Trump Considers Expanding Military Operations to Venezuela

US President Donald Trump held a meeting at the White House on Monday to discuss next steps against Venezuela, just days after he warned that the US military planned to expand counter-narcotics operations on the ground “very soon.”

Until now, Washington’s military campaign has been limited to the sea. Since early September, the US military has carried out 21 strikes on ships suspected of being linked to Venezuelan drug trafficking in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 83 people.

US President Donald Trump held a meeting at the White House on Monday to discuss next steps against Venezuela, just days after he warned that the US military planned to expand counter-narcotics operations on the ground “very soon.”

Until now, Washington’s military campaign has been limited to the sea. Since early September, the US military has carried out 21 strikes on ships suspected of being linked to Venezuelan drug trafficking in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 83 people.

However, over the past few weeks, Trump has been increasingly signaling that direct military action against Venezuela may be coming. The Trump administration has mobilized more than a dozen American warships and about 15,000 American soldiers in the region. In October, the White House notified congress that the United States was in a “non-international armed conflict” with “designated terrorist organizations,” and in November the United States officially designated the Cartel de los Soles, which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is accused of overseeing, as a foreign terrorist organization.

However, growing anger from within Washington could limit the White House’s clear ambitions for regime change. Over the weekend, lawmakers on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees signaled their support for a bipartisan congressional review of the boat strikes. Inquiries follow: A The Washington Post A report published on Friday accused US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of ordering US forces to leave no survivors after a September 2 strike on a boat in the Caribbean killed two people.

Hegseth has denied the report, calling it “fake news” in a post on X and asserting that “current operations in the Caribbean are legal under US and international law” — a claim rejected by many legal experts.

Read more in today’s Global Brief: Trump intensifies the pressure campaign on Venezuela.