Trump says US eyes land strikes next after drug boat attacks

Courtney McBride, Bloomberg News on Oct 23, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said “the land is going to be next” in his campaign to halt the flow of drugs into the U.S. from Venezuela, the clearest indication yet that he’s preparing to broaden strikes that have so far been limited to targets at sea.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to notify Congress of the administration’s upcoming plans. He didn’t discuss targets, though, he has repeatedly suggested he could order the U.S. military to escalate attacks by hitting cartel infrastructure on land.

“The land is going to be next,” Trump said. Turning to Hegseth, he added, “Pete, you go to Congress, you tell them about it. What are they going to do? Say, ‘gee, we don’t want to stop drugs pouring in’?”

“The land drugs are much more dangerous for them,” Trump said. “It’s going to be much more dangerous. You’ll be seeing that soon. So that’s the way it is.”

Striking targets on land would be a major escalation in tensions with Venezuela. In September, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered indefinite deployments of troops and assets across five states, expanding on his original mobilization of 15,000 soldiers, following the first of the U.S. boat strikes.

He also urged Venezuelans to join the country’s militia and ordered the armed forces to train civilians in weapons use. Earlier this week, Maduro said the government had distributed about 5,000 Russian-made Igla-S anti-aircraft missiles, deploying them across “mountains, villages and cities” as part of key defense positions.

Speaking in Caracas on Thursday, Maduro said that if the nation came under foreign attack, the working class should mount a “general insurrectionary strike” and push for “an even more radical revolution.” He was greeted with a song chanting: “Latin America tells you: Yankee go home, gringo go home.”

Asked if he’d declare war against the cartels, Trump said he didn’t necessarily see any reason to do so. “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country — OK?” he said. “We’re going to kill them, you know they’re going to be like dead.”

The Trump administration has already hit about a half dozen boats in the southern Caribbean since the start of September, saying the vessels were transporting drugs to the U.S. The strikes have added to tensions with Maduro and prompted speculation that Washington may be preparing to attack targets on land.

At the same event, Trump denied a report in The Wall Street Journal that B-1 bombers flew near Venezuela — while remaining in international airspace — to ramp up pressure on Maduro’s regime.

On Tuesday, the U.S. struck a suspected drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding airstrikes previously limited to the Caribbean. Last week, Trump confirmed he had greenlit CIA activity in Venezuela, claiming the country’s leaders had “emptied their prisons into the United States” and were allowing drug shipments northward.