US President Donald Trump has said American forces used a classified device called "discombobulator" during the January 3 raid in Caracas that abducted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Trump boasted the weapon “made (enemy) equipment not work” when US forces entered Caracas.

"They never got their rockets off. They had Russian and Chinese rockets, and they never got one off. We came in, they pressed buttons, and nothing worked. They were all set for us," he told the New York Post on Saturday.

He did not disclose any more details about the system. "The discombobulator. I'm not allowed to talk about it," the US president said.

He earlier characterised the technology as a "secret sonic weapon" that "nobody else has."

Claims about the device emerged in a social media post cited by White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, featuring an unnamed Venezuelan security official's account of the attack.

The official alleged all radar systems suddenly shut down, claiming to have sensed something resembling an intense sound wave that made his head feel like it would explode.

Oil

The United States has taken the oil that was seized from Venezuelan tankers and will process it in US refineries, Trump said.

“Let’s put it this way, they don’t have any oil. We take the oil,” Trump told the newspaper on Saturday.

The oil is being refined in “various places”, including Houston, he said.

The US military has seized seven Venezuela-linked tankers since the start of Trump's month-long campaign to control Venezuela's oil flows.

Trump said on Tuesday that his administration had taken 50 million barrels of oil out of Venezuela and was selling some of it in the open market.