After ringing Venezuela with American forces offshore, President Donald Trump will meet with top aides Monday to chart his next steps, according to a new report.
On Saturday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that Venezuela’s airspace should be considered closed.
On Sunday, a report in the Miami Herald said that Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was told by the White House in a recent phone call that the time to take his immediate family and leave the country is now.
The report said Maduro refused, saying he wanted to keep control of the nation’s armed forces.
Trump on Sunday confirmed he and Maduro spoke, according to The Hill.
Asked how he could categorize the call, Trump said, “No, I wouldn’t say it went well or badly. It was a phone call.”
CNN reported that a 5 p.m. Monday meeting would cement the future of the American pressure campaign, which Trump has said is aimed at dismantling a narco-terrorist base of operations in Venezuela.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are expected to attend, CNN reported, citing sources it did not name.
Mapping potential military targets in Venezuela
Yesterday, the U.S. announced Operation Southern Spear to “remove narco-terrorists from our hemisphere.” With the Ford carrier strike group now on station in SOUTHCOM, the U.S. could launch land strikes at any time.
w/ @SA_Defensa pic.twitter.com/WmyZ4mK2EY
— Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) November 15, 2025
Trump last week said that after weeks of interdicting drug-carrying boats at sea, efforts to do so on land could begin “very soon.”
However, as noted by The Hill, on Sunday, Trump added, “Don’t read anything into it,” when asked if his airspace comment was a prelude to airstrikes.
Asked why airspace was being closed, Trump said, “Because we consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country.”
Do you support Trump’s policy toward preventing drugs from entering the country?
“They sent millions of people really and probably a number in excess of that and a lot of those people shouldn’t be in our country from jails, from gangs, drug dealers, from all of the people that came into our country, shouldn’t have been in our country causing a lot of problems and drugs,” Trump said.
As noted by CBS, Venezuela pushed back against Trump’s airspace closure.
“No authority outside the Venezuelan institutionality has the power to interfere, block or condition the use of national airspace,” its government said in its statement Saturday, adding that it “unilaterally suspended” flights from American that took deported illegal immigrants back home.
U.S.–Venezuela tensions are hitting a breaking point. Warships in position, airspace sealed, Maduro cornered. The narco regime is running out of time. America won’t tolerate a cartel dictatorship on our doorstep. Hemisphere security isn’t optional. pic.twitter.com/FYFV8TJhr8
— MAG🔫1775🇺🇸 (@realMAG1775) December 1, 2025
The New York Post reported that the U.S. has 11 warships near Venezuela, headlined by the USS Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group of more than 70 aircraft. About 15,000 U.S. service members are in the region.
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