President Trump is turning up the heat on Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro — saying that the dictator’s “days are numbered” as president, as the US oversees the biggest military buildup in the Caribbean in more than 35 years.
The president made the remark in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, during which he explained that Maduro’s regime not only has been the source of drugs and crime in the US — but is also responsible for the mass migration of Venezuelans.
“They’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs. They’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country that we didn’t want — people from prisons. They emptied their prisons into our country,” he said. “They also, if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylums into the United States of America.”
The gangs Tren de Aragua and Cartel de Los Soles, which have been responsible for robberies, drug trafficking and sexual exploitation across the US, both arrived with the latest wave of Venezuelan refugees.
Trump is backing up his fiery words with real firepower — sending the world’s largest warship, the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier; nuclear submarines; guided-missile destroyers and cruisers and troops to the Caribbean.
Maduro has ruled Venezuela since 2013, despite rigging back-to-back elections in 2019 and 2023, which observers say he likely lost badly.
He also remains defiant in the face of his nation’s economic collapse, international sanctions and growing isolation.
Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado previously told The Post that she believes many of the 8 million Venezuelans who have fled Maduro’s regime will return to their home country if the dictator is ousted.
“This regime systematically and intentionally looked to expel millions of Venezuelans. Imagine if one-
third of the US population had to flee? This is devastating for us,” she explained in an interview last month. “The day Maduro goes, you will see hundreds of thousands of Venezuela from all over the world and the US coming back home.”
Military buildup
There are currently eight US warships currently in the region, according to publicly available Pentagon data.
That number will soon jump to 14, and more than 10,000 troops, after the Pentagon last week announced the deployment of America’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its accompanying strike group of escort vessels.
The Ford and five accompanying guided-missile destroyers — the USS Mahan, USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Bainbridge, USS Mitscher and USS Forrest Sherman — left Europe late last week and are expected to arrive in the region by the end of this week.
The build-up began more than two months ago, with Trump deploying an initial seven warships — including three guided-missile destroyers and a nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine — carrying 4,500 service members to the waters surrounding Venezuela on Aug. 29.
Those ships carried out a series at least 14 strikes on suspected drug boats out of Venezuela, killing more than 60 accused narcoterrorists — something Trump described as “fortunate” in his 60 Minutes interview.
“Every one of those boats that you see shot down — and I agree it’s a terrible thing — but every one of those boats kills 25,000 Americans,” Trump said.
Along with the ships, hoards of military aircraft from fighter jets to B-52 bombers are also operating in the region.
That effort centers around Roosevelt Roads, a former Cold War-era naval base in Puerto Rico that’s being rapidly rebuilt to serve as the operation’s nerve center. The sprawling facility once served as a launch pad for US missions across the Caribbean and Latin America.
Now, it’s roaring back to life as tensions with the Maduro regime spike.
Construction activity began in September, with the preparation of taxiways leading to the runway at the long-forgotten air base captured in photos by Reuters.
That same month, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth deployed 10 F-35 fighter jets — the most modern in America’s arsenal — to Puerto Rico. Since then, V-22 transport aircraft, KC-130 refueling tankers and C-17 cargo transports have also joined the fighter jets.
The buildup puts more US military assets in the region than any time since the 1989 invasion of Panama to depose Manuel Noriega.
What’s next?
What is to come from the buildup remains unclear, as Trump refused to answer questions about the possibility of airstrikes in Venezuela itself.
“I’m not saying it’s true or untrue, but … I wouldn’t be inclined to say that I would do that because I don’t talk to a reporter about whether or not I’m going to strike,” he said.
Just two weeks earlier, Trump had said that the administration was considering targeting Venezuela-based drug cartels on land after taking out about half a dozen drug smuggling vessels.
“We are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea under control,” he said in response to a reporter’s question in the Oval Office.
“A lot of Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea. So you get to see that, but we’re going to stop them by land also.”
Still, Trump in the 60 Minutes interview said that he “doubts” that the US would “go to war” with Venezuela — hinting that a regime change could come without a full-scale conflict with Caracas.
