President Donald Trump said that the U.S. military struck a “big facility” on Christmas Eve amidst his administration’s campaign against Venezuela, potentially marking the largest escalation to date.
During an interview on Friday with talk radio host John Catsimatidis, Trump was asked about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“We just knocked out, I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility…where the ships come from,” the Republican president said. “Two nights ago we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard.”
He didn’t provide further information about the apparent military action.
When contacted by The Independent, a Pentagon spokesperson referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
If the strike took place within Venezuela, it would be the first known attack on land since the administration began its pressure campaign against the South American nation several months ago.
Since September, the Pentagon has launched around two dozen strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 87 people. At the same time, the U.S. military has amassed warships off the coast of Venezuela, marking the largest naval buildup in the region in decades.
The president has also authorized the CIA to undertake covert operations inside the country and ordered the seizure of several oil tankers as part of a newly announced blockade off the coast.
“I think you’re going to find that this is war,” Trump said in early December. “And very soon we’re going to start doing it on land too.”
The president has put forward a variety of reasons to justify his military maneuvers.
“It’s about a lot of things,” he told Catsimatidis on Friday. “They took our oil…they also sent millions of people in there from jails into our country…some of the worst people on Earth.”
“They sent drugs in,” he added.
While Venezuela is known for playing a role in drug trafficking, it’s not a major producer of illicit narcotics, according to The New York Times. Mexico, instead, is listed as one of the biggest producers of drugs like synthetic opioids, which are responsible for the lion’s share of drug overdose deaths in the U.S., according to the DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment.
Trump has also called on Maduro to step down from power, saying last week that it would be a “smart” thing to do, while cautioning him not to play “tough.”
Maduro, for his part, has denied that he is involved in an unlawful drug trade and has accused the U.S. government of “fabricating a new eternal war.” He’s also claimed that Trump’s true motive is to oust him from power in order to seize control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
In response to Trump’s military actions, he’s urged Venezuelan citizens to stand together against American aggression and has deployed troops, aircraft and naval vessels along the coast.
The administration’s hostile actions in the region have prompted a wave of pushback from Democratic lawmakers, many who have described them as unlawful.
“The American people have no interest in stumbling into an illegal new war that would place the lives of our servicemembers at risk,” Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said in late November.
A few Republicans, too, have telegraphed their opposition, including Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who described U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats as a form of unlawful execution.
But many in the GOP have backed the president’s actions. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin said in November that Trump is “protecting the United States by being very proactive.”
The public reaction has been split. Fifty-three percent of Americans approve of using military force to attack vessels suspected of trafficking drugs into the U.S., but 70 percent said they would oppose taking military action in Venezuela, according to a November CBS News survey.
Trump’s apparent strikes in Latin America aren’t the only ones his administration has undertaken in recent weeks.
On Christmas Day, the U.S. military announced it had conducted lethal strikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria after the group was accused of attacking Christians.
“We really hit them hard,” Trump said on Friday. “They got a very bad Christmas present.”
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