Donald Trump appears ready to step up pressure to remove Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, from power.
The United States has amassed nearly a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the area around the country Maduro leads.
On top of that, Trump is reportedly chatting with Maduro about leaving power voluntarily or facing dire consequences for refusing.
Not so quietly, Trump has been putting the pieces into play to either serve as a deterrent or to conduct a massive, crushing blow to Venezuela.
Over the last few months, warships have been moving to the theater, including the deadliest aircraft carrier on the planet, the USS Gerald R. Ford.
We also have about 15,000 troops in the area, so something is clearly happening here.
When Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was asked about the situation, he stated, “The military’s job is to defend the homeland. That’s exactly what we’re doing, and we’re using our best assets to defend the homeland. Drugs kill more Americans than we’ve ever lost in wars. So I think at the end of the day, the president has correctly identified this as an attack on the country, which it is.”
Next, reports surfaced that Trump had warned everyone to stay away from Venezuelan airspace.
Trump posted to Truth Social that everyone should "consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY."
When Trump was then asked about the post and whether it meant a strike was imminent, he responded, "Don’t read anything into it."
Well, President Trump, you are making some big moves, so we would really like to know what is going on here.
Finally, reports started to break in recent days that Trump spoke to Maduro, giving him an offer to leave his country now with guaranteed protections or suffer the consequences.
Maduro allegedly asked for "global amnesty for any crimes he and his group had committed, and that was rejected."
It was also being reported that Maduro asked to maintain control of his military and promised to have a fair election in exchange. However, we have already seen that promise broken once, which is what led us to the current situation.
The world will be a better place without Maduro in charge of Venezuela, but lawmakers in D.C. are looking for a reason to go after Trump right now, so he really needs to make sure any decision to strike is presented to Congress before any such action takes place. If not, lawmakers are going to run Trump right out of town, and he will have Republicans joining together with Democrats to make it happen.
