President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday night that Nicolas Maduro‘s time as president of Venezuela is coming to a close, while also declining to discuss possible land strikes in the South American country.
Trump appeared on 60 Minutes for a wide-ranging interview, some of which touched on the developments in Venezuela, which have included a surging of U.S. military assets and troops to the surrounding region as his administration cracks down on drug cartels and trafficking. At one point, Trump was asked by host Norah O’Donnell if Maduro’s “days as president [are] numbered.”
“I would say yeah. I think so, yeah,” Trump responded.
O’Donnell then asked the president about the possibility of U.S. strikes on Venezuelan soil, as reporting emerged ahead of the weekend that Trump approved them.
“I don’t tell you that. I mean — I’m not saying it’s true or untrue,” Trump said. “I’m not gonna tell you what I’m gonna do with Venezuela, if I was gonna do it or if I wasn’t going to do it.”
Land strikes would be a significant escalation in the U.S. military’s tactics for combating drug traffickers on their way to the United States. Thus far, strikes have been isolated to small drug boats operating in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific.
But Trump has also sent the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the area, the USS R. Gerald Ford, as well as some 10,000 troops, fighter jets, Navy ships, and Reaper drones — military force that suggests larger-scale operations are on the table.
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When asked on Sunday if the U.S. was going to war against Venezuela, Trump dismissed the prospect.
“I doubt it. I don’t think so,” the president said. “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.”
