US forces are massing around Venezuela. What’s Trump’s next move?
US naval assets are massing off the coast of Venezuela, while President Donald Trump’s administrations boasts about blowing up alleged “drug boats” departing those shores.
Trump has hinted at carrying out “land strikes” in Venezuela and the White House earlier this year threatened to place 25 per cent import tariffs on any country that imported Venezuelan oil.
What’s going on in the South American country and why is Trump so angry about it?
A satellite image captured on October 17 shows F-35 fighter jets at José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Puerto Rico. (Planet Labs PBC via CNN)
Troops building up in the region
The US military has been steadily massing a large number of troops, naval and air assets in the Caribbean over the last two months, conducting training missions off the coast of Venezuela, reopening a military base in Puerto Rico that had been shuttered for decades, and attacking speedboats carrying suspected drug traffickers from Venezuela and Colombia.
As of Tuesday, a significant percentage of all deployed US naval assets globally are also now located in US Southern Command, the US military’s command responsible for operations in the region, according to a fleet tracker published by the United States Naval Institute’s news portal.
That includes the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, amounting to more than 4500 Marines and sailors, three guided-missile destroyers, an attack submarine, a special operations ship, a guided missile cruiser and P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft.
The US Navy warship USS Sampson docks in Panama City on August 30, 2025, amid a broader US naval presence in Latin American and Caribbean waters. (Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images via CNN)
At the same time, the US has deployed 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico, which has become a hub for the US military as part of the increased focus on the Caribbean.
The US has also deployed at least three MQ-9 reaper drones to the island, according to images captured by Reuters in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, a US military installation that had been shuttered since 2004, is now back up and running, according to satellite imagery and photos taken at the base.
At least one AC-130J Ghostrider, a heavily armed plane capable of providing air support to ground troops, was photographed equipped with Hellfire missiles at José Aponte de la Torre Airport in Puerto Rico, which is used by the installation.
Why is the US putting these forces in place?
The administration has said repeatedly that the military presence is part of a counter-drug trafficking campaign, but Trump has also been weighing strikes inside Venezuela itself as part of a broader strategy aimed at weakening leader Nicolas Maduro, CNN has reported.
Experts generally agree that at this point, the US does not have enough assets or troops in place to launch an incursion to control Venezuela itself.
“The military presence in the Caribbean is too big for just hitting a few speedboats, though it is not big enough for an invasion of Venezuela,” Elliott Abrams, who served as the US envoy to Venezuela during Trump’s first term, told CNN on Thursday.
A member of the US Navy walks on the deck of the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort while docked at the Port of Miami, Biscayne Bay, Miami, Florida on June 3. (Chandon Khanna/AFP/Getty Images via CNN)
“What’s in the middle, I think, is a pressure campaign, meant to rattle Venezuela.”
The US does have the ability now to conduct strikes inside Venezuela from afar. Trump could order Tomahawk missile strikes, for example, from the guided-missile destroyers, cruiser and submarine stationed in the Caribbean.
“It’s enough to cause pain but not to seize terrain,” Peter Singer, a strategist and Senior Fellow at New America focusing on defense issues, told CNN, referring to the military buildup.
“We’re not talking about an invasion and occupation force,” Singer said.
How has Venezuela responded?
President Nicolas Maduro has responded in kind, repositioning troops, mobilizing “millions” of militia and denouncing US activity in the region – a sign of defiance from the strongman as the two leaders are locked in a standoff.
Maduro has claimed that his volunteer militias now have more than eight million reservists, though experts have called into question that number as well as the quality of the troops’ training.
Members of the Bolivarian Militia stand in formation during a military training, amid rising tensions with the US, in Caracas, Venezuela. (Gaby Oraa/Reuters via CNN)
As of October 17, 20 out of 23 Venezuelan states have been militarised as part of the Maduro’s military mobilisations, called Independence 200.
Maduro has also cracked down on civil liberties, signing an emergency declaration designed to expand his powers and limit the scope of the national constitution.
What is the ultimate goal of the US?
Trump administration officials have privately acknowledged that the intensifying US pressure campaign is aimed at ousting Maduro, a goal that was also a target of Trump’s first term in office when the White House recognised Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president of the country in 2019.
The US has been quietly laying the groundwork for potential military action inside Venezuela for months by tying Maduro to drug traffickers and cartels that officials have designated as terror groups who pose an imminent threat to the US.
But to date, there is no indication that Trump has decided to take that step or target the Venezuelan leader directly.
Nicolas Maduro. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
Instead, the goal has been to pressure Maduro to step down on his own, sources told CNN, in part by establishing a credible threat of US military action if he does not.
The recent strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean are a clear message to Maduro, the sources said, noting the administration has been very intentional about linking the Venezuelan leader to trafficking groups and cartels.
Trump said Wednesday that he authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela to clamp down on the flows of migrants and drugs from the South American nation, but stopped short of saying they would be attempting to remove Maduro.
The remarks are Trump’s most expansive comments on his decision to expand the CIA’s authority to conduct lethal targeting and carry out covert action in the region, which CNN first reported last week.
Maduro has accused the Trump administration of seeking control over Venezuela’s substantial oil wealth.
