Trump blows up a third Venezuelan boat

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U.S. military officials are drawing up options to target drug traffickers inside Venezuela, and strikes within that country’s borders could potentially begin in a matter of weeks, four sources told NBC News.

Those sources are two U.S. officials familiar with the planning and two other sources familiar with the discussions. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plans publicly.

Striking inside Venezuela would be another escalation in the Trump administration’s military campaign against alleged drug targets and its stance toward Venezuela’s government.

In recent weeks, the U.S. military struck at least three boats from Venezuela allegedly carrying narco-traffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social. The administration has not provided evidence that drugs were on all of those boats. But an official in the Dominican Republic, alongside one from the U.S. Embassy there, did say at a press conference Sunday that drugs were found in the water after one strike.

Strikes inside Venezuela could happen in the next several weeks, but the president has not approved anything yet, the four people said. Two of them and an additional official familiar with the discussions said that the United States’ recent military escalation is in part a result of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro not doing enough, in the administration’s view, to stop the flow of illegal drugs out of his country.

The plans being discussed primarily focus on drone strikes against drug trafficking groups’ members and leadership, as well as targeting drug labs, the four sources said.

Some Trump administration officials are disappointed that the United States’ military escalation does not appear to have weakened Maduro’s grip on power or prompted any significant response, the official familiar with the discussions said. The White House has faced more pushback on the strikes against the drug boats than it anticipated, prompting the administration to think carefully about next steps, the official familiar with the discussions said.

That includes discussions between the U.S. and Venezuela through Middle Eastern leaders serving as intermediaries, NBC News has learned. According to a senior administration official, Maduro has spoken to those intermediaries about concessions he would be willing to make to remain in power. The senior administration official would not specify which countries are acting as intermediaries beyond saying that they are allies.

Trump is “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” the senior administration official said.

Asked about the possibility of U.S. strikes within his country, Anibal Sanchez Ismayel, a Venezuelan political analyst, told NBC News in a WhatsApp message, “An attack on Venezuelan soil would have consequences from diplomatic protests to an increase in political persecutions of those they classify as collaborators, to further uniting the population with the need to defend sovereignty reaffirmed.”

The official familiar with discussions and another source familiar with the administration’s thinking believe the U.S. striking inside Venezuela would not be surprising given other recent events.

The U.S. has deployed at least eight ships with more than 4,000 personnel to the waters in the region recently and sent F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, according to the U.S. military.

“You don’t move that many resources down there without looking at all options,” the source familiar with the administration’s thinking said.

That is especially true because keeping thousands of U.S. military forces, ships and aircraft in the area could begin to impact deployments elsewhere.

“You can’t keep that kind of firepower in the Caribbean forever,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions said.

In 2020, during Trump’s first term, the Justice Department indicted Maduro on drug trafficking charges. The Trump administration has accused Maduro of working with cartels that it says are sending cocaine, fentanyl and gang members to the U.S. The administration recently increased a U.S. reward for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. Venezuela is not a significant cocaine producer, but is considered a major departure point for flights carrying the drug elsewhere. It is not believed to be a source for illegal fentanyl brought into the U.S., most of which comes from Mexico.

Trump administration officials have not ruled out regime change as another aim of these military operations, and they have increased pressure on Maduro himself. NBC News previously reported that the administration’s goal, according to the source familiar with its thinking, is to force Maduro to make rash decisions that could ultimately lead to him being ousted without American boots on the ground.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been one of the voices championing regime change, according to the source familiar with the administration’s thinking.

Earlier this month Maduro sent a letter to Trump about opening a dialogue, according to a social media post by the Venezuelan government. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump received the letter but condemned it.

“Frankly, I think there were a lot of lies that were repeated by Maduro in that letter, and the administration’s position on Venezuela has not changed,” Leavitt said at a White House press briefing Monday. “We view the Maduro regime as illegitimate, and the president has clearly shown that he’s willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime into the United States of America.”

The U.S. has continued to coordinate with Venezuela on some matters, including on continuing deportation flights, the official familiar with the discussions said. There have been 54 such flights through last Friday, that official said.

Ric Grenell, who serves as the special presidential envoy for special missions, has been in routine communication with Trump and continues to push diplomacy with Venezuela as an option, according to the same official as well as a source familiar with the negotiations.

The Trump administration informed Congress in a confidential notice this week that President Donald Trump has "determined" that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that members of the organizations can be targeted as unlawful combatants.

“The President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” the notice said.

"In response, based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of United States and friendly foreign nations, the President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” it added.

The designation essentially puts drug cartels in the same legal category as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State.

In recent weeks, the U.S. military struck at least three boats from Venezuela allegedly carrying narco-traffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans, Trump said on Truth Social.

