Use of force to remove Nicolás Maduro?
During an interview with Politico, President Donald Trump was asked if he’d use force to remove Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Trump refused to answer this question. When asked again, Trump said that he didn’t want to rule anything out or in. The president did not want to talk about specific military action. Trump did say that Maduro’s days were numbered.
From Newsmax:
In a wide-ranging interview with Politico, Trump repeatedly declined to discuss operational details while signaling that the administration is escalating pressure on Caracas, citing narcotics trafficking and the export of violent criminals as major U.S. security threats.
Asked directly whether Americans could see troops on the ground in Venezuela, Trump said he would not comment on strategy.
Pressed again on a possible ground invasion, he responded: “I don’t want to rule in or out. I don’t talk about it,” arguing that discussing military options publicly would be irresponsible.
Trump also said Maduro’s “days are numbered,” while portraying his posture as both pro-American and pro-Venezuelan people.
He said his goal is for Venezuelans “to be treated well” and described Venezuelan Americans as hardworking and strongly supportive of him politically.
The president tied Venezuela’s instability to U.S. border and crime concerns, accusing the Maduro regime of sending “millions of people” into the United States, including “many from prisons,” drug traffickers, and gang members.
Additional Reading:
McCarthy, C. (2025, December 9). Trump won’t rule out force to oust Venezuela’s Maduro. Newsmax. Link.
Politico Staff. (2025, December 9). Full transcript: POLITICO’s interview with President Donald Trump. Politico. Link.
Category: Donald Trump, International Affairs
OF COURSE PDJT47 doesn’t want to comment? Why let the enemy know your intentions and plans in advance?
Besides, PDJT47 doesn’t need to invade the country with military. The military taking out a major source of income (drug boats) in international or US territorial waters is “invasion” enough. Without a major source of income (drugs), the country will collapse on its own soon enough, given time.
Why expend blood and money on the inevitable?
Like the principle of aikido, let the enemy flail and expend its own energy uselessly, while you stand aside, dodge, and watch.
I still wonder how much money Venezuela is getting from China for making fentanyl from the base chemicals they get shipped from there?
I thought I voted against military adventurism?
Sure, the Venezuelan’s traffic freight trains full of drugs and dump their gang bangers and other human trash on our shores. So does Mexico, Columbia, Afghanistan and half of South and Central America. Afghanistan does it after a 20 year war and invasion that resolved absolutely nothing. The same guys are in charge now that were in charge when we invaded.
The difference, the ONLY differences are that UBL is dead (and was dead for a decade before the war ended) and we are debt for trillions of dollars more than we would have been. Everything else in that God forsaken shit hole is back to exactly the way it was when we invaded.
So let’s not do that again. Because I will bet anyone a stack of Navy SEAL DD-214s made on my home computer and printed in Besta Baru font that everything will be exactly the same 20 years after we stick our junk in Venezuela. Which is yet another reminder to never stick your junk in crazy.
Yeah, but Venezuela has hott gurls that are willing to entertain our ground pounders.
NCOs are going to have a hard time enforcing discipline on the troops off duty.
This is going to be interesting!
I think my definition of hot and your definition of hot are going to be two different things. I don’t particularly find them attractive. But different stroke and all. I can however; definitely see PV2 Boot nabbing one of these honeys.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Qdd2e-Xb9p0
I am fairly hesitant of military adventurism and wars that never end. Though, unlike in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is definitely a US interest in seeing Maduro kicked to the curb and allowing good people in Venezuela to hold free and fair elections. Maduro has been using TdA to try to destabilize the US and, as such, is the most deserving to get “regime changed.” But I do NOT wanna see a 20 year war in Venezuela. We should try to model our intervention on how quick the 1st Gulf War was. Get in, kill the bad guys, get out. Let the Venezuelans sort out the pieces because it is their pieces.
I’m not sure that is a great example. My memory of the First Gulf War is a bit froggy. Tell me which bad guy we killed again?
I think I also recall the following ten years resulted in a permanent presence in the region that I also was lucky enough to participate in during Southern Watch and Desert Fox. Daily bombings of Iraq for ten years to enforce the no fly zones. And wasn’t our presence in the region a galvanizing point for inspiring terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and general attacks on political figures and used as a talking point by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, UBL and Ramzi Yousef’s, to recruit more nutters to attack the US? Then didn’t we have to go back to Iraq 12 years later and stay for a decade, just because? Which then further destabilized the country and led to the rise of ISIS? That led to us returning to Iraq and staying a few more years? Then having to fight the third, fourth? 83rd? Battle of Mosul yet again?
I may have gotten that all wrong, so please insert corrections where needed. My humble opinion says this is a terrible idea. But will point out that you never have to send the Army back to somewhere they didn’t go in the first place.
Right, you got me there. I knew nothing of Operations Southern Watch or Desert Fox until now. I only really know of Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Don’t know about your point on galvanizing terrorists due to our presence in the region because it doesn’t take much to galvanize moslems against an enemy (Hey! He’s non-moslem! Let’s get him!!!). So, for Southern Watch and Desert Fox, attention in the media and public was low, especially since operation Southern Watch lasted for over a decade. I don’t know if that is right or wrong, but it is how society works.
Regardless, the Venezuelan leadership is still a threat to our country. I was just advocating for a swift end to any start of conflict rather than the nation building we were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, that is one solution to our problems with Venezuela. Another could be…well, have you ever seen the movie Deterrence? Maybe we can explore a Caracas version (this is a joke).
I understand your confusion. Not only is it based on post 9/11 thinking the past has been deliberately obscured. If you search the internet for examples of past Islamic attacks prior to 1993 it will yield little results.
Large scale Islamic terrorist attacks in the US were virtually unheard of prior to the first Gulf War. The Palestinians made a number of assassinations and attempts, the biggest of course being that of RFK Sr. Back then most Jews were Democrats and RFK was a big Zionist supporter. The killing of a major party political candidate for president soured everyone in the US on Palestine. (RFK would be spinning in his grave if he could see the Democratic Party today.)
The blow back from these attacks to the Palestinians was so severe that it would be 25 years before they would do another, well after the 1993 attack.
Since 1993 there have been dozens of attacks all over the country. But things really took off after 2003.
Oh, I forgot to answer this question:
“Tell me which bad guy we killed again?”
These guys:
Above all things, General William Tecumseh Sherman hated reporters the most. He considered them spies, in fact.
Excellent point.
I just got my access to a new AI, from you know who, the same dude that pays all our salaries, and it’s dumb as fuck.
The publicly available ChatGPT and Grok are way smarter.
Yup, just got it too. I have absolutely no use for AI in my job. Thanks anyway, Pete.
Make memes?
Nah. I can steal a better product than I can create.