Trump defends Venezuela airspace closure, cites criminals sent to US

President Donald Trump defended calling Venezuela’s airspace closed, saying the nation is sending criminals to the US, however instructed reporters to not “learn something into it” when requested if the warning recommended an impending assault.

Talking to reporters aboard Air Drive One on Sunday, Trump stated Venezuela is “not a really pleasant nation” and claimed it has despatched criminals, gang members and drug traffickers to the US.

On Saturday, Trump instructed airways, pilots, drug sellers and human traffickers to “shut the airspace above and surrounding VENEZUELA in its entirety.”

Requested Sunday whether or not the warning meant an airstrike was imminent, Trump stated: “Do not learn something into it.”

WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS TO REPORTS OF TRUMP PREPARING FOR MILITARY OBJECTIVES WITHIN VENEZUELA

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (2nd from proper) waves as he’s surrounded by officers. (FEDERICO PARRA/AFP through Getty Photographs)

Trump additionally confirmed a New York Instances report that he had spoken on the telephone with President Nicolás Maduro, though he didn’t present particulars of the dialog.

“I would not say it went nicely or badly,” he stated. “It was a telephone name.”

The president’s feedback come amid rising tensions between the US and Venezuela over Venezuela’s incapacity to cease drug traffickers from sending narcotics to the US.

TRUMP’S STRIKE ON CARTEL SHIP OFF VENEZUELA SENDS WARNING TO MADURO: ‘NO SANCTUARY’

The ship was affiliated with the Colombian Nationwide Liberation Military, often called Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), Hegseth stated. (Ministry of Battle)

Since September, the Trump administration has carried out greater than 20 assaults on suspected drug boats in Latin American waters and strengthened its army presence within the Caribbean as a part of Trump’s efforts to crack down on the movement of medicine into the US.

The strikes have introduced the entire variety of suspected narco-terrorists eradicated to greater than 82, with three survivors.

However because the US continues to strengthen forces within the waters off Venezuela, Maduro has referred to as for peace but additionally remained defiant towards what he referred to as “imperialist aggression.”

US warships will patrol worldwide waters round Venezuela as Trump guarantees to cease cartels

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a ceremonial sword reportedly belonging to independence hero Simon Bolivar throughout a government-organized civil-military march in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, November 25, 2025. (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photograph)

Maduro gave a speech in Caracas final week, brandishing a sword and warning supporters to arrange for confrontation. He stated the US will start stopping suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers on land “very quickly.”

He appeared at a mass assembly within the capital carrying the sword of Simón Bolívar, the Nineteenth-century independence chief thought of the liberator of a lot of South America. Maduro instructed his supporters that the nation was dealing with a decisive second.

The Related Press reported that he stated: “For everybody, whether or not residents, politicians, army or police – let nobody make excuses. Failure shouldn’t be an possibility. The Fatherland calls for it! Our best effort and sacrifice. And with (Simón) Bolívar I come to say that if the Fatherland calls for it, the Fatherland could have our lives, if obligatory,” he declared as he raised Bolívar’s sword.

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Maduro described the scenario as a battle towards what he described as exterior threats, urging Venezuelans to mobilize towards any international aggression.

Diana Stancy and Efrat Lachter of Fox Information Digital contributed to this report.