President Donald Trump said he does not expect the United States to go to war with Venezuela but confirmed that the nation’s socialist dictator may soon be toppled.
Speaking on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Trump defended recent military operations in the Caribbean Sea targeting drug-smuggling vessels tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Trump accused Venezuela of sending criminals into the United States and said the socialist regime’s days are “numbered.”
Host Norah O’Donnell asked Trump whether the United States would go to war with Venezuela.
“I doubt it, I don’t think so, but they’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs,” Trump said.
“They’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people into a country that… we didn’t want – people from prisons.
“They emptied their prisons into our country.
“They also, if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylum into the United States of America because Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country.”
The comments follow more than a dozen U.S. strikes on boats allegedly smuggling narcotics through international waters near Venezuela, part of a broader campaign that has killed dozens of suspected narcoterrorists.
The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has also been repositioned under U.S. Southern Command, fueling speculation that Washington might be preparing to escalate against Maduro’s regime.
Trump: Venezuela’s Actions Are “Unacceptable”
When asked by O’Donnell whether the military buildup was about drug interdiction or removing Maduro from power, Trump said the operation addressed “many things.”
“To me, that would be almost number one because we have other countries like Mexico has been very bad to us in terms of drugs. Okay. Very bad,” he said.
“We have a closed border right now…
“So think of this: zero people coming into our country through our southern border.”
O’Donnell pressed Trump further, asking if “Maduro’s days as president” are “numbered.”
“I would say yeah. I think so, yeah,” Trump replied.
The president did not confirm or deny reports of possible U.S. land strikes inside Venezuela, declining to discuss operational details.
“I’m not saying it’s true or untrue,” Trump said.
“I would not talk to a reporter about plans to strike another country.”
WATCH:
White House and Pentagon Reject Speculation
Trump reiterated on Friday that he was not considering strikes inside Venezuela.
Both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House officials dismissed reports from unnamed sources claiming otherwise.
When asked about potential military operations at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defense summit in Kuala Lumpur, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declined to elaborate.
“Appreciate the question,” Hegseth told reporters Saturday.
“But, of course, we would not share any amount of operational details about what may or may not happen.”
Background: A Hard Line on Narcoterrorism
Since September, the Trump administration has launched a maritime offensive targeting cartels and drug-linked militant groups in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, authorizing direct strikes on vessels classified as narco-terrorist operations.
Officials have said the strategy aims to disrupt drug routes used by transnational cartels and prevent the infiltration of criminal networks into the United States.
The policy follows Trump’s August directive authorizing military force against “certain Latin American drug cartels,” a move administration officials described as necessary to defend U.S. shores from narcoterrorist incursions.
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