Trump Says He’s Not Ruling Out War With Venezuela
President Donald Trump said Thursday that military conflict with Venezuela remains a real possibility, as the U.S. ramps up pressure on the socialist regime of Nicolás Maduro. In an interview with NBC News, Trump was asked directly whether he would rule out war with Venezuela. His response: “I don’t rule it out, no.”
This statement comes just days after Trump ordered a sweeping naval blockade around Venezuela. On Tuesday, he announced the U.S. had deployed “the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America” to intercept sanctioned oil shipments entering and leaving the country. The blockade, which he described as “total and complete,” is the most aggressive military posture toward the Maduro regime to date.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “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.”
Over the past several months, U.S. forces under the Department of War have executed more than two dozen air strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, targeting what officials describe as drug-smuggling operations linked to Venezuela’s military and intelligence apparatus. According to military reports, more than 100 alleged narco-traffickers have been killed.
When asked whether these strikes were escalating toward outright war, Trump was evasive. “I don’t discuss that,” he said. But when pressed, he admitted the U.S. would continue seizing Venezuelan tankers. “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — the largest one ever seized, actually.”
He declined to offer a timeline for how long the blockade or conflict might last. “It depends. If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors,” Trump said, leaving the door open to future seizures.
The president has also placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro’s head, accusing the Venezuelan strongman of leading a terrorist cartel known as Cartel de los Soles. Trump has labeled the regime a “terrorist government,” but stopped short of saying whether he intends to force Maduro out of power.
Notably, the two leaders recently held a phone call to discuss a potential meeting in Washington, D.C., although details of that conversation remain classified. “He knows exactly what I want,” Trump told NBC. “He knows better than anybody.”
Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly offered Maduro political asylum if the Venezuelan leader decides to step down or flee the country.
With the blockade tightening and the rhetoric intensifying, Washington’s standoff with Caracas appears to be entering a volatile new phase — one that could soon involve direct military engagement.