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Posted on 10/25/2025 10:25:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Friday dodged a question from reporters about the potential for ground troops on Venezuelan soil, as tensions escalate amid the Trump administration’s war on drugs in the Caribbean.
While he said he “would not now or ever get into any detailed discussion” about potential military options, Miller called Venezuela a “central hub” for the trafficking of narcotics, weapons and humans.
The White House aide called the drug cartels linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which are designated terrorist organizations, the “ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.”
When asked directly about the potential for U.S. troops being placed on the ground, he referred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s comments Thursday about the strategies used to combat the regime, including the ramped-up strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
“I know that you want more detailed answers than I can provide,” Miller told reporters. “But these are terrorists and they’re going to be killed.”
The Trump administration has authorized military strikes on boats claimed to be ferrying drugs from Venezuela’s coast and in the Pacific Ocean. Around 43 people have been killed since the operation began on Sept. 2. Hegseth said earlier this week that five “narco-terrorists” were killed Tuesday and Wednesday, during strikes on two separate alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Eastern Pacific.
The administration has not produced evidence that the boats were trafficking drugs.
Although President Trump said Wednesday that he could ask Congress to authorize a strike on cartel members on land, he dismissed the possibility on Thursday and said he did not think the administration will “necessarily ask for a declaration of war.”
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK?” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to kill them.”
Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress has the sole power to declare war. But in the past, former Presidents Biden, Obama and George W. Bush bypassed Congress to conduct strikes, including via drones, on alleged adversaries. Obama and Trump, during his first term, both oversaw numerous drone strikes.
Earlier this month, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Tim Kaine (Va.) sponsored a resolution to stop the strikes. The vote failed 48-51, with GOP Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) being the only Republicans to support it. The only Democrat to vote against it was Sen. John Fetterman (Pa.).
As tensions escalate, the Pentagon announced Friday that it would send the U.S.S Gerald R. Ford to the Caribbean. The vessel, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, will be used to “dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland,” according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.
Maduro has called the mounting tension a “crazy war” and called for peace.
“Yes peace, yes peace forever, peace forever. No crazy war, please,” the Venezuelan leader said on Thursday.
Why would we ever need boots on the ground there? I think a few precision strikes will solve the problem.
"We will strike down terrorists who threaten our citizens and we will keep out of America - of our great country - we will stay away from those ridiculous endless foreign wars. They never end," Trump told thousands of his supporters.
The operative term is “endless.”
you are an anti-Trump propagandizer. There will be no invasion. Guaranteed.
Not divulging military operational plans=sidesteppping
😂😂😂 the media is trash
Sidesteps?
I used to ask an active duty military guy about current events. My ideas about what was happening behind the scenes.
He would change the subject
Because I did not have a need to know
That’s not sidestepping
News reporters even the Hill reporters don’t differentiate need to know from want to know.
Why would we ever need boots on the ground there? I think a few precision strikes will solve the problem.
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I agree.
Maduro has plenty of opposition and they’d seize the moment and get rid of him.
Why is the media insistent on starting wars? That’s the motive of the question.
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You can easily see the drug bundles in the gun camera footage. Do the newsies think they're bring Christmas presents?
I think there are already teams, SEALs or Deltas, on the ground. I think they are gathering intel on drug transports and identifying when and from where these cigarette boats are going and how they are crewed. I am sure no one wants to blow up a boat with a woman and three kids aboard. So I think on site teams are responsible for the success we are having with these boats.
Yup. Limited objectives to be achieved with a modicum of force.
Magically they weren’t protecting the uranium enrichment sites themselves, the highest of high value targets? LOL
They don't have the money to purchase true "cigarette" boats. These are nothing but Peneros, (typical fishing boats) outfitted with three and four 75 HP. outboard motors....
Too fast for just trolling for fish....LOL!
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