Another key ingredient of President Donald Trump’s agenda we’ll be monitoring as we speak includes rising tensions within the Caribbean, the place the administration has been mounting a show of force as it targets alleged drug traffickers within the area.
Here’s what to know:
Trump mulls choices: The president recommended final week that he has made up his thoughts on a plan of action within the South American nation following a number of high-level briefings this week.
Officials briefed Trump on choices for army operations inside Venezuela, 4 sources informed NCS, as he weighs the dangers and advantages of launching a scaled-up marketing campaign to doubtlessly oust President Nicolás Maduro.
The president indicated Friday he was drawing nearer to a path ahead on his makes an attempt to chop down on unlawful flows of migrants and medicines — and the potential of regime change.
What Maduro is saying: In remarks from Caracas on Friday, Maduro warned that US army intervention may lay the groundwork for what he described as “another Gaza,” a “new Afghanistan” or “Vietnam again.”
Offering a direct message to the US, he stated, “Stop the insane hand of those who order bombing, killing and bringing war to South America, to the Caribbean. Stop the war. No to war.”
The political stakes: Extended US army involvement runs the chance of upsetting the political coalition that propelled Trump into workplace on guarantees of protecting America out of abroad wars. Both Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth served within the army throughout the Iraq War and have since expressed skepticism about entangling the US in international conflicts.
“The American people did not vote for Trump to draw the US into a sustained conflict in Latin America,” one GOP congressional staffer informed NCS.
Catch up more on this topic here.
NCS’s Zachary Cohen and Jim Sciutto contributed to this report.