Trump says war with Venezuela remains possible

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he does not rule out the possibility of a war with Venezuela.

"I don't rule it out, no," he told NBC News in a phone interview released on Friday.

Trump also declined to say whether ousting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was his ultimate goal.

"He knows exactly what I want," Trump said. "He knows better than anybody."

Trump added that there will be additional seizures of oil tankers.

"It depends. If they're foolish enough to be sailing along, they'll be sailing along back into one of our harbors," said Trump.

Trump on Tuesday ordered a total, complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, stepping up a months-long pressure campaign against Maduro.

During his presidential campaign in 2024, Trump repeatedly claimed he would keep the United States out of foreign conflicts.

In his speech after he won the election, Trump said he was "not going to start a war; I'm going to stop wars."

However, for almost four months, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Caribbean, much of it off Venezuela's coast, purportedly to combat drug trafficking -- a claim Venezuela has denounced as a thinly veiled attempt to bring about regime change in Caracas.

The Pentagon has sunk more than 28 alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 104 people aboard.

Critics, including bipartisan lawmakers in the US Capitol, have questioned whether counternarcotics is indeed the only US motive and the legality of the US military strikes in the Caribbean for months.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows 63 percent of US adults oppose the Trump administration's military attacks on Venezuela, compared with 25 percent who support them.