Public opinion is sharply divided on the U.S. military deployment to combat drug trafficking in Latin America. While a segment of the population expresses strong support for decisive military action against drug cartels, viewing this as crucial for domestic security, a larger and more vocal group remains skeptical and critical, seeing this deployment as a facade for ulterior motives, particularly concerning oil interests and potential political distractions from domestic issues. Many voice deep concerns about the implications for human rights and the historical patterns of American interventionism.

US Government

US Military

The Trump administration is going Bush 2001 on Venezuela, except this time they won’t bother lying to congress to get permission.

Fine_Dig2525

The no war president busily setting the scene for the best war ever, never been a better war against a tougher opponent, believe me.

mortisthewise

ViolettaQueso

Aircraft carriers never travel alone. They'll have several other units with them including cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and several kinds of drone eye in the sky oversight type units. This is bigger than "drug boats"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_strike_group#/media/File:US_Navy_031130-N-3653A-002_USS_George_Washington_(CVN_73)_Carrier_Strike_Group_formation_sails_in_the_Atlantic_Ocean.jpg

SuitableExercise7096

Can someone explain to me like I’ve been off social media for 10 years why we’re going after Venezuela?

I’m not interested in what trump said was the reason, I want the actual truth

Dear-Yak2162

Well those alleged drug smugglers aren't going to just blow themselves up.

CIApsyopsimulation_2

“TRUMP is sending an aircraft carrier to latin America in major escalation of Ego and stupidity”

Griffindor-69

Sending your kids to murder Venezuelans to own the libs

deutschdachs

SolarNachoes

USS Epstein Distraction is ready for action.

Yubieten

[deleted]

Ah yes, predictably manufacturing a crisis because they couldn't defeat the frogs and unicorns at home.

findingmike

So i guess this is our "special operation"?

C0matoes

Trump really, really wants a war. If not with Denmark then with Canada, if not with Canada then with California, if not with California then with Oregon, if not with Oregon then with Venezuela.

Kreiri

ribone

TonkaHeroDreamCake

Where are the "No new wars" and "I want a strong military that stays at home" crowds?

OrneryZombie1983

Delicious-Musician-

Ah yes the classic dictator move...starting another war to distract from failings at home.  We are the new Roman Empire (in the last stages).

surge9609

spicyhippos

Anything to distract from Trumps corruption and the Epstein files.

TrashCapable

I'm getting Ronald Reagan/George HW Bush vibes.

tanrock2003

Venezuela has oil and rare earth elements btw.

Unusual_Specialist

Bruh why. Are we genuinely having a war because he's a little bored

Used_Camel6676

jbt017

Bullying everyone around the world... wasting tax payers hard earned money... meanwhile Americans are homeless and without Healthcare...

Hodlbag

krugo

Hmmm, someplace with oil need a dose of democracy? I feel like I’ve heard this one before.

ReasonablyConfused

Isn't a US aircraft carrier basically the most escalation there is?

MisterEinc

It’s so obvious they are setting up stage for something

ParaMike46

Ships, aircraft carriers and a full naval power to shoot some small boats? If they are criminals why don't follow the boats using satellites/drones addressing them when they enter the USA territory? They can be arrested and judged to the death penalty!

Venezuela has one of the biggest petro reservoir in the world, but this is just a coincidence. I'm eagerly waiting to listen that they have mass destruction weapons.

ManusMau

it's just a matter of days till they claim that there are weapons of mass destruction and invade ....

glas_haus1111

Well now we know how they plan to not hold elections in the future. The war with Venezuela... Smfh

Mountain_Reveal7849

Enough is enough, we are just circling the drain at this point.  All political parties do not have to be friends but, this presidency is out of control.

Hour_Sprinkles3399

Cant invoke the alien enemies act unless we are at war. So he gonna start one.

JakeInDC

Pudgedog

"IF KAMALA IS ELECTED, IT WILL BE WORLD WAR 3"

Iliker0cks

But trump's still going to get the Noble Peace Prize, right?

deegee1969

Wait for a false flag attack on the US embassy or something similar.

Pitiful_Hedgehog6343


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Remember when Trump sat in the Oval Office with President Zelensky and said:

“During the war, you can't have elections? So let me just see, three and a half years from now, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? That's good"

[https://www.c-span.org/clip/white-house-event/president-trump-quips-about-canceling-2028-elections-if-us-is-at-war/5170008](https://www.c-span.org/clip/white-house-event/president-trump-quips-about-canceling-2028-elections-if-us-is-at-war/5170008)

Yeah....he's doing that, too.

CouchCorrespondent

This is Iraq all over again. Replace the phrase WMDs with “drugs.”

Blowing up these boats is just a false strongman display and actually more psychopath than strongman. He claims these small boats were headed to the US carrying drugs. The distance from Venezuela to the U.S. is approximately 1,729 nautical miles (or 1,989 miles) by sea. The boats he has targeted are only capable of 300-600 nautical miles under the most optimal conditions. Even Puerto Rico is nearly 1,000 nautical miles and further than the fuel capacity of these boats. Not to mention, these arent convicted criminals. He has basically criminally named himself as judge, jury &amp; executioner and these so-call strikes are straight up murder of now 43 people as of last count.

brithus

TintedApostle

StruggleExpensive249

He's really making a case for next year's Nobel Peace Prize.

def_indiff

I mean, is anybody not thinking we're going to invade Venezuela.  Trump wants to, there is nobody in the regime to tell him no, and this all just seems the military do their preparations for whatever war plan has been approved, and avoiding troops on the ground with the risk of causalities is obviously part of the plan.  And, as always, winning a war isn't the biggest challenge as what comes after is far harder.  

