Trump Presented With Military Options for Land Strikes Inside Venezuela

Senior U.S. military officials have presented President Donald Trump with a range of updated military options for operations inside Venezuela, including potential strikes on land-based targets. The briefing, which took place at the White House on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, marks a critical escalation in the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against President Nicolás Maduro.
The plans were presented by top officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. While no final decision has been made, the options reportedly move well beyond the current maritime interdiction strikes.
According to officials familiar with the planning, the options under consideration include:
* Airstrikes: Targeted strikes on military airbases, ports, and facilities allegedly used by the “Cartel of the Suns” (Cartel de los Soles).
* Special Operations: Covert missions by U.S. special forces to capture or kill high-value targets, including Maduro, for whom the U.S. has a $50 million bounty.
* Seizure of Key Assets: A high-risk plan to seize control of Venezuela’s critical infrastructure, including its vast oil fields.
This meeting comes as the U.S. completes its largest military deployment in the Caribbean in decades. The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group has now entered the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility. It joins an armada of over a dozen warships, B-52 bombers, F-35 fighter jets, and an estimated 15,000 troops.
The administration has justified its military posture as a counter-narcotics operation. By designating Venezuelan cartels as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” the White House is reportedly using the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to provide a legal basis for military action without congressional approval. The Senate recently blocked a measure that would have limited the president’s authority to order strikes in Venezuela.
This new land-based planning follows a two-month-long U.S. air campaign at sea. Since September, U.S. forces have conducted over a dozen lethal strikes on alleged “narco-terrorist” boats, killing at least 80 people.
In response to what it calls “imperial threats,” the Venezuelan government has announced a “massive deployment” of its own land, sea, and air forces, placing its military on “full operational readiness.”