America’s enemies are always up to something. And sometimes a swift attack is the only option.
Now President Trump is set to decide on massive military strikes against this foreign nation.
Trump Weighs Military Strikes Against Venezuelan Cartels
President Trump is weighing the option of launching precision military strikes inside Venezuela, targeting powerful drug cartels that prop up dictator Nicolás Maduro’s crumbling regime.
The move would signal a bold escalation in Washington’s ongoing campaign to curb the flow of narcotics into the United States while tightening pressure on Maduro’s illegitimate hold on power.
Although Trump has not yet ordered direct strikes on Venezuelan soil, U.S. officials confirmed that Tuesday’s destruction of a cartel-operated smuggling vessel—carried out by American forces—was only the beginning of a larger effort to dismantle the Maduro-backed narco-state.
“The preferred course of action is for Maduro to leave on his own, to read the tea leaves,” one source familiar with the administration’s thinking explained. “And then I think the message is ‘Do you want it to be easy or do you want it to be hard?’”
U.S. Forces Step Up in the Caribbean
The U.S. Navy has reinforced its presence in the Caribbean with at least eight warships, reflecting Trump’s hardline stance against cartels operating under the Venezuelan flag.
Acting on Trump’s orders, U.S. forces carried out an airstrike against a boat crewed by “positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists,” eliminating all 11 aboard.
Venezuelan forces attempted to respond by flying warplanes over an American ship in what the Pentagon called a “highly provocative move.” Trump’s answer was blunt: “I don’t want to talk about that, but if they do put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down.”
To bolster America’s position, sources confirmed that 10 F-35 fighter jets will soon be stationed in Puerto Rico, a deployment meant to send a clear message to Maduro and his cartel allies.
Cracking Down on Maduro’s Narco-State
While Trump emphasized that regime change is not his stated goal, he pointed to Venezuela’s fraudulent elections, remarking, “We’re not talking about that. But we are talking about the fact that \[Venezuela] had an election, which was a very strange election, to put it mildly.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went further, calling Maduro’s government illegitimate: “The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel, and Maduro, it is the view of this administration, is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.”
She added that Trump “is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice.”