But Trump doesn't see a classic Republican "peace through strength" approach.  He likes to play military leader.  So does Hegseth.  And people are going to get killed as a result when we've another "your broke it, you bought it" situation as they stand it front of a mission accomplished banner.

CrimsonFeetofKali

Unpopular, congress didn’t approve it, south-com doesn’t want it.  Alvin Holsey doesn’t want any part of it.

Historical_Bend_2629

Welcome to a real-life "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Another economic depression is coming to America. I give it a year.

encrypted-signals

Killing unknown persons on foreign soil without even inspecting the vessel and without a fair trial is very presidential (especially when you're longing for a Nobel Peace Prize). 

He'll soon invade Venezuela, telling you he'll do it for the war on drugs, not because Venezuela has the world's largest oil field. 

He'll keep you busy with this while he militarizes democratic states ahead of the midterm elections. 

Oh, but he's the president and enjoys immunity 
granted by the Supreme Court.

N0limitZZ

Article says it's leaving the Mediterranean.  I'm sure nothing could go wrong in Europe or the Middle East with it gone, right??

windwatcher01

nightbell

Leave it to these morons to follow the playbook of Duterte, a crackpot phony strongman who just got arrested for crimes against humanity.

isitatomic

"As president, my highest aspiration is to bring peace and stability to the world.” - President Donald J. Trump (8:05 AM · Oct 10, 2025)

“In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem.” George Carlin

Silent-Resort-3076

They can’t wait to commandeer the world’s riches oil reserves in the world from Venezuela.

CHEVIEWER1

Throwme2Dwolves

Peace President who totally deserved a Nobel prize sure is trying to start a war with Venezuela.

letdogsvote

&gt;The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. A person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press that one of those destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea.

Good thing there's absolutely nothing going on in the Eastern Med/Red Sea right now.

AudibleNod

Sounds super expensive. How about just releasing the epstein files instead?

nuke_em_danno

How long before Trump tells Hegseth to rename the carrier after himself?

Zinfan1

The "no new wars" administration really looking to escalate things.

SlyFuu

Pete, are you drunk?

  
wait, don't answer that

kmoonster

Seems a little overkill for murdering fishermen. In all seriousness, the only reason to do this is for war with Venezuela. A single aircraft carrier has as many as, or more, than all of the combat aircraft currently operational in Venezuela’s air force. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding before our eyes by the dumbest people. 

BleachedUnicornBHole

Backy22

Trump is a shoo-in for that Nobel Peace Prize next year for sure!

rapidcreek409

bowens44

This is so ridiculous but fits the exact kind of usual stupidity from Trump. More BS to avoid releasing the files,, he can look like a big strong manly man in his own mind, his idiot worshippers will eat this up, and somehow this will be a distraction from all the horrible shit he's doing to the country. I wish he had balls this big with his boyfriend Putin, but he will only ever pick on countries that can't really fight back, like Venezuela, and apparamtly Canada.

Sargonnax

Money for everything other than the health, wellbeing, and prosperity of the American people. 

Verum_Orbis

Trump and Miller’s Likely Playbook:

U.S. bombs Venezuela port cities to stop “cartels”.

Venezuela shoots down a US jet fighter.

Trump unilateraly declares war against Venezuela.

Anti-war protests arise across the U.S.

Trump invokes Insurrection Act and declares martial law.

Anti-war protestors and Venezelans in U.S. (including naturalized citizens and citizens born in U.S. of Venezeulan parents) interred in camps. 

Due to the “emergency”, elections in U.S. are “temporarily” suspended and Congress suspended from chambers.

Then_Journalist_317

This is batshit crazy.  There is 0 reason to go to war with South America.  When will his supporters see through the insanity???

Mindless_Season_194

After Trump &amp; Hegseth flatten Venezuela, there will be no more drug problems in the USA. And Venezuela will be the 51st state and it will be named Trumplandia.

comfortably_nuumb

The members of the military who carry out these illegal strikes need to be held accountable. They need to know that they'll face criminal penalties for carrying out these orders once Trump is out of power.

MaloortCloud

So now he’s just randomly moving all our strategic deterrents to random places where they can’t be used effectively where they are needed. Fantastic.

Swagtagonist

It’s like he is on path to hurt his voters even more with this one. I think 61% of active duty voted for this with no support should this go wrong with a crippled intelligence community and a mass amount of ppl from Venezuela in the country bc the way Ice is going abt deportation is inefficient. What could possibly go wrong?

inconsistentsavant

Left_Lack_3544

If anyone can somehow bring about the indignity of getting an aircraft carrier sunk in the Caribbean, it’s Hegseth. Our warfighting bushido macho-meritocratic warfighter will find a way to make that humiliation happen.

AdrianArmbruster

They aren’t even selling us a lie. They’re just doing it to start war just for the sake of war. This shit is gonna backfire so fucking hard and the people who made it happen won’t even suffer a consequence

BigEggBeaters

"We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
- Eisenhower, 1961.

Dragull

ilikepisha

It sure is we are preparing for our issues in the Asian pacific in the next few years by moving all our military assets to the Caribbean 🙄

Secret_Cow_5053

What an expensive way to distract from your scandals and try to stay in power.

TheBatemanFlex

Dshark

Sounds like the US is about to do to Latin america what Israel did to Gaza.

sugar_addