President Donald Trump takes pride in his ongoing efforts to end wars across the world, and has been more successful at doing so than perhaps any other American president. But his current posture toward Venezuela is concerning. Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity writes:

Yesterday President Trump lurched the US closer to an all-out invasion of a Venezuela that has neither attacked nor threatened the United States. US warships have been lurking off the coast for weeks now, with some 10,000 US troops poised for some kind of action.

On Tuesday the President announced that the US military had fired missiles at a fifth boat in international waters near Venezuela, killing everyone onboard. The president’s claim that these boats are all “narco-terrorist” traffickers is not backed up by evidence, but even if they had been transporting illicit narcotics there is no legal justification for extrajudicial murder.

Asked why the President does not use the Coast Guard to board the ships and take anyone found transporting narcotics to be prosecuted, Trump responded that, “we’ve been doing that for 30 years and it’s been totally ineffective.”

Wednesday began with the ominous news that B-52 bombers were aloft and heading toward Venezuela, as Caracas scrambled – ironically – F-16 jets to the area.

Was this the beginning? Bombs away? Alas, not yet. Perhaps some more posturing and bullying on the part of the US.

Then, later in the day, Trump again turned up the temperature, threatening “land strikes” against Venezuela.

Trump says he’s now “looking at land” strikes on Venezuela pic.twitter.com/c7z1nrAPJK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2025

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