President Trump rents a military strike on a Venezuelan drug boat

President Donald Trump praised the American military strike against an alleged Venezuelan boat charged with drugs in the south of the Caribbean who withdrew 11 alleged Tren from Aragua narco-terrorists on Tuesday.

Trump comments occurred after sharing a video on social networks representing the American military strike against the Venezuelan ship in the Southern Command responsibility area, just a few days after having deployed three destroyers of missiles guided by the US Navy to strengthen administration efforts in the region.

“You had massive amounts of drugs,” Trump told journalists on Wednesday about the recent strike. “We have tapes that speak. It was a massive amount of drugs entering our country to kill many people. And everyone understands this fact perfectly. You see it, you see the drug bags everywhere in the boat and they were struck.

“Obviously, they will not return it. And I think that many other people would not do it again. When they look at this band, they will say:” Let’s not do that. “We have to protect our country and we will do it.

Maduro claims that the United States was looking for a “regime change by military threat” in the middle of the Caribbean accumulation

Trump said on Monday that US forces had determined that people on the ship were members of Tren from Aragua and said on Tuesday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro supervises the group.

Venezuelan ship destroyed during the American military strike (@Realdonaldtrump via social social)

However, a declassified assessment of the National Intelligence Council in April determined that there was no coordination between Tren of Aragua and the Venezuelan government.

According to representative Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., The ship belonged to the Cartel des Suns, a Venezuelan group of drug trafficking led by the military leaders of Venezuela.

The Trump administration adopted an aggressive approach to reduce the influx of drugs in the United States, and appointed groups of drug cartels like Tren of Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

In response to the Trump administration’s decision to send the destroyers to the Southern Command, Maduro said Venezuela was ready to respond to any attack and said this decision was “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat”.

Hegseth issues a warning to drug traffickers after an American military strike on Venezuelan ships

Nicolás Maduro, president of Venezuela, during a press conference at the Miraflore Palais in Caracas, Venezuela, July 31, 2024. (Gaby Oraa / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Faced with this maximum military pressure, we declared a maximum preparation for the defense of Venezuela,” said Maduro on a press conference on Monday.

Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the US military would launch future strikes on other drug ships trying to pass drugs to the United States in the United States

“We have assets in the air, active in water, assets on ships because it is a serious fatal mission for us, and that will not stop with this strike,” Hegseth told Fox News on Wednesday.

China condemns US military construction off the Venezuela coast as a foreign interference in regional affairs

“Any other traffic in these waters we know is an designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate,” said Hegseth.

Fox News Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.

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Defense secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a press conference at the Pentagon on June 26, 2025 in Washington. (Kevin Wolf / The Associated Press)