President Donald Trump reportedly said a potential war with Venezuela remains on the table as his administration ramps up pressure on the socialist regime, escalating tensions in the region through aggressive maritime enforcement and military action.
“I don’t rule it out, no,” Trump told NBC News during a phone interview Thursday, when asked directly whether the situation with Venezuela could lead to war.
The comments came just days after Trump ordered what he described as a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. In a forceful message posted Tuesday night on Truth Social, Trump said Venezuela is now encircled by what he called the largest armada ever assembled in South American history. He warned that the pressure campaign would intensify unless the country returns assets he claims were stolen from the United States.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
The administration’s actions have not been limited to maritime blockades. The Department of War has continued air strikes targeting alleged drug trafficking boats operating in the region. According to officials, those operations have already destroyed more than two dozen vessels and resulted in the deaths of over 100 suspected smugglers, signaling an aggressive posture against criminal activity tied to Venezuela.
Despite the escalating actions, Trump told NBC News that he does not discuss whether his decisions could lead to an all-out war. Pressed further, however, he acknowledged that such a conflict is possible and made clear that the United States intends to keep seizing Venezuelan oil shipments.
The president referenced a recent high-profile seizure to underscore his point. “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large — largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump said last week. He declined to provide a timeline for how long the current standoff might last, saying the outcome depends on Venezuela’s actions.
“If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along,” Trump said, “they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors.”
Trump has repeatedly accused Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of running what he has designated a terrorist government. As part of that stance, the president has placed a $50 million bounty on information leading to Maduro’s arrest, further escalating the confrontation between Washington and Caracas.
The president has also labeled Maduro as the head of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles, which the administration has designated as a terrorist organization. The designation reflects Trump’s long-standing claim that the Venezuelan government is deeply intertwined with organized crime and narcotics trafficking.
Despite the rhetoric and mounting pressure, Trump stopped short of saying whether his ultimate goal is to remove Maduro from power. The two leaders reportedly spoke by phone last month to discuss the possibility of a meeting in Washington, D.C., according to The New York Times. The White House has declined to disclose details of that conversation or what, if any, agreements were discussed.
When asked about Maduro’s understanding of U.S. demands, Trump was characteristically blunt. “He knows exactly what I want,” the president told NBC. “He knows better than anybody.”
With U.S. forces seizing tankers, conducting air strikes, and enforcing a sweeping blockade, Trump’s comments suggest the administration is prepared to keep all options on the table as it confronts what it views as a hostile and criminal regime just miles from American shores.
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