United States President Donald Trump did not rule out that his country will go to war with Venezuela in a phone interview with NBC News on Thursday, stating that while he is not discussing it currently, it is a possibility. Trump also declined to confirm whether ousting his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, is his goal, but claimed that the Venezuelan president “knows exactly what I want.”
He also stated that there will be additional seizures of oil tankers.
The US president’s comments follow his order for a “total and complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers that are coming and going from Venezuela, with Trump claiming that the South American country “illegally took” the United States’ oil and energy rights.