President Trump Convenes Oval Office Meeting on Escalating Venezuela Strategy

President Donald Trump is set to host a high-level Oval Office meeting Monday evening to evaluate next steps in the administration’s fast-escalating pressure campaign against Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The discussion will bring together senior defense and national security leaders including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller are also expected to join the meeting.

The U.S. has significantly increased its military posture in the Caribbean in recent weeks, deploying more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops under the Pentagon-led Operation Southern Spear. The administration has also warned that efforts to block Venezuelan drug trafficking could soon expand from the sea to land routes.

Over the weekend, the president issued a directive on social media urging airlines, pilots, and drug-smuggling networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace. He downplayed the message when asked by reporters, while separately acknowledging a recent phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro without disclosing details of the conversation.

The United States last week designated Maduro and several allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization, a move that officials say broadens U.S. authority to conduct strikes inside Venezuela.

Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties are raising alarms over a series of U.S. strikes targeting suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the region, which officials say have killed more than 80 people. A follow-up attack on survivors in the water after an initial strike has prompted accusations of possible war crimes.

“If the facts are, as alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill survivors in the water — that’s a stone-cold war crime,” Maine Sen. Angus King told CNN, adding that Congress intends to interview those involved “all the way up, up to the top of the chain of command.”

Some Republicans also questioned recent decisions from the administration. Florida Rep. Maria Salazar said President Trump’s pledge to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández — convicted in the U.S. for drug-trafficking crimes — sends mixed signals as pressure mounts on Maduro.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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