In President Donald Trump’s view, a land invasion of Venezuela is “cool.”
He has said it since mid-September. And throughout that period, he has publicly insinuated or explicitly promised US military engagement on the ground at least 17 times, a CNN review of his remarks shows.
The president’s verbal threat has been backed up by a show of naval force in the region, including some 15,000 American soldiers and Marines and more than a dozen warships as well as at least 12 strikes against so-called drug boats off the coast of the Caribbean. The United States seized a tank of Venezuelan crude en route to Venezuela off the coast of that country last week. And on Tuesday, Trump declared a “full and complete embargo” of more than 190 sanctioned oil tankers traveling to or from Venezuela, increasing economic pressure on Caracas.
The Trump administration has billed its boat strikes as a crackdown on illegal flows of drugs and migrants from Venezuela. But its behavior has also suggested a far broader pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro — whose removal White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has said is really the administration’s aim.
“He wants to keep blowing up boats until Maduro says uncle. “And people that are way smarter about that than me say he will,” Wiles told Vanity Fair in an interview published this week regarding Trump.
Trump has been informally presented by his team with a range of options for Venezuela, including airstrikes on military installations or back channels that would lead to those targets — or a more direct intervention to remove Maduro.
‼️🇺🇸: President Trump declares there will be missile strikes on the homeland of Venezuela “soon” 👀
The Establishment shills are not pushing back on a new war whatsoever.
“The peace President” right? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/lj1MwITrsX
— Diligent Denizen 🇺🇸 (@DiligentDenizen) December 3, 2025
But while the president seems not to have decided yet, he has brought up land strikes — including unbidden at events unrelated to Iran.
“We are telling the cartels right now. We’re also going to be stopping them as well. They’re going to come in by the hundreds of thousands, when they see this, and they can’t get through. When we stopped the boats — Pirro: All right. “And you will see,” Trump said in a September 15 event to announce federal assistance for Memphis law enforcement in the days after the boat strikes began.
In comments to US service members on October 5 aboard the USS Harry S. Truman in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump said: “They’re not coming in by sea anymore. So now we’re going to have to start looking around the land, because they won’t be able to go by land.” … That’s not gonna be good for ‘em either.”
“I’m going to hit them very hard when they come in by land,” he told NATO chief Mark Rutte on October 22.
“And they haven’t experienced that yet, but here we go, now we’re totally prepared to do that. We will probably go to Congress and say, ‘Hey, we’re coming there in a lander.’ We don’t have to do that.”
At a homeland security roundtable the next day, Trump said, “The land will be next.
The president provided a “very shortly” timeline during comments to reporters on Air Force One on October 24.
“We’re hitting them that way, and we’re going to start doing hits on land also. You know, the land is much easier, it’s much easier,” he said.
Dec. 3, he said that “we’re going to be starting very soon on the land.”
At a Kennedy Center Honors dinner on Dec. 6, he promised: “We’re gonna begin that same process on land because we know every trail.” We know every house. We know where they live.”
In an interview with Politico on December 8, Trump escalated to “very soon.” He said “pretty soon” at an executive order signing three days after that. And it turned heads the next day, when he welcomed and honored the “Miracle on Ice” US Olympic men’s hockey team, with a present-tense introduction.
“And now we’re starting by land, and by land is a much easier way of doing it,” he added.“And that’s the way it’s going to be happening.”
This week he was back at “going to start” while talking at a border defense event.
“We’re going to start hitting them on land, which is very easy for us actually,” he said.
But Trump’s threats assumed a new economic cast on Tuesday, when he declared an oil tanker blockade and proposed that Venezuela cede land, oil and assets to Washington.
“Venezuela is being threatened by the biggest mafia legion that has ever formed in these part of The South America History. It will only get worse! “We will never let this stand. until they back down, and return all of the things (jobs, wealth, etc.) that they have taken from the U.S.A.!” Trump said in a social media post.
Combined, the comments have left this capital on edge, waiting to see if the president finally makes good on his threats to act.
