes on military installations, US Special Forces seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and transported them via helicopter to a US Navy ship offshore before flying them to the US.

"We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," Trump told a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

For months, his administration criticized Maduro, 63, over what it called his involvement in shipping drugs to the US It ramped up pressure with a massive military build-up in the Caribbean and a series of deadly missile attacks on alleged drug-running boats.

While many Western allies oppose Maduro and say he stole Venezuela's 2024 election, Trump's boasts about controlling the nation and exploiting its oil revived painful memories of past US interventions in Latin America, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some legal experts questioned the legality of an operation to seize the head of state of a foreign power, while Democrats who said they were misled during recent Congress briefings demanded a plan for what is to follow.

Trump said as part of the takeover, major US oil companies would move back into Venezuela, which has the world's largest oil reserves, and refurbish badly degraded oil infrastructure, a process experts said could take years.

He said he was open to sending US forces into Venezuela. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground," he said. 

A plane carrying Maduro landed near New York City on Saturday night, and he was helicoptered to the city before being taken by a large convoy to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn under a heavy police guard.

Images released by US authorities showed the leader handcuffed and blindfolded during the flight, and later being led down a hallway at the offices of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, where he was heard wishing a "happy New Year."

Indicted on various federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, Maduro expected to make an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on Monday, according to a Justice Department official.

It is unclear how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela. US forces have no control over the country, and Maduro's government appears not only to still be in charge but to have no appetite for cooperating with Washington.

Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, appeared on Venezuelan television on Saturday afternoon with other top officials to decry what she called a kidnapping. 

“We demand the immediate release of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores," Rodriguez said, calling Maduro "the only president of Venezuela." A Venezuelan court ordered Rodriguez to assume the position of interim president.

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