According to a new report from The New York Times, President Donald Trump has officially authorized the CIA to prepare covert operations inside Venezuela — a move that marks the toughest and most strategically calculated pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro to date.
The Times says Trump signed off on planning for a series of clandestine “battlefield-shaping” actions. While this doesn’t include U.S. combat troops on the ground (yet), it gives the CIA the green light to build out options: sabotage missions, cyber operations, psychological campaigns — the full spectrum of covert tools reserved for serious threats. In other words, Trump is doing exactly what a strong commander-in-chief does: applying maximum pressure while maintaining every option on the table.
The backdrop is equally powerful. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, has sailed into the Caribbean as part of Operation Southern Spear — the most significant American military buildup in the region since the Cuban Missile Crisis. That alone tells you everything about how seriously this administration takes the collapse of Venezuela and Maduro’s partnership with drug cartels, human traffickers, and foreign adversaries.
And yet, Trump is also deploying another tool Biden never understood: leverage. The Times reports the president opened back-channel negotiations with Maduro at the same time — talks in which Venezuelan officials even floated a proposal for Maduro to step down in two to three years. Trump rejected the deal outright. No surprise: dictators don’t get farewell tours.
Maduro reportedly suggested U.S. energy companies could access Venezuela’s oil wealth as part of a potential agreement. Trump, wisely, made no commitments. Once again: strength first, deals second — not the other way around.
Inside Washington, Pentagon planners have prepared strike lists targeting Venezuelan drug-production facilities and military units loyal to Maduro. Trump reviewed those plans in two Situation Room meetings last week, according to the Times. If CIA covert action moves forward, it would likely precede any military strikes — a classic Trump method: set the battlefield before stepping onto it.
Meanwhile, the administration is tightening the screws through non-military channels, too. The State Department is reportedly preparing to officially designate the Cartel de los Soles — a criminal network embedded in Maduro’s regime — as a terrorist organization on November 24. That designation would unlock sweeping new authorities to target the Venezuelan dictatorship as what it truly is: a narco-terrorist operation masquerading as a government.
The Times also says the U.S. has already carried out 21 strikes on drug-smuggling vessels, killing 83 cartel operatives linked to the regime. Democrats complained (shocking), but Trump has made one thing clear: he’s not letting Venezuela’s drug networks pump poison into the Americas unchecked.
And in classic Trump fashion, he didn’t rule anything out when asked about possible ground forces:
“I don’t rule out anything.”
That’s not recklessness — that’s strategic ambiguity. The kind of leadership that keeps adversaries guessing and allies confident.
No matter how Democrats spin it, one thing is clear: Trump is finally confronting Maduro with real pressure, real leverage, and real consequences. And if anyone is going to bring stability back to the region — and cut off the cartel pipelines feeding America’s drug crisis — it’s a president who understands power and isn’t afraid to use it.
A strong America makes a safer hemisphere — and this is exactly what it looks like.
