JUST IN: Trump Confirms Land Strike Against Venezuela

President Donald Trump acknowledged Monday that U.S. forces have struck a facility in Venezuela, describing a “major explosion” at a dock area reportedly used to load boats with drugs and confirming that the U.S. had also previously targeted the vessels themselves. This would mark the first known U.S. land-based strike in Venezuela in the current campaign, a dramatic escalation in pressure against President Nicolás Maduro’s government.

President Trump, speaking from Mar-a-Lago while standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed that U.S. forces struck a key narcotics hub in Venezuela.

“We hit all the boats and now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement. And that is no longer around,” the president said.

He added that the strike caused a “major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” noting it occurred “along the shore.”

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Neither the White House, the Pentagon, nor the Central Intelligence Agency has publicly confirmed details of the operation or formally named the target. Trump has for weeks signaled a willingness to expand military actions from maritime strikes against drug-linked vessels to land-based targets inside Venezuela, a shift that would carry significant diplomatic and legal implications.

The president previously said he had authorized covert CIA actions in Venezuela. The reported strike comes amid a sustained pressure campaign the U.S. calls Operation Southern Spear, involving more than two dozen strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific since September, resulting in at least 100 deaths, according to open reporting.

Alongside military actions, the administration has deployed thousands of troops and warships around Venezuelan waters and seized or blocked oil tankers tied to the country’s exports. U.S. officials frame these actions as efforts to disrupt narcotics trafficking and diminish the Maduro regime’s influence.

Those seizures, paired with what U.S. officials have described as a naval “quarantine,” are meant to choke off revenue for Maduro. Venezuela has fired back politically, claiming the U.S. is violating international law and even passing new legislation to counter the tanker seizures.

Washington has long accused Venezuelan officials of being tied to drug trafficking, but in recent months the U.S. has gone from sanctions and seizures to actual military force. The U.S. has taken out dozens of boats believed to be involved in the drug trade.

President Trump also met with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where the leaders discussed the next phase of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire, ongoing regional security threats, and plans for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip. Trump said that rebuilding efforts in Gaza would begin “soon,” saying that progress depends in part on the release of the remains of the last Israeli hostage taken by Hamas.

Netanyahu stressed continued concerns about Iranian aggression, while Trump publicly expressed strong support for the Israeli leader and the alliance between the two countries. The meeting comes at a delicate moment in the peace process, as both sides work to move from temporary calm to a more durable resolution, though disagreements remain over governance and security arrangements in Gaza.