President Donald Trump said in a recent radio interview that the United States has “knocked out” a major facility in Venezuela, signaling an escalation in his administration’s campaign to pressure the regime of President Nicolás Maduro and disrupt drug trafficking operations tied to the country.
Speaking Friday on the “Cats & Cosby” show on New York’s WABC radio, Trump praised ongoing U.S. military operations targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the region. During the interview with hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby, the president revealed that U.S. forces struck a facility connected to those operations just days earlier.
“We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump said. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”
Trump did not specify where the facility was located, how the strike was carried out, the extent of the damage, or whether there were casualties. The lack of detail has left questions unanswered, though the president expanded on his remarks a few days later.
On Monday, while speaking at Mar-a-Lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump offered additional insight, describing the target as an “implementation” area. “We hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area,” Trump said. “That’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”
The president went on to describe a “major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” adding that it occurred “along the shore.” Those comments suggested the strike may have targeted a port or docking facility used by drug traffickers.
When asked about Trump’s statements, both the Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command referred inquiries to the White House. U.S. officials told The New York Times that a drug facility in Venezuela had been eliminated but provided no further details. The Venezuelan government has not publicly commented on the alleged strike.
If confirmed, the action would represent the first known U.S. land strike inside Venezuela since the Trump administration launched its pressure campaign against Maduro and since U.S. forces began targeting alleged drug trafficking vessels in early September.
Trump has openly discussed the possibility of authorizing land strikes in Venezuela in recent weeks. Since Sept. 2, the U.S. military has struck at least 28 suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, operations that the administration says have killed at least 105 “narcoterrorists.” The White House has framed the campaign as a necessary effort to choke off illicit drug flows and protect Americans at home.
Critics of the boat strikes have argued they amount to extrajudicial killings and questioned their legal basis, noting that Venezuelan cartels primarily traffic cocaine rather than fentanyl, which drives most U.S. overdose deaths. The administration, however, has maintained that the operations are justified and effective.
Trump confirmed in October that he authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, and reports indicate special operations forces have recently been deployed to the region. In addition to military action, Trump has announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. U.S. forces have already seized at least two tankers off the Venezuelan coast and pursued a third.
Taken together, Trump’s comments underscore a more aggressive posture toward Maduro, combining military strikes, covert operations, and economic pressure in what the administration says is a determined effort to dismantle drug networks and confront a hostile regime in the Western Hemisphere.
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