President Donald Trump will hold a meeting at the White House on Monday evening about next steps on Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as the administration intensifies its pressure campaign on the country.
Key members of Trump’s Cabinet and national security team, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend, as well as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
The meeting, which is expected to take place at 5 p.m. ET in the Oval Office, comes as the United States has increased pressure on Venezuela with strikes on drug vessels and a military asset buildup in the Caribbean. The US military has amassed more than a dozen warships and 15,000 troops in the region as part of what the Pentagon has branded “Operation Southern Spear.”
The president also said last week that the US would be stopping Venezuelan drug trafficking by land, in addition to sea, “very soon.”
Over the weekend, the president issued a broad directive on social media, warning airlines, pilots and criminal networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace. He told reporters Sunday, however, not to read into the announcement.
Trump also confirmed he had spoken with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the phone, but didn’t address what was discussed. The administration last week formally designated Maduro and allies of his government as members of a foreign terrorist organization, a move officials argue will give the US expanded military options for striking inside Venezuela.
The Oval Office meeting comes as lawmakers continue to question the legality of the US strikes on alleged drug boats in the region, which have killed more than 80 people. The legality of the strikes has been questioned as the US is not officially in a war with Venezuela.
CNN reported last week citing sources familiar with the matter that the US carried out a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle voiced serious concerns over the strike with some suggesting it could be a “war crime.”
“The law is clear,” Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, told CNN on Monday morning. “If the facts are, as have been alleged, that there was a second strike specifically to kill the survivors in the water — that’s a stone-cold war crime. It’s also murder.”
King, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Congress would seek to interview “people up and down the chain of command.”
“The question is, what order did the secretary of defense give and how was that executed? And we’re going to be talking to people, as I say, all the way up, up to the top of the chain of command and down to the people that actually triggered that attack,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional details.