Why is Trump going after Venezuela? His administration has so far floated these three reasons for its pressure campaign
President Donald Trump has, in recent months, overseen military strikes against alleged “drug smuggling” boats off the coast of Venezuela, ordered a military build-up in its coastal waters, accused its president, Nicolas Maduro, of being part of a drug cartel, and, on Wednesday, seized one of the nation’s oil tankers.
What’s his problem with Venezuela? And why does he seem intent on dragging the U.S. into a war with the South American nation?
On any given day, Trump or his officials may blame Venezuela for sending too many migrants into the U.S., for sending migrants who are gang members, murderers, or other criminals, or for trading valuable resources with America’s enemies.
Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi claims the tanker that was just seized off the coast of Venezuela was carrying sanctioned oil intended for Iran. Venezuela has denied this and called Trump’s actions an “act of international piracy.”
Trump has frequently accused Venezuela of pouring illegal migrants into the U.S. During his 2024 re-election campaign, Trump regularly told his supporters that Venezuela was “opening up the prisons” and encouraging hardened criminals to flood across America’s borders.
He even cited immigration on Thursday when Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked him about his intentions regarding Venezuela.
“Now that we’ve seized this tanker, is the campaign against Venezuela still just about drugs, or is it now also about oil?” Doocy asked.
“Well, it’s about a lot of things,” Trump replied. “But one of the things it’s about is the fact that they’ve allowed millions of people to come into our country from their prisons, from gangs, from drug dealers, and from mental institutions.”
He then claimed that 12,000 murderers entered the U.S. and insisted that “many of them are from Venezuela.”
As much as he’s spoken about his issues with Venezuelan migrants, immigration isn’t the issue that the Trump administration has used to justify killing people in its recent strikes on what it calls “drug boats.”
Trump has accused Venezuela of trafficking drugs into the U.S. and has used those accusations to justify lethal military operations on Venezuelan ships.
Earlier this fall, Trump approved military strikes on Venezuelan boats that his administration claims were used to traffic drugs. In an incident on September 2, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave an order to attack a boat carrying 11 people. According to a Washington Post report, Hegseth then ordered a second strike to kill the survivors.
None of the individuals killed in Trump’s boat strikes has been proven to be criminals in a court of law.
The president is not just accusing Venezuela of being the departure point for alleged drug traffickers, but accusing Maduro — the nation’s president — of being a top-level member of a drug cartel that ships drugs into the U.S.
