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President Donald Trump said he hasn't ruled out the possibility of a war with Venezuela during a phone interview with NBC News.
"I don’t rule it out, no," Trump said.
The president ordered a "blockade" of sanctioned oil takers coming and going from Venezuela on Tuesday (December 16) amid tension between the two countries, having recently seized an oil tanker captured near the South American country. The Trump administration has already killed more than 100 people in 28 strikes on what they claim are suspected drug boats since early September.
House and Senate lawmakers questioned Adm. Frank Bradley, who directed strikes against a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean Sea on September 2, after the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered no survivors be left in the initial mission.
"I don't discuss it," Trump said when asked if such actions could lead to war via NBC News.
"It depends. If they’re foolish enough to be sailing along, they’ll be sailing along back into one of our harbors," he added.
Trump's administration has publicly defended the strikes, claiming they were critical in halting the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid commonly made with chemicals from China and trafficked through Mexico, is the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S.
"The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people,” Hegseth wrote on his X account last month. “Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”