The notice to Congress cited an attack on Sept. 15 that killed “approximately 3 unlawful combatants" as an example of actions Trump could take in targeting cartels.

Many critics of the strikes, including congressional Democrats and some Republicans, maintain the administration still does not have the legal authority to target the drug cartels using the U.S. military and that it remains a law enforcement matter relying on interdiction.

The Pentagon carried out Friday another lethal strike on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said was a boat carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela. Four individuals were killed.

Hegseth said on X that the strike occurred Friday morning on a “narco-trafficking vessel” that U.S. intelligence indicated was affiliated with a designated terrorist organization.

“Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike and no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation,” Hegseth wrote.

The strike is the fourth known U.S. attack against what the Trump administration says are narco-terrorists smuggling drugs. With this attack, American forces have now killed 21 individuals in four vessels in international waters over the last several weeks, according to administration officials.

Democratic lawmakers, as well as some Republicans, say the Trump administration has not provided a proper legal rationale for the strikes.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the strike in a statement.

“Every American should be alarmed that the President believes he can wage secret wars against anyone he chooses," said Reed. "Congress alone has the constitutional power to decide when America goes to war. The President cannot launch military campaigns and invent legal cover after the fact."

Hegseth said that the strike on Friday morning occurred in international waters near Venezuela while the boat was transporting “substantial amounts of narcotics — headed to America to poison our people."

President Donald Trump posted a message of his own regarding the attack.

“A boat loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE was stopped, early this morning off the Coast of Venezuela, from entering American Territory,” Trump wrote, without describing how he knew what type of drugs were on the vessel.

A video posted by Hegseth and Trump that was marked “unclassified” showed a small boat bouncing over a blue sea before it was struck and destroyed. It was not clear if a drone, jet fighter or missile was used.

The U.S. has deployed multiple ships and about 4,000 troops, mostly sailors, to the waters of U.S. Southern Command in recent months. That includes destroyers, a Marine unit and other vessels.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” Hegseth wrote on Friday. “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!! !”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed an aircraft carrier strike group to move to the Caribbean to support President Donald Trump's effort to dismantle "Transnational Criminal Organizations" and to "counter narco-terrorism," according to Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

The Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group and embarked carrier air wing are moving to the U.S. Southern Command's area of responsibility, Parnell said in a post on X.

Parnell said the enhanced military presence will "bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere."

The Gerald R. Ford is the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier and is currently stationed in the Mediterranean with three destroyers, according to two U.S. officials. They have not left that region, but once they do, the transit will take about one week to get on station in the Caribbean, the officials said.

The military's deployment of the carrier strike group is a notable escalation of U.S. policy in the region as Trump has promised to target more cartel members and has firmly said these actions don't require congressional approval.

It will nearly double the number of U.S. forces afloat in the area as part of the counter-drug mission. The U.S. has eight surface ships there now, plus a nuclear-powered submarine, which adds up to about 6,000 sailors and marines in the region. The Ford Carrier Strike Group will add between 4,500 and 5,000 more sailors and marines to the mission.

The carrier is more than just people, aircraft and firepower — carriers are often sent as a show of presence or force. The officials said this deployment is also about sending a message to cartels that the U.S. military can move a huge presence to the area quickly.

The announcement came after Hegseth said earlier in the day that the U.S. struck a boat allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, marking at least the third time this week that the U.S. has attacked a vessel it says was involved in drug trafficking.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. “Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

Hegseth said that this vessel belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, which the Trump administration has named a designated terrorist organization, and was hit in the Caribbean.

Earlier this week, Hegseth said he had launched a lethal strike against vessels allegedly carrying drugs to the U.S. in the eastern Pacific Ocean. In that military action, the defense secretary said, three male “narco-terrorists” were killed.

In his post announcing that strike, he used similar language to Friday’s post, comparing the alleged drug traffickers to the terror group Al Qaeda.

The U.S. has said it has conducted 10 strikes on drug-carrying boats since early September, killing 43 people so far. Eight strikes have been in the Caribbean Sea and two in the eastern Pacific.

The Trump administration's claims about the strikes have not been independently confirmed.

President Donald Trump has been supportive of the strikes, claiming that every boat that “we knock out” is saving American lives.

“Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives, so every time you see a boat and you feel badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough.’ It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House last week.

While fentanyl is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year in the United States, it is primarily smuggled in hard-to-detect amounts over the U.S.-Mexico land border through legal ports of entry, according to experts and government reports, including the bipartisan Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking.

President Donald Trump said Sunday he may hold talks with Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, even as the United States intensified its military pressure with the latest strike on an alleged drug boat and the arrival of its most advanced aircraft carrier.

The suggestion of a possible diplomatic path to defuse the mounting tensions with the South American country came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the U.S. would designate the Cartel de los Soles, a group Washington alleges is run by Maduro, as a foreign terrorist organization.

