On Monday evening, President Donald Trump’s top security officials are reportedly planning to convene in the Oval Office for a closed-door “next steps” discussion on Venezuela.
Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that senior figures including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller are expected at the 5 p.m. (ET) session. It comes as the administration has escalated its regional posture with strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
Over the weekend, Trump issued a sweeping online directive warning “airlines, pilots and criminal networks” to avoid Venezuelan airspace. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have launched parallel House and Senate inquiries into an alleged September 2 “double tap strike” on a Venezuelan vessel.
However, late Sunday President Trump issued a vote of confidence in Hegseth, saying that he has “complete confidence” in Secretary of Defense, even as Trump confirmed he would look into allegations that Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” aboard an alleged drug boat on September 2.
Trump also said he wouldn’t have ordered a second strike on the boat, which Democrats and one senior Republican in Congress have called a potential war crime.
“I don’t know anything about it. He said he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent,” Trump said aboard Air Force One when asked about a Washington Post report on Friday that the initial strike left two survivors clinging to the wreckage.
The Post reported that the special operations commander, who was in charge of the military operation, ordered a second attack to comply with Hegseth’s earlier order to “kill everybody” aboard the vessel.
Trump said he would not have ordered a second strike.
“Number one, I don’t know that that happened,” Trump said, when asked whether a hypothetical second strike would be illegal. “And Pete said he did not want them — he didn’t even know what people were talking about. So, we’ll look at, we’ll look into it.”
“But no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” he continued. “The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around. But Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him.”
Trump, however, dismissed the allegations when questioned aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100 percent,” the president insisted. “I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike.”
Hegseth has maintained the operations were “lawful under both U.S. and international law.”
