WASHINGTON- The Trump administration is facing scrutiny this week over its approach to Venezuela, after turning its attention to the besieged country and considering U.S. military strikes against a Latin American state for the first time in more than 35 years.
President Trump scheduled a meeting with top generals and Cabinet officials on the issue Monday evening at the White House, discussing the targeting options now available with the deployment of more than a dozen warships to the Caribbean Sea.
Trump has sent mixed signals to the country’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, whose grip on power since 2013 has decimated Venezuela’s economy and caused a massive migration crisis. Trump warned air traffic away from Venezuelan skies before speaking on the phone with Maduro this weekend, only to caution journalists who were trying to interpret his actions by not predicting his next moves.
The question of whether Trump will choose to go to war with Venezuela has become a source of concern on Capitol Hill as new revelations emerge about his team’s tactics to escalate the conflict.
The White House has accused Maduro of driving migrants and drugs across U.S. borders and has begun pressuring his government with military strikes targeting maritime vessels — in international waters, but departing from Venezuela — that the Defense Department says have been used to smuggle illegal narcotics.
The first of these attacks targeting suspected drug traffickers, carried out on September 2, included a second strike ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “kill them all,” according to a Washington Post report.
The Post’s report prompted the House and Senate Republican committees that oversee the Pentagon to promise “rigorous oversight” of boat strikes. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he “would not have wanted” the military to launch a second strike to kill those who survived the initial attack.
“The first strike was very deadly, everything was fine, and if there were two people around,” Trump said before quickly adding, “but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in Pete.”
Yet White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Monday that several strikes were authorized by Hegseth against the target that day.
Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank M. Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, to conduct strikes “well within his authority and the law to ensure the destruction of the boat and the elimination of the threat to the United States,” Leavitt said during a press briefing.
Trump also confirmed speaking on the phone with Maduro, but declined to specify what was discussed.
“I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It was a call.”
The revelation of the conversation comes as the administration intensified its pressure campaign on Caracas over the holiday weekend, beginning with a series of warnings from the president.
Trump warned airlines and pilots on Saturday that the airspace above and around Venezuela should be considered “ENTIRELY CLOSED.”
Trump told reporters he made the statement “because we view Venezuela as not being a very friendly country.” But when asked whether his warning foreshadowed an imminent U.S. airstrike in Venezuela, Trump demurred, telling a reporter: “Don’t read anything into it. »
There is no guarantee that negotiations with Maduro will lead to his departure, or that the Trump administration will settle for any other outcome, said Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based research group.
Maduro could offer Trump access to U.S. oil companies — perhaps at the expense of Russian and Chinese competitors — without any progress toward democratization in Venezuela, an outcome that would disappoint many seeking a change of leadership in Caracas.
“An obvious sticking point here is the type of negotiations that Caracas and Washington want. So far, the Trump administration has expressed interest in negotiating Maduro’s flight out of the country,” Ramsey said. “For Maduro, this is clearly a failure. So until we see a clear sense of flexibility from Washington and Caracas, I think this impasse will continue.”
Maduro has consistently refused to leave office, despite U.S. sanctions, massive protests and various offensives during the first Trump administration, which Caracas viewed as coup attempts. “The reality is that many previous attempts to condition negotiations on Maduro’s immediate departure have gone nowhere,” Ramsey added.
There are no signs of weakening support for Maduro within the military, nor have there been large-scale defections like those seen within his security forces in 2019, when Trump, in his first term, initially sought to oust Maduro. At that time, he refrained from any direct military attack.
Hours after the president’s remarks, Hegseth released an altered image of the children’s book character Franklin the Turtle reimagined as a militarized character using a machine gun firing at suspected drug boats. The cover of the fake book was titled: “A Classic Franklin Story: Franklin Targets Narcoterrorists.”
Hegseth posted the image on social media with the caption: “For your Christmas wish list…”
A spokesperson for Kids Can Press, the publisher of the Franklin the Turtle books, condemned Hegseth’s use of his “beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and champions kindness, empathy and inclusiveness.”
“We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or likeness that directly contradicts these values,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump sparked more controversy in the region when he announced plans Friday to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was convicted last year of cocaine trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States.
U.S. prosecutors said Hernández received millions of dollars in bribes to help traffickers smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. One day, they claim, the right-wing president boasted of having “put drugs in the noses of gringos”.
Trump said Hernández was the victim of political persecution, although he provided no evidence for this claim.
News of the pardon shocked many in Latin America and raised fresh doubts about Trump’s U.S. military campaign in the region, which White House officials say is aimed at combating drug cartels that they liken to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) accused Trump of hypocrisy in releasing a convicted drug trafficker and suggested the ongoing U.S. military campaign in the region was politically motivated.
“Don’t tell me Donald Trump is killing people on boats in the Caribbean to stop drug trafficking,” Castro said on X.
Although it is unclear how Trump’s campaign in Venezuela will end, he has made his desires clear in Honduras.
Ahead of Sunday’s presidential election in the Central American country, Trump endorsed conservative candidate Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party, to which Hernández also belonged. An early vote count on Monday showed Asfura with a slight lead over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla.
Times writers Wilner and Ceballos reported from Washington, Linthicum and McDonnell reported from Mexico.
