President Donald Trump is seriously considering expanding his military action in Venezuela from the sea to the land, and it looks like his ultimate goal is to see the exit of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who he calls a “narco-terrorist.” This big news comes straight from Senator Lindsey Graham, who confirmed that Trump is ready for Maduro’s fall and plans to brief Congress on what he calls his crusade against drugs after he gets back from his trip to Asia this week.
It feels like we’ve crossed a major line here; this is an all-out escalation in our own backyard, and the administration is barely even pretending it’s not about regime change anymore. Graham, a staunch Trump ally, sounds incredibly enthusiastic about this push, and he’s not even trying to hide what’s coming next.
According to Fox, he said, “President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia.” That briefing, he added, will specifically be “about a potential expanding from the sea to the land.”
Trump was always trying to start a war
Graham is totally on board with the idea, arguing that Trump “has all the authority he needs” to launch these strikes without waiting for Congress to weigh in. This isn’t just about a couple of supposed drug boats anymore; the administration just wanted an excuse to go to war.
Graham is also perfectly clear on the endgame, stating that Trump has “made a decision that Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug trafficker, that it’s time for him to go.” The Senator argues that both Venezuela and Colombia “have been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long.”
The Trump administration has totally doubled down on this drug-cartel narrative, increasing the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to a whopping $50 million and labeling him “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.” It’s an informative approach, putting a target squarely on the Venezuelan leader’s back. Trump himself has been pretty blunt, too. When talking about the possibility of hitting land targets, he said, “The land is going to be next.”
He’s even gone as far as to say, “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country — OK? We’re going to kill them, you know they’re going to be, like, dead.” which really means they’re deciding who the bad guys are, even without proof of drugs.
This whole shift to focusing on “narco-terrorists” and expanding the operation from a maritime crackdown to potential land strikes smells a lot like a victory for Marco Rubio. Rubio, a top-tier critic of the Maduro regime for a long time, has been the one pushing this tough line. He’s been the one drumming up that “narco-terrorist” rhetoric to persuade Trump to pivot to this much more aggressive approach aimed at regime change.
Rubio has vociferously justified the boat strikes, even declaring that boats carrying cocaine or fentanyl pose an “immediate threat” to the United States. He’s made it clear he views Maduro as nothing more than a “fugitive of American justice.”
Published: Oct 28, 2025 10:52 am