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Trump On Potential Land-Strikes In Venezuela: ‘I’m Not Saying It’s True Or Untrue’


United States President Donald Trump was asked directly about Venezuela in his recent interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, hosted by correspondent Norah O'Donnell at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday (31st October, 2025). 

International reports of impending strikes on Venezuela by the U.S. military caused fear, uneasiness and panic-buying in several parts of Trinidad and Tobago on Friday and into the weekend.

However, Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander gave the assurance on Sunday morning (2nd November, 2025) that if a significant national security threat were indeed looming, the T&T Government would not have left the public in the dark. Alexander urged citizens not to rely on social media for information on national security issues.
Among several questions regarding Venezuela during his interview on 60 Minutes, President Trump was asked in particular about the potential for land-strikes in Venezuela, to which he declined to confirm or deny any such action is scheduled to take place.

Below is a transcript of that interaction between O'Donnell and Trump, courtesy of CBS News:

NORAH O'DONNELL: On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro's days as president numbered?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And this issue of potential land strikes in Venezuela, is that true?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't tell you that. I mean-- I'm not saying it's true or untrue, but I-- you know, I wouldn't--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Why would we do it?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --I wouldn't be inclined to say that I would do that. But-- because I don't talk to a reporter about whether or not I'm gonna strike. I'm not gonna-- you know, you're a wonderful reporter, you're very talented, but I'm not gonna tell you what I'm gonna do with Venezuela, if I was gonna do it or if I wasn't going to do it.
Below is a transcript of their wider discussion regarding Venezuela:

NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanna stay on the issue of foreign policy, and let's turn to our hemisphere. There have been at least eight boats in the Caribbean destroyed by the U.S. military--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Fortunately.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And now the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, that is the world's largest aircraft carrier, on the way to the Caribbean. Are we going to war against Venezuela?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I doubt it. I don't think so. But 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 compan-- country. They also-- if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylums-- into the United States of America, 'cause Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country--

NORAH O'DONNELL: But why is our aircraft carrier--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Let me just finish.

NORAH O'DONNELL: --going down there?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. We had the worst inflation, we had the worst of everything. But the worst thing he did was allow millions of people to come into our country that were many-- in many cases, criminals, murderers, 11,888 murderers were let into our country. Venezuela let a lot of those people in. But they were from all over the world. This isn't just Venezuela. They were from all over the world.

NORAH O'DONNELL: We are gonna talk about--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And what he did to our country should never be forgotten. He had an open-border process, and people would come in, and I'm not discriminating against tattoos, but people would come in with tattoos all over their faces, and say, "Come on in, come on in, come on in."

They let people in that should've never been. Venezuela emptied their prisons into the United States of America. And 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. Every single boat that you see that's shot down kills 25,000 on drugs and destroys families all over our country.

NORAH O'DONNELL: We will talk about immigration in a moment, but I just wanna talk about the scale of the military operation around Venezuela, because it has been described to 60 Minutes as using a blowtorch to cook an egg. Is this about stopping--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don't think so. Look--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Is it about-- let me ask you, though. Is it about stopping narcotics? Or is this about getting rid of President Maduro?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, this is about many things. This is a country that allowed their prisons to be emptied into our country. To me, that would be almost number one, because we have other countries--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Well we don't need to blow up boats in order to deal--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Look, Mexico has been very bad to us in terms of drugs, okay? Very bad. We have a closed border right now. You probably noticed that for five months in a row, they have zero-- think of this, zero people coming into our country through our southern border.

And it was millions of people a year just a little more than a year ago. Millions of people a year walked into our country totally unchecked, unvetted. We had no idea who they were. And we're never gonna let that happen again. That's what made Biden the worst president, because you know what, inflation I've already taken care of. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country, and now we don't have inflation. It's at 2%. It's-- it's the perfect inflation.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Aren't--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But what made him so bad-- well, the weaponization of law enforcement, all of that. Look, he was bad in every way. But the worst thing that he did is allow millions, and millions, and millions of people to pour into our country unvetted, unchecked. And they were criminals, they were murderers, they were drug dealers, they were people from jails, and people from mental institutions.

NORAH O'DONNELL: You-- you have had success on immigration, I wanna talk about that in a minute. But on Venezuela--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Big success.

NORAH O'DONNELL: On Venezuela in particular, are Maduro's days as president numbered?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.

NORAH O'DONNELL: And this issue of potential land strikes in Venezuela, is that true?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't tell you that. I mean-- I'm not saying it's true or untrue, but I-- you know, I wouldn't--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Why would we do it?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --I wouldn't be inclined to say that I would do that. But-- because I don't talk to a reporter about whether or not I'm gonna strike. I'm not gonna-- you know, you're a wonderful reporter, you're very talented, but I'm not gonna tell you what I'm gonna do with Venezuela, if I was gonna do it or if I wasn't going to do it.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Why do we need an aircraft carrier and all of group--strike group--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's gotta be somewhere. It's a big one.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I just think it-- it leads to the suggestion that the United States military is planning a larger operation involving Venezuela.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we're not gonna allow countries from-- what-- you know, it's countries from all over the world coming in. You know, they come in from the Congo where we just settled that war. But it come-- they come in from the Congo, they come in from all over the world, they're coming, not just from South America. But Venezuela in particular-- has been bad. They have gangs-- Tren de Aragua, do you ever hear of it?

NORAH O'DONNELL: Of course--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The most vicious gang anywhere in the world. They cut people's hands off if they call up the cops. You know, they call up the police and they said, "Did you call the police?" "Yes, I did. You took my apartment, you live in my building, you took my apartment." They cut his hand off.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: "Don't ever call the police again."

NORAH O'DONNELL: I fully underst--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: These are animals. Wait a minute. And they came in from Venezuela. Worst gang-- probably the worst gang, most vicious gang in the world. And you know what I did? In Washington, D.C., we had a lot of 'em. We took care of business. They're gone.

Washington, D.C., right now is a very safe place, as it should be. Washington, D.C., be-- before I got here was almost like a crime capital of the world. It's the capital of this country. To me, it's the capital of the world. You see the way they treat me.

I go to Japan, I go to South Korea, I go to Chi-- any place I go, and you know what I call that? Respect for our country. They didn't treat Biden that way. When Biden went there-- first of all, he hardly went anywhere. Guy couldn't leave his bedroom. But they didn't treat Biden that way. They had no respect for Biden falling up the stairs going to an airplane three times. I mean, this is a man who should've never been president. This was a rigged election. And we--

NORAH O'DONNELL: Can I ask--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --have to get back-- we have to get to the bottom of that also, because we don't want that to ever happen again. You see what's going on. We don't ever want that to happen again. Look what happened to our country by having Biden as the president.

NORAH O'DONNELL: I--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our country went to hell. And if we--

NORAH O'DONNELL: I wanted to ask you about Israel--

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: --had another couple of years, if Kamala had won the election, our country right now would be finished. It was a dead country, and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We have the strongest stock market, we have everybody wants to come in. A year ago we were a dead country. Right now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. Think of that. And I did that in nine months. And it's only gonna get better.
More on this as it becomes available. 

[Source: CBS News] 
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