President Trump posted a photograph on social media on Saturday that he said was of the captured Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, on board a U.S. warship hours after the United States seized him in Caracas.
The picture showed a man in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, blindfolded and handcuffed with a bottle of water in his right hand.
“Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima,” Mr. Trump captioned the photo, minutes before he addressed the nation from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, and announced that America was “going to run” Venezuela.
The U.S.S. Iwo Jima is an amphibious assault ship and one of the American warships that have been prowling the Caribbean in recent weeks; it brought aboard survivors of an American boat strike in October.
Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken from Caracas, the capital, by helicopter to the Iwo Jima, the president said in an interview with “Fox and Friends.”
“A nice flight,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m sure they loved it. But they’ve killed a lot of people.”
Mr. Maduro and his wife were en route Saturday to New York, where they will face indictments charging them with narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
The photo of what appears to be Mr. Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed was striking as it was the first photo of the captured leader made public after the attack. It came hours after Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Mr. Maduro’s vice president, demanded the United States provide proof that Mr. Maduro and his wife were still alive.
Mr. Trump said he and his team had watched the raid on video feeds as it occurred, subsequently posting what appeared to be photos of himself and other senior cabinet members, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, watching the attack in real time.
Iconic photos documenting key moments in American military operations have often come from the Situation Room in the White House, where former President Barack Obama and his national security team observed the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, and Mr. Trump and his team monitored the operation that eliminated Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of the Islamic State, during his first term. Photos of those targets, who were both killed, were not released to the public.
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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