Dec. 1 On Monday evening, President Donald Trump convened a closed-door session in the Oval Office with senior national security leaders as the administration intensified its approach toward Venezuela and its president, Nicols Maduro.
The discussion included top-ranking officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief Stephen Miller. The meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m., ended without any official public summary of its content.
Meanwhile, the White House is facing demands from members of Congress for transparency regarding a controversial second military strike carried out in September against a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in the Caribbean an action that reportedly resulted in the deaths of surviving passengers.
Earlier in the day, Hegseth addressed the incident by both distancing himself from the commanding officer responsible for authorizing the follow-up strike and simultaneously voicing his support.
Let me be perfectly clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero and an outstanding professional who has my full backing, Hegseth wrote on X. I stand with the decisions he made regarding the Sept. 2 operation and everything that followed.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reinforced the administrations position, stating that organizations officially classified as narcoterrorist groups may be lawfully targeted under wartime rules of engagement. She added that Hegseth had already responded to questions from concerned lawmakers.
According to Leavitt, the administration considers these groups foreign terrorist entities. If they threaten the United States, the president is within his rights to eliminate that threat, she told reporters.
Speaking to the media on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump denied authorizing the second strike. First of all, I dont know if that even happened, he said. Pete said he had no knowledge of what people were talking about. Well review it, but I would not have approved a second attack.
Representative Adam Smith, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, expressed frustration and confirmed that he expects Admiral Bradley to brief lawmakers in the coming days.
Im not satisfied, Smith said. He gave the order, so he owes us a clear explanation. At this point, we dont have one.
As part of an expanded military presence, the United States has deployed more than a dozen naval vessels and approximately 15,000 troops to nearby waters in an operation labeled Southern Spear. Since Sept. 2, U.S. forces have reportedly intercepted and destroyed multiple boats in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, which officials claim were being used for drug trafficking. These actions have been linked to roughly 80 fatalities.
The campaign has triggered sharp criticism both within the United States and abroad. Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused Trump of committing murder, claiming that one of the strikes killed a civilian fisherman. United Nations personnel have also characterized the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings.
Separately, reports emerged of a recent phone conversation between Trump and Maduro. During the call, Trump is said to have urged the Venezuelan leader to step aside. Maduro refused and instead demanded blanket international immunity for both himself and his close associates.
Trump confirmed that a call had taken place around Nov. 21 but declined to provide details, describing it simply as a phone call. However, sources indicated that he offered safe passage out of the country for Maduro and his family if he resigned immediately an offer that was rejected.
Maduro, in response, reportedly contacted members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), seeking diplomatic backing against what he described as escalating and threats from the United States. In a letter published by Venezuelan state media, he accused Washington of attempting to seize the nations massive oil reserves.
I ask for your strongest efforts to stop this aggression, Maduro wrote, warning that it could destabilize the global energy market for both producers and consumers.
Venezuela is believed to hold the worlds largest proven oil reserves approximately 303 billion barrels as of 2023 yet its crude exports last year totaled only about $4.05 billion, a sharp contrast to other major oil producers. Analysts attribute much of this decline to long-standing U.S. sanctions.
On Saturday, Trump escalated tensions further by declaring Venezuelan airspace completely closed in a statement issued via Truth Social:
To all airlines, pilots, drug dealers, and human traffickers consider the airspace above and around Venezuela CLOSED in its entirety.
Although the U.S. president does not have the legal power to shut down Venezuelan airspace, such declarations in the past have sometimes preceded military action.
