Donald Trump has played down the possibility of a US war with Venezuela, but suggested Nicolás Maduro’s days as the country’s president were numbered.
Asked if the US was going to war against Venezuela, the US president told CBS’ 60 Minutes: “I doubt it. I don’t think so. But they’ve been treating us very badly.”
For two months, the US military has been building up a force of warships, fighter jets, bombers, marines, drones and spy planes in the Caribbean Sea. It is the largest deployment there for decades.
The US continues to launch strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. The Trump administration says the strikes are necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the US.
Trump rejected suggestions that the US action was not about stopping narcotics, but aimed at ousting Maduro, a long-time Trump opponent, saying it was about “many things”.
At least 64 people have been killed by US strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since early September, CBS News – the BBC’s US news partner – reports.
Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Trump said: “Every single boat that you see that’s shot down kills 25,000 on drugs and destroys families all over our country.”
Pushed on whether the US was planning any strikes on land, Trump refused to rule it out, saying: “I wouldn’t be inclined to say that I would do that… 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.”
Long-range bomber planes, B-52s, have carried out “bomber attack demonstrations” off the coast of Venezuela. Trump has authorised the deployment of the CIA to Venezuela and the world’s largest aircraft carrier is being sent to the region.
Maduro has previously accused Washington of “fabricating a new war”, while Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said the strikes on boats are being used by the US to “dominate” Latin America.
Trump said the government was “not going to allow” people “from all over the world” to come in.
“They come in from the Congo, they come in from all over the world, they’re coming, not just from South America. But Venezuela in particular – has been bad. They have gangs,” he said, singling out Tren de Aragua.
He called it “the most vicious gang anywhere in the world”.
Trump was also asked about nuclear testing, after he called on US military leaders to resume testing nuclear weapons in order to keep pace with other countries such as Russia and China.
Asked by CBS’s Norah O’Donnell if he planned for the US to detonate a nuclear weapon for the first time in more than 30 years, Trump said: “I’m saying that we’re going to test nuclear weapons like other countries do, yes.”
However, Energy Secretary Chris Wright sought to calm global concerns by telling Fox News the US was not planning to conduct nuclear explosions.
During his CBS interview, Trump also spoke about the US government shutdown, which has gone on for more than a month and left millions of Americans facing the loss of essential services.
The president blamed Democrats, calling them “crazed lunatics” who have “lost their way” – but said he believed they would eventually capitulate and vote to end the shutdown.
“And if they don’t vote, that’s their problem,” he said.
It was Trump’s first interview with CBS since he sued its parent company, Paramount, over a 2024 interview with then Vice-President Kamala Harris.
He said the interview – which aired as part of the presidential election campaign – had been edited to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic Party”.
Paramount agreed to pay $16m (£13.5m) to settle the suit, but with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, not paid to him “directly or indirectly”. It said the settlement did not include a statement of apology.
Trump last appeared on the 60 Minutes programme in 2020, when he walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl because he claimed the questions were biased. He did not agree to an interview with the show during the 2024 election.
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