The Trump administration has come under intense scrutiny over its approach to Venezuela after this week shifting its focus to the beleaguered country, considering the first U.S. military strike against the Latin American nation in more than 35 years.
President Trump scheduled a meeting with generals and Cabinet members at the White House on Monday night to discuss the targeting options currently available for deployment to the Caribbean.
President Trump has sent conflicting signals to Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, who has devastated Venezuela’s economy and sparked a massive migrant crisis since 2013. Before his weekend phone call with Maduro, President Trump warned to keep air traffic away from Venezuela, but only warned reporters trying to interpret his actions to predict his next move.
Whether President Trump will choose war with Venezuela is a source of alarm on Capitol Hill as new revelations about his team’s tactics to escalate the conflict arise.
The White House has accused Maduro of driving migrants and drugs across the U.S. border and has begun to pressure the regime with military strikes targeting maritime vessels (in international waters but departing from Venezuela) that the Pentagon says are used to smuggle illegal drugs.
The Washington Post reported that the first attack on alleged drug traffickers was carried out on September 2, and included a second attack in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered “kill them all.”
In response to the Post’s report, the Republican-led House and Senate committees that oversee the Pentagon pledged to “strictly monitor” the boat crash. President Trump told reporters on Sunday that he “didn’t want” the military to launch a second attack to kill those who survived the first attack.
“The first attack was very deadly. There was no problem. As long as there were two people around, it would have been fine,” President Trump said, quickly adding, “But Pete said that didn’t happen. I have a lot of faith in Pete.”
However, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt confirmed Monday that multiple attacks on targets that day were authorized by Hegseth.
Levitt said at a news conference that he authorized Gen. Frank M. Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, to carry out the attack “within his authority and the law to destroy the boat and ensure that the threat to the United States is eliminated.”
Trump also acknowledged speaking by phone with Maduro, but declined to elaborate on what was discussed.
“I can’t say it went well or badly,” President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It was a phone call.”
The revelation of the conversation comes as the government intensifies its pressure campaign on Caracas over the holidays, starting with a series of warnings from the president.
President Trump warned airlines and pilots on Saturday that the airspace over and around Venezuela should be considered “.
President Trump told reporters he made this declaration “because we think Venezuela is not a very friendly country.” But when asked whether his warning meant a U.S. airstrike on Venezuela was imminent, Trump told reporters, “Don’t read too much into it.”
Jeff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group, said there was no guarantee that a meeting with Mr. Maduro would lead to him stepping down, or that the Trump administration would be satisfied with any other outcome.
President Maduro could sell President Trump access to U.S. oil companies, perhaps at the expense of Russian and Chinese competitors, without any moves toward democracy in Venezuela, an outcome that would disappoint many in Caracas calling for a change in leadership.
“The obvious challenge here is what kind of negotiations Caracas and Washington want to negotiate. So far, the Trump administration has expressed interest in negotiating on which plane Maduro will take out of the country,” Ramsey said. “This is clearly not a start for President Maduro, so I think this stalemate will continue until we see clear flexibility from Washington and Caracas.”
President Maduro has consistently refused to step down despite U.S. sanctions, mass protests and punishment for various attacks during the first Trump administration that the Caracas government labeled as coup attempts. “The reality is that many previous attempts to condition negotiations on President Maduro’s immediate resignation have yielded no results,” he added.
There is no sign that support for Mr. Maduro is weakening within the military, and there has been no mass defection within the security forces of the sort seen in 2019, when Trump initially sought to oust Mr. Maduro during his first term. At that time, direct military attacks were refrained.
Hours after the president’s remarks, Mr. Hegseth posted a doctored image of a character from a children’s book firing a machine gun at what appeared to be a drug-smuggling vessel. The mock book cover title was “The Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narco-Terrorists.”
Hegseth posted the image on social media with the caption: “On my Christmas wishlist…”
A spokesperson for Kids Can Press, which publishes the Franklin the Turtle books, condemned Hegseth’s use of “a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and symbolized kindness, empathy and inclusion.”
“We strongly condemn any defamatory, violent or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image that directly contradicts these values,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
President Trump on Friday announced plans to pardon the former president of Honduras, who was convicted last year on cocaine trafficking charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison, sparking further controversy in the region.
US prosecutor Hernández accepted millions of dollars in bribes to help traffickers smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. They claimed that a right-wing president once boasted that the stuffing would “stuff drugs up a gringo’s nose.”
President Trump said Mr. Hernández was a victim of political persecution, but offered no evidence of that.
News of the pardon shocked many people in Latin America and raised new doubts about President Trump’s U.S. military operations in the region. White House officials say the goal is to fight drug cartels, which they compare to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) accused President Trump of hypocrisy for releasing a convicted drug smuggler and suggested that the ongoing U.S. military operation in the region is politically motivated.
“Don’t tell me Donald Trump is on a boat in the Caribbean killing people to stop drug trafficking,” Castro said on the X show.
While President Trump’s ultimate goals in Venezuela are unclear, his aspirations in Honduras are clear.
Ahead of Sunday’s presidential election in the Central American country, President Trump endorsed Nasry “Tito” Asfulura, a conservative candidate from the National Party, of which Hernández is a member. Early voting results on Monday showed Asfullah with a narrow lead over Liberal candidate Salvador Nasrallah.
Times staff writers Willner and Ceballos reported from Washington, and Linthicome and McDonnell reported from Mexico City.
