Venezuela - US Military Action Likely or Sabre Rattling?

[IanH755]

Hi All,

For the past few months the US military has been building up quite a large force around the Gulf of America with the apparent political desire from the US to increase the pressure on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to resign or face military action.

The current force contains the largest and newest USN aircraft carrier, with USMC F-35 deployments to nearby islands alongside USMC ground forces also deployed nearby etc. Now whilst this could just be good old fashioned sabre rattling, with the US President currently looking for a easy "win" and already targetting drug runners which are claimed to be from Venezuela, I could easily see him picking military action as a National Security act against a very weak foe (similar to previous US operations against Panama etc), and the latest reports from this evening are that the US President has just been briefed about his military options should he decide to pick one, hence this thread.

Now, I've tried to pick a wide range of news outlets below as I can, just to try and avoid the usual Pro/Anti-Trump arguments from destroying yet another thread between them (impossible I know), so I'm hoping that we can at least pretend to be adults and keep this discussion more about any military action TBH than becoming yet another ruined thread, but I also know NP&E is main reason why PH can't have nice things, so "have at it" I guess.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelan-...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gkypezze8o

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/12/trum...

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/americas/venezu...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/11/13/...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15288669/...

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/video/president-trum...

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/rubio-may-f...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-briefed-upda...

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5598033-...

https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-ford-aircraft...

[Hippea]

Trump desperately needs a new distraction so quite possibly

[Digger]

Yes . . . . Trump is looking to get some kind of “Win” . . . to distract from the alleged legal tales of being fellated & tossed off by 12 year old girls . . . & whatever else will be unearthed.


All alleged I hasten to add.

[Chimune]

Unfortunately for trump, a pic of him with a damp patch and nubile girls pointing laughing at it, will beat one of a random explosion somewhere and some dead furriners.

Every day of the week.

[hidetheelephants]

At least when Clinton was allegedly using the military to distract from embarrassing political scandal he restricted himself to launching Tomahawk strikes, putting service personnel in harm's way because of domestic issues is fairly despicable. There's no way Maduro will go anywhere without an invasion and the US has not mobilised the substantial land forces needed to achieve this, so unless they're planning some kind of mad Hollywood special forces effort to abduct him or an airstrike to assassinate him nothing will change, if anything this fruitless and bloody sabre rattling will entrench the venezuelan govt even more.

Edited by hidetheelephants on Friday 14th November 00:44

[suthol]

I know it's protocol and good practice to have the commander in Chief fully informed of the options and possible outcomes/consequences, but I doubt Trump is capable of absorbing what he was told and more importantly remembering it beyond the next distraction.

[ThunderSpook]

I think you mean Gulf of Mexico.

[Challo]

What's the end goal though? Do they want their own sycophant leader who will give them access to oil?

The drug runner boats is rubbish, and just a way for them to claim it's a national security threat.

[borcy]

Just a thing in the moment that's caught his attention. He'll get bored and move, won't even nudge the dial in terms of reducing drug use or importation.

[Byker28i]

They rounded a 234 random Venezuelans with tattoos and pretended they were in tren de aragua, and deported them without legal process to an El Savador hell hole. Journalist investigations found no proof to the claims, nor has tem trump ever provided any.

Then shadow president Miller started blowing up random Venezuelan boats they claim carried drugs, , again without proof and against international law, straight up murder.

Many claim this is in order to slowly groom their base into supporting a full ground war on Venezuela that was always about oil.

Edited by Byker28i on Friday 14th November 06:55

[Byker28i]

Oh and of course illegal military action is nothing to trump trying to distract from the Epstein files

[Ayahuasca]

I have many Venezuelan friends and have travelled there a lot.

They would absolutely support a Trump-instigated regime change.

Can’t happen soon enough.

Wouldn’t take US boots on the ground either. Just gain air supremacy, bomb a few key installations, some SF maybe, and watch them crumble.

The prize? Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. And they produce hardly any and export almost none, due to sanctions and general incompetence. If that oil was released onto the world market, oil prices would tumble,economies would accelerate, and Russia would be bankrupted. And the people of Venezuela would be in a fr better place.

Can’t happen soon enough. Win, win, win.

[AbbeyNormal]

Just offer Trump $20m and a development plot in Caracas.

