President Trump said in a new interview he did not think the United States was going to war against Venezuela amid rising tensions between the two countries, though he suggested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s days were numbered.
Trump was asked in an interview with “60 Minutes” broadcast Sunday about the administration’s recent actions striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and repositioning an aircraft carrier into the area.
“Are we going to war against Venezuela?” anchor Norah O’Donnell asked.
“I doubt it. I don’t think so. But they’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs — they’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country that we didn’t want, people from prisons — they emptied their prisons into our country,” Trump said.
Asked if his actions toward Venezuela were about stopping drugs or getting rid of Maduro, Trump said it was about “many things.” Asked if Maduro’s days as president are numbered, Trump responded, “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.”
The Pentagon last week said it was sending the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its carrier air wing to the Caribbean. At the same time, the Trump administration has conducted strikes against boats it says are smuggling illegal drugs in the region, killing dozens of people in the process.
Also last week, two B-1 Lancer bombers departed from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew near the coast of Venezuela, according to flight tracking data. Trump called the news reports about the presence of B-1 bombers “false,” but he added that “we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”
Trump has pushed back on reports that he is mulling strikes inside of Venezuela on military facilities, though he has also said he would not disclose such a decision to the press ahead of time.
Source: The Hill
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