Donald Trump deploys world’s biggest warship as war fears soar – not Russia | World | News
While Donald Trump’s administration is accused of “faking a war”, the US is deploying the world’s largest warship to the Caribbean. The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford is approaching Venezuela as the Pentagon ramps up a mission targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats in the region.
The 100,000-ton ship, which can carry up to 90 aircraft, is currently in the Mediterranean along with three of the five destroyers in the strike group. It’s unclear how long it will take for the strike group to reach waters off South America, but reports suggest it could take up to a week. The Gerald R Ford is America’s largest ever warship and is billed by the US Navy as “the world’s most capable, adaptable and lethal combat platform”.
The arrival of the 334-meter ship will represent a significant increase in American firepower in the region.
This will add to the eight warships and nuclear-powered submarines already there.
Friday’s deployment announcement follows more attacks on boats the United States accuses of transporting drugs.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that Donald Trump’s administration is “making up a new endless war.”
He said on national broadcast Friday night: “They promised they would never go to war again, and they are making up a war that we will avoid.
“They produce a narrative that is exaggerated, vulgar, criminal and completely false.
“Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaf.”
The US President accused Mr. Maudro of being the leader of the organized crime gang Tren de Aragua, without providing any evidence.
Mr. Maduro denies the allegation.
He is also accused of stealing Venezuela’s elections last year, with the United States among many countries that do not recognize him as the country’s legitimate leader.
Tren de Aragua, whose origins trace back to a prison in Venezuela, is known not for having a major role in the global drug trade, but for contract killings, extortion and human trafficking.
It has been banned by Washington as a terrorist organization since February.
US forces carried out 10 attacks on boats off the coast of Venezuela for allegedly smuggling drugs to the US. At least 43 people lost their lives in these attacks.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed the latest attack in international waters targeted a vessel “involved in the trafficking of illicit narcotics” that was “transiting along a known drug smuggling route”.
He said that six “narcotic terrorists” on the ship, which he said was carrying drugs on the X, were also killed.
Many lawmakers and human rights groups continue to question the legality of the strikes.
Mr. Trump this month declared the drug cartels to be illegal combatants and said the United States was in “armed conflict” with the cartels, using the same legal authority that the Bush administration used after 9/11.
The Pentagon said the USS Gerald R Ford “will enhance the United States’ capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities that endanger the security and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”
It was stated that the ship and the attack group will be deployed to the US Southern Command area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean Sea.
