President Donald Trump will hold a meeting at the White House on Monday evening about next steps on Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as the administration intensifies its pressure campaign on the country.
Key members of Trump’s Cabinet and national security team, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend, as well as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
The meeting, which is expected to take place at 5 p.m. ET in the Oval Office, comes as the United States has increased pressure on Venezuela with strikes on drug vessels and a military asset buildup in the Caribbean. The US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/01/politics/trump-venezuela-meeting
As Washington prepares to launch land attacks inside Venezuela, a long-awaited phone call between the White House and Caracas aimed at defusing the crisis carried a blunt message for strongman Nicolás Maduro: You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now, sources familiar with the exchange told the Miami Herald.
The call — which The New York Times reported took place last week — quickly reached an impasse as it became clear that the two sides’ positions were far apart. Washington demanded that Maduro and his top allies leave Venezuela immediately to allow the restoration of democratic rule, while regime leaders proposed handing political control to the opposition but retaining command of the armed forces.
According to the sources, the U.S. message to Maduro was direct: Safe passage would be guaranteed for him, his wife Cilia Flores, and his son only if he agreed to resign right away.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/white-house-gives-maduro-ultimatum-193702916.html
More than 10 US warships, including the country’s largest carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, are bearing down on the Caribbean amid escalating tensions between President Trump and Venezuela.
A Marine Expeditionary Unit capable of an amphibious land invasion has also been deployed as part of efforts to stem the flow of drugs into the US from the socialist country.
“The military’s job is to defend the homeland,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told Fox News on Saturday night. “That’s exactly what we’re doing, and we’re using our best assets to defend the homeland.
Controversy is also mounting because of new concerns about the legality of any potential action against Venezuela and warnings that the administration’s lethal strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean have infringed the laws of war. Congressional committees are pledging vigorous, bipartisan oversight of the attacks — a rare occurrence in Trump’s second term.
And in an extraordinary move over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump appeared to undercut the rationale that he’s fighting regional cartels with the offer of a pardon to a former Honduran president jailed last year in the US for funneling cocaine into the country.
Trump fueled expectations of looming warfare in Venezuela by warning on Thanksgiving Day that the US will “very soon” start taking action to stop alleged drug-trafficking networks on land. On Saturday, he declared the impoverished, oil-rich country’s airspace should be considered closed. An armada of US ships is stationed in the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela, led by the world’s mightiest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford. Administration officials have meanwhile spent weeks crafting legal arguments for action against regional drug traffickers that critics warn fall short of legal and constitutional stipulations.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/01/politics/trump-venezuela-threats-pressure