The designation, set to take effect on Nov. 24, puts the cartel among the likes of Hamas and the Islamic State group. It allows the U.S. government to seize its assets and makes it unlawful to provide “material support” to the group.

Maduro denies having any ties to the drug trade, accusing the U.S. of “fabricating” a war against him.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One late Sunday, Trump indicated the U.S. “may be having some discussions with Maduro,” adding that “they would like to talk.” He did not elaborate further on the possibility of talks.

Asked whether the terror designation means the U.S. could then target Maduro’s personal assets, Trump said: “It allows us to do that, but we haven’t said we’re going to do that.”

He was speaking after the U.S. Southern Command confirmed on X that it carried out a strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific on Saturday, killing three people.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the strike, Southern Command said in a post on X. The post alleged that the boat was “operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization” and was “trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific,” adding that the strike took place in international waters.

“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” the post said.

NBC News has not independently confirmed the military’s account. The administration has not provided evidence supporting its allegations about the vessel or the people on board.

Video released by Southern Command appears to show the strike causing a large wave to spike up next to the boat, which is then engulfed in flames.

The U.S. has now conducted at least 21 strikes on alleged drug boats during the second Trump administration, prompting concerns from some lawmakers.

NBC News reported last week that the Trump administration carried out its 20th such attack, according to a Pentagon official. That strike took place in the Caribbean Sea. Previous attacks took place in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, and they have killed more than 75 people, according to officials.

Sunday’s announcement came the day the USS Gerald R. Ford, a major aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean.

Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine met with Trump on Friday and briefed him on options for potential military action against Venezuela, according to a senior White House official and a U.S. official familiar with the meeting.

Both officials said the president has been meeting with his national security team about Venezuela frequently in recent days. Right now, the president is satisfied with the strikes on alleged drug vessels, the senior White House official said. But both officials said Trump has expressed a willingness to strike targets on land as well.

As of Friday evening, Trump has not signed off on strikes on land, but that could change, the officials said. The military options are ready for him, and the U.S. has assets in the region now, so if he decides to move forward with strikes, they can begin quickly, the officials said.

The strikes have generated controversy in Congress, as Democrats and some Republicans paint the administration's moves as heavy-handed overreach that circumvents lawmakers.

But in October, the Senate rejected a resolution requiring President Donald Trump to obtain congressional approval for military strikes in the Caribbean. The Senate this month voted down a similar resolution that would require the president to obtain congressional approval for any military action against Venezuela.

Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky sided with Democrats to require congressional authorization.

The United States is poised to launch a new phase of Venezuela-related operations in the coming days, four US officials told Reuters, as the Trump administration escalates pressure on President Nicolas Maduro's government.

Reuters was not able to establish the exact timing or scope of the new operations, nor whether US President Donald Trump had made a final decision to act. Reports of looming action have proliferated in recent weeks as the US military has deployed forces to the Caribbean amid worsening relations with Venezuela.

A senior administration official on Saturday did not rule anything out regarding Venezuela.

Two US officials told Reuters the options under consideration included attempting to overthrow Maduro.

A military buildup in the Caribbean has been underway for months, and Trump has authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela. The US Federal Aviation Administration on Friday warned major airlines of a "potentially hazardous situation" when flying over Venezuela and urged them to exercise caution.

Three international airlines canceled flights departing from Venezuela on Saturday after the FAA warning.

The United States plans on Monday to designate the Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization for its alleged role in importing illegal drugs into the United States, officials said. The Trump administration has accused Maduro of leading Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.

Hegseth considers new options after designating cartel as terror organization
Two of the US officials said covert operations would likely be the first part of the new action against Maduro. All four officials quoted in this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of impending action by the United States.

That reality has led Maduro's government to consider alternative strategies in the event of a US invasion, including possibly a guerrilla-style response, which the government has termed "prolonged resistance" and mentioned in broadcasts on state television.

This approach would involve small military units at more than 280 locations carrying out acts of sabotage and other guerrilla tactics, Reuters has reported, citing sources and years-old planning documents.

President Donald Trump suggested Thursday night that the U.S. could “very soon” begin targeting alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers on land, expanding operations that have so far focused on the Caribbean Sea.

In Thanksgiving remarks to U.S. troops around the world, Trump thanked the Air Force’s 7th Bomb Wing for their work to “deter Venezuelan drug traffickers” and said “it’s about 85% stopped by sea … and we’ll be starting to stop them by land.”

“Also, the land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” the president added, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The comments come as Trump weighs whether to take military action against Venezuela as part of what his administration has called a campaign against drug trafficking. Senior U.S. military officials have also made recent visits to leaders in the Caribbean.