Trump downplays Venezuelan airspace warning as US mulls new steps

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By Josh Wingrove

 

President Donald Trump said Sunday that people shouldn’t read much into a social media post where he said Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed. 

His post from Saturday morning, addressed to airlines and “Drug Dealers,” added to jitters in the region about possible US strikes on Venezuelan territory.

 

“Don’t read anything into it,” he told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One. He added, “We consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country.”

 

The US is enacting a widening campaign in the Caribbean, one that began with fatal strikes on boats in international waters and continued when the US deployed additional Navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, to the region, adding to speculation it may be about to strike Venezuela. 

 

Trump confirmed he held a phone call recently with President Nicolas Maduro but declined to describe how it went. “I wouldn’t say it went well or badly,” he said.

 

He also downplayed concerns from Republican lawmakers about a potentially illegal fatal strike on a damaged boat in the Caribbean.

 

The Defense Department is facing mounting questions after a Washington Post report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a fatal strike on boats and demanded specifically that those strikes kill everyone on board. That led to a second strike on the damaged hull of a boat on Sept. 2 to kill two people wounded in the first strike, the Post reported.

 

“I’m going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said. Asked whether a second strike would be legal, he replied, “No, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal.”

 

Analysts say the naval strikes were already being carried out under dubious or shaky legal authority, and the strikes have been raising concerns among US allies. The administration argues the boats are legitimate targets because they are allegedly ferrying drugs. 

Trump said he wasn’t concerned about legal challenges “because you can see the boats. You can see the drugs in the boats, and each boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans. So I think they do an amazing job.”

 

The report of a follow-up strike to kill wounded people drew rare pushback from Republican lawmakers. Ohio Representative Mike Turner told CBS on Sunday that such a strike would, if confirmed, amount to an “illegal act” while Nebraska’s Don Bacon told ABC it would be a “clear violation of the law of war.”

 

Senator Roger Wicker, who serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said the panel will investigate the strikes in the aftermath of the report. 

 

The US Federal Aviation Administration warned airlines on Nov. 22 to “exercise caution” in Venezuela, prompting some to begin canceling flights. 

 

The Trump administration recently designated Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization — which the US says is a legal basis for certain operations, but which Venezuela argues is a pretense for strikes.