President Donald Trump indicated Thursday that the United States is readying to undertake fresh measures against supposed drug trafficking rings in Venezuela, informing service members during a Thanksgiving conference call that groundwork for ground assaults will be commencing “quite soon.”
“In recent weeks, you’ve been laboring to discourage Venezuelan drug traffickers, of which there are many. Of course, there aren’t too many arriving by sea any longer,” Trump told service personnel on the call.
“You likely observed that individuals aren’t eager to be shipping by sea, and we’ll begin halting them by land too,” the president proceeded. “The terrain is simpler, but that’s going to commence very shortly.
“We caution them: Cease transmitting poison to our nation,” Trump remarked.
Trump’s remarks imply he has finalized a plan of approach in Venezuela following numerous senior-level debriefings and a growing US display of might in the area earlier this month.
Trump labeled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government associates as members of an international terrorist organization earlier this week.
The classification of “Cartel de los Soles,” a term that authorities state is more a depiction of allegedly compromised government figures than an organized criminal group, as a foreign terrorist organization will permit Trump to implement new penalties targeting Maduro’s holdings and power structures. It does not, nevertheless, explicitly permit the utilization of deadly force, according to legal authorities.
The US armed forces have gathered over a dozen navy vessels and 15,000 personnel in the area as part of what the Pentagon has termed “Operation Southern Spear.” The US military has eliminated over 80 individuals in vessel assaults as part of the anti-drug-trafficking drive.
US President Donald Trump takes part in a conference call with service members from Palm Beach, Florida, on November 27, 2025.
US President Donald Trump takes part in a conference call with service members from Palm Beach, Florida, on November 27, 2025. Anna Rose Layden/Reuters
CNN reported earlier this month that Trump administration executives informed legislators in a private meeting the US was not intending to initiate strikes inside Venezuela and lacks the lawful basis that would support assaults against any land objectives at present.
Legislators were informed during the session that an assessment generated by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to validate strikes against suspected drug vessels does not allow assaults inside Venezuela itself or any other territories, four informants stated.
The executives did not dismiss any prospective future deeds, one of the informants noted.
The administration has mostly sought to prevent involving Congress in its military campaign across Latin America. A senior Justice Department official informed Congress in November that the US military could carry on its lethal strikes on alleged drug smugglers without congressional consent and that the administration is not obligated by a decades-old war powers statute that would require collaboration with lawmakers, CNN has relayed.
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