Donald Trump not ruling out war with Venezuela

Donald Trump has said that he is not ruling out the possibility of a war with Venezuela

Donald Trump has said that he is not ruling out the possibility of a war between the US and Venezuela.

The US president told NBC News, "I don’t rule it out, no" on Thursday - just two days after he ordered a "blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and from the South American country on Tuesday and nine days after US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on December 10.

The Trump administration has ramped up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in recent weeks. Trump claims Venezuela is a major source of drug trafficking into the US, particularly fentanyl and cocaine, and has designated two Venezuelan criminal groups, Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles, as Foreign Terrorist Organisations, alleging that Maduro himself leads the latter, a claim Maduro denies.

Trump also blames Maduro for the influx of Venezuelan migrants into the US. He has accused Maduro of "emptying prisons and asylums" and sending inmates to the US, although he has not provided evidence to support this. Maduro has accused the US of using its "war on drugs" as a pretext to oust him and seize Venezuela's oil reserves.

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