Then watch those warships depart quicker than Andrew Mountbatten pants at an Epstein Island Pool party.

On a serious note, it would be pretty amusing for Maduro to do a televised broadcast offering the above directly to Trump. Surrounded by a pile of dollars and model of a Trump tower. Just to rub it in.

Edited by AbbeyNormal on Friday 14th November 10:39

[Tannedbaldhead]

He's saying it's a drugs thing yet most of the drugs are coming from Columbia and Mexico.
Even Peru is supplying more drugs to USA than Venezuela.
He's gunning (quite literally) for the wrong countries.

[AbbeyNormal]

Tannedbaldhead said:

He's saying it's a drugs thing yet most of the drugs are coming from Columbia and Mexico.
Even Peru is supplying more drugs to USA than Venezuela.
He's gunning (quite literally) for the wrong countries.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Venezuela nationalising US companies back in 2007.. .. Nothing I tell ya

[Byker28i]

The Atlantic have a report

https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2025...

[abzmike]

Ayahuasca said:

I have many Venezuelan friends and have travelled there a lot.

They would absolutely support a Trump-instigated regime change.

Can t happen soon enough.

Wouldn t take US boots on the ground either. Just gain air supremacy, bomb a few key installations, some SF maybe, and watch them crumble.

The prize? Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. And they produce hardly any and export almost none, due to sanctions and general incompetence. If that oil was released onto the world market, oil prices would tumble,economies would accelerate, and Russia would be bankrupted. And the people of Venezuela would be in a fr better place.

Can t happen soon enough. Win, win, win.

Venezuela may have a lot of oil, but it is very heavy and poor quality, and needs expensive refining. The oil argument holds no water.
However bad the government is, or how much the opposition loathes them, is not a pretext for military action by another country. Sinking boats in open water because they are running drugs is also legally dubious.
This is pure distraction my Trump.

[Ayahuasca]

abzmike said:

Ayahuasca said:

I have many Venezuelan friends and have travelled there a lot.

They would absolutely support a Trump-instigated regime change.

Can t happen soon enough.

Wouldn t take US boots on the ground either. Just gain air supremacy, bomb a few key installations, some SF maybe, and watch them crumble.

The prize? Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. And they produce hardly any and export almost none, due to sanctions and general incompetence. If that oil was released onto the world market, oil prices would tumble,economies would accelerate, and Russia would be bankrupted. And the people of Venezuela would be in a fr better place.

Can t happen soon enough. Win, win, win.

Venezuela may have a lot of oil, but it is very heavy and poor quality, and needs expensive refining. The oil argument holds no water.
However bad the government is, or how much the opposition loathes them, is not a pretext for military action by another country. Sinking boats in open water because they are running drugs is also legally dubious.
This is pure distraction my Trump.

Their oil may be heavy and need more refining, but in 1990 they were in the top 5 countries worldwide in production, more than UAE. Now it’s practically zero. You don’t think Trump has noticed that?

[Tango13]

Look back through history and there are numerous examples of dictators starting foreign wars to distract from the domestic st show...

[isaldiri]

abzmike said:

Ayahuasca said:

I have many Venezuelan friends and have travelled there a lot.

They would absolutely support a Trump-instigated regime change.

Can t happen soon enough.

Wouldn t take US boots on the ground either. Just gain air supremacy, bomb a few key installations, some SF maybe, and watch them crumble.

The prize? Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. And they produce hardly any and export almost none, due to sanctions and general incompetence. If that oil was released onto the world market, oil prices would tumble,economies would accelerate, and Russia would be bankrupted. And the people of Venezuela would be in a fr better place.

Can t happen soon enough. Win, win, win.

Venezuela may have a lot of oil, but it is very heavy and poor quality, and needs expensive refining. The oil argument holds no water.
However bad the government is, or how much the opposition loathes them, is not a pretext for military action by another country. Sinking boats in open water because they are running drugs is also legally dubious.
This is pure distraction my Trump.

Agreed - the oil reserves thing is true but it's poor quality oil that's very expensive to extract. It might be more of a warning shot for Venezuela to back off any itchy hands on Guyana as there have been some increasing rumblings there, especially since Chevron/Exxon had their (very large) oilfield now working there and iirc, Guyana's oil quality is generally much more desirable quality than Venezuela.