President Donald Trump has escalated threats against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in recent weeks, and reports now say the Trump administration is preparing for the days after a potential Maduro overthrow. What might happen in such a scenario? In November, Michael Crowley at The New York Times pursued this question by reminding readers that, during Trump’s first term, U.S.
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“We have just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually,” Donald Trump told reporters on December 10, describing the escalation of his apparently impending illegal war and regime change in Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi ceremoniously released a video clip of the U.S. Marines and National Guard rappelling down from two…
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On September 2, 2025, a small fishing boat carrying 11 people was targeted by a U.S. Reaper drone off the coast of Venezuela. Hellfire missiles were fired. Two survivors clung to the wreckage. Their identities and motives were unknown. Their behavior showed no hostility. Moments later, the drone operator launched a second strike — the so-called “double tap” — killing the final survivors.
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On Wednesday, December 10, Donald Trump announced that the United States had seized a tanker in the Caribbean carrying more than 1.6 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever, actually, and other things are happening,” Trump told the press. The seizure is only the latest move in a long build-up of U.S. military action in the Caribbean and…
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troops seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday, a major escalation that the Venezuelan government called “international piracy.” We speak with New York University professor Alejandro Velasco about the Trump administration’s intentions in the country, which has the world’s largest known oil reserves. Though the Pentagon has claimed the conflict is aimed at combating…
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