Trump mulling over Venezuela attack order

 US troops are on standby for possible attack orders after Donald Trump said he had “sort of made up [his] mind” about whether to launch military action in Venezuela.

The US president has held a string of back-to-back meetings in which he reviewed military options – including the use of special operations forces and direct action inside Venezuela.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One late on Friday night, he said: “I sort of made up my mind. I can’t tell you what it is, but we made a lot of progress with Venezuela in terms of stopping drugs from pouring in.”

Relations between Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, and Mr Trump have deteriorated sharply since the US president’s second term began, driven by US accusations that the Venezuelan government is complicit in drug trafficking.

In August, the Trump administration doubled the bounty for information leading to Mr Maduro’s arrest to $50m. The following month, the US began striking boats off Venezuela’s coast, alleging they were drug-trafficking vessels.

Since then, Washington has stationed roughly 15,000 troops in the region – its largest presence in decades – backed by F-35 aircraft, warships and a nuclear submarine.

Mr Trump’s comments on Friday suggested a decision about what comes next may already have been made. An administration official had earlier said the president was presented with “a host of options”.

US forces stationed in the region are waiting to see whether formal orders will follow.

The rhetoric from the White House has steadily been ramping up. On Thursday, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, announced on social media that a Caribbean mission had been named “Southern Spear” with a stated purpose to “remove narco-terrorists from our hemisphere”.

Senior Pentagon officials described those killed in the US boat strikes as “enemy combatants” and “killed in action” – terms usually reserved for wartime operations.

The administration’s legal justification for its military operations around Latin America describes fentanyl as a potential chemical weapons threat – a framing that experts warn could lay the groundwork for broader military action.

Fighter pilots on the USS Gerald R. Ford have been analysing Venezuelan air-defence networks in preparation for potential strikes, though they have yet to be told whether an attack order is coming, a person familiar with the matter told the Washington Post.

Two sources also told the newspaper that the US has raised the possibility of involving the military’s elite Delta Force, a highly trained Special Operations unit used frequently during wars in the Middle East.

The escalatory signals follow on from Mr Trump previously saying he wanted to expand his campaign against the alleged drug vessels “to the land”.

However, it remains possible that Mr Trump’s remarks were simply another escalation in a pressure campaign aimed at intimidating Mr Maduro, rather than a sign of imminent action. Aides have insisted the president has not yet authorised military force.

Some analysts believe Mr Trump may be leveraging the size of the US military deployment to force Mr Maduro’s hand – perhaps hoping he either flees or is captured, possibly to face charges in the US.

“It’s definitely a pressure campaign,” Gen. Laura J. Richardson, a retired four-star Army officer who until last fall was head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, overseeing operations in Latin America, told the New York Times.

The president has told Congress that there were no active preparations for a full-blown attack, and both Mr Hegseth and Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, have privately assured select lawmakers that no war is imminent.

At the same time, the administration’s legal justification apparently does not seek permission for an attack on Venezuela itself.