President Trump said the United States had struck an area loaded with drugs on a boat in Venezuela, as the Pentagon carried out another deadly attack in the Pacific Ocean.
Published December 30, 2025
US President Donald Trump claimed the attack on the Venezuelan pier was used to “load drugs on boats,” marking the first known ground attack by US forces in the Latin American country since Washington launched a pressure campaign four months ago.
Monday’s announcement came as the U.S. military said it had carried out another attack on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing at least two people.
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President Trump spoke about the attack in Venezuela for the first time in a radio interview Friday, and when asked by reporters about the explosion in Venezuela on Monday, he said the United States had attacked a boat loading facility.
President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida and said there was a “massive explosion in the area of the pier where drugs are loaded onto boats.” “They’re loading the boats with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. This is the enforcement area. That’s where they enforce the drugs. And that doesn’t exist anymore.”
President Trump declined to say whether the U.S. military or CIA carried out the attack on the pier or where the attack took place.
“I know exactly who it was, I don’t want to say who, but you know, it was along the coast,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Venezuela regarding the attack, and the country has not received an independent report on the U.S. attack.
The allegations come as the Trump administration escalates its pressure campaign against Venezuela, part of a broader effort to target what the president claims is drug smuggling operations destined for the United States.
Caracas denies involvement in drug trafficking and claims the United States is trying to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and seize the country’s oil reserves, the world’s largest.
After months of military operations on the high seas in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the latest U.S. actions appear to signal a shift toward land attacks.
At least 107 people have been killed in 30 attacks since early September, according to figures released by the Trump administration.
The attack is widely considered to be illegal under both U.S. and international law, and has been described by legal scholars and rights groups as an extrajudicial killing.
US Southern Command described the latest victims of Monday’s attack as “two male narco-terrorists” and said their ship was engaged in a “drug trafficking operation.”
The attack came amid a massive U.S. military buildup in the region, including more than 15,000 U.S. troops, and the seizure of several oil tankers as part of a blockade ordered by President Donald Trump against sanctioned vessels traveling to and from Venezuela.
President Trump has indicated for months that the United States may expand its operations to include land strikes in South America, particularly Venezuela, and recently said the United States would move beyond shipping targets to land strikes “soon.”
In October, President Trump acknowledged that he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela. The agency did not comment on Trump’s comments Monday.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine this month that Trump “wants to keep up the fuss until Maduro cries with his uncle.”
