‘Will Talk To Him’: Trump Says He’ll Speak To Maduro, Won’t Rule Out Sending Troops To Venezuela

Last Updated:November 18, 2025, 02:20 IST

US President Donald Trump said that the US has to “take care of Venezuela” and said he will speak to counterpart Nicolas Maduro at some point.

Trump’s expanding military footprint in the Caribbean fuels Caracas’s charges that Washington wants to oust Maduro. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he will hold talks with Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro “at some point" but declined to rule out whether he will send American troops to the Latin American country.

Trump also said that US “just has to take care of Venezuela".

“At a certain period of time, I’ll be talking to him. We just have to take care of Venezuela. They dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country from prisons," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, while adding that Maduro “has not been good to the United States."

Asked if he would rule out US troops on the ground in Venezuela, Trump replied: “No I don’t rule out that, I don’t rule out anything.

Trump’s comments came as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean Sea for the anti-smuggling campaign — dubbed “Operation Southern Spear" — along with two guided-missile destroyers and other support vessels and aircraft.

Washington says the massive US military build-up in the Caribbean is meant to curb drug smuggling into the United States. But Caracas insists the deployment is really a pretext to topple President Nicolás Maduro, whom Washington calls an illegitimate leader and a drug trafficker — allegations Maduro rejects.

Earlier Sunday, the US State Department said it would classify Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) — which it claims is headed by Maduro — as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

“Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

The designation is effective from November 24.

Shankhyaneel Sarkar

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se...Read More

Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over seven years of experience during which he has covered se...

Read More

News world ‘Will Talk To Him’: Trump Says He’ll Speak To Maduro, Won’t Rule Out Sending Troops To Venezuela

Read More