Overview
- Asked aboard Air Force One, President Trump said he is not considering strikes within Venezuela, pushing back on reports that officials had identified military facilities as potential targets.
- The administration has acknowledged roughly 13 to 14 strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September, with reported deaths ranging from about 57 to 61 people.
- In a War Powers notice to Congress, the White House framed the campaign as a non-international armed conflict and asserted self-defense against cartel-linked groups it labels unlawful combatants.
- The Pentagon has surged forces to the region, including the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, destroyers, bombers and thousands of troops, while Trump has confirmed covert CIA authority inside Venezuela.
- Human-rights officials at the United Nations condemned the boat strikes as unlawful, and Democratic lawmakers demanded legal justifications and fuller briefings as Republicans largely defended the operations.