Trump strikes alleged Venezuelan drug boats as pressure mounts on Maduro regime
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President Donald Trump said he believes Venezuela is “feeling the heat” amid his administration’s war against drug boats that robbed at least two ships in the Caribbean last week.
While Trump has said the attacks were aimed at disrupting the flow of drugs into the United States, experts and some lawmakers suggest they serve another purpose: to put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and force him out of power.
“The Trump administration is likely trying to force Maduro to leave office voluntarily through a series of diplomatic moves and now military action and threats to do so,” Brandan Buck, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said in an email to Fox News Digital on Thursday. he said. “Whether this is a ‘regime change’ or something else is a matter of semantics.”
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro gestures as he holds a press conference amid rising tensions with the United States over the deployment of US warships to the Southern Caribbean and nearby waters. (Reuters)
The Trump administration has repeatedly said it does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state but instead as the leader of a drug cartel. In August, the Trump administration increased the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million and called him “one of the world’s top drug traffickers.”
The Trump administration has so far been tight-lipped when asked about Maduro, and Trump refused to answer Wednesday when asked if the CIA had the authority to “eliminate” Maduro.
However, Trump confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela after the New York Times reported that he had signed the move on Wednesday. Trump told reporters he did this because Venezuela was releasing prisoners to the United States and drugs were coming to the United States from Venezuela by sea.
Additionally, Trump confirmed on Friday that Maduro had offered to give the United States access to Venezuelan oil and other natural resources, and claimed that the Venezuelan leader did not want to “fool around” with the United States
Still, these latest attacks are unlikely to significantly disrupt the flow of drugs into the United States, according to Buck.
“These strikes are more likely to be part of a growing effort to unseat Maduro than an effort to wage war against the cartels,” Buck said. “The Pacific and land routes through Mexico are considerably more efficient, and Venezuela itself is a relatively small player, especially when it comes to fentanyl.”
The Trump administration has used naval forces to counter drug threats and has strengthened naval assets in the Caribbean in recent months. For example, Trump sent several guided missile destroyers to the U.S. Navy to strengthen the administration’s counternarcotics efforts in the region starting in August.
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President Donald Trump announced on October 14, 2025 that the United States killed six people allegedly involved in drug trafficking on a boat in international waters near Venezuela. (realDonaldTrump/Real Social)
The Trump administration wants these additional forces to encourage the Venezuelan military to take matters into its own hands, said Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council international affairs think tank.
“What President Trump hopes is that this deployment will signal to the Venezuelan military that they need to rise up against Maduro himself,” Ramsey said in an email to Fox News Digital on Thursday. “The problem is that we haven’t seen this approach bear fruit in two decades. Maduro is terrible at governing, but good at keeping his upper echelons fat and happy while the people are starving.”
“What is needed here is some kind of road map or transition plan that would be more attractive to the ruling party and those around Maduro who may secretly want change but need to see a future for themselves in a democratic Venezuela,” Ramsey said.
Meanwhile, the second Trump administration took a tough approach to addressing the flow of drugs into the United States, designating drug cartel groups such as Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.
Additionally, the White House sent a memo to lawmakers on Sept. 30, saying the United States is currently participating in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug traffickers and has launched at least six attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela. The US captured survivors in the latest attack on Thursday, the first attack involving survivors. At least 28 more people lost their lives in previous attacks.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns about the legality of the strikes, including Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced a war powers resolution in September that would prohibit U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities” against certain non-state entities.
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Pictured in California Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine, D-Va., introduced a war powers resolution in September that would prohibit U.S. forces from engaging in “hostilities” against certain non-state entities. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The resolution failed in the Senate by a 51-48 margin on October 8, but Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the resolution along with their Democratic counterparts.
On Friday, Schiff, Kaine and Paul introduced a narrower war powers resolution that would bar U.S. armed forces from participating in “hostilities,” particularly against Venezuela. Lawmakers said the decision came in response to Trump’s comments about ground operations in Venezuela.
“The Trump administration has made clear that they may initiate military action within Venezuela’s borders and will not be limited to boat attacks in the Caribbean,” Schiff said Friday. he said. “In recent weeks, we have seen a growing number of related movements and reports undermining claims that this is just about stopping drug traffickers. Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must defend our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—either intentionally or accidentally—into a full-fledged war in South America.”
When asked about lawmakers’ concerns about the legality of the attacks, Trump dismissed those concerns and said lawmakers had been informed the ships were carrying drugs.
“But they were informed that they were loaded with drugs,” Trump said Tuesday. he said. “That’s the important thing. When they’re full of drugs, it’s fair game. And every single one of these ships was, and they’re not ships, they’re boats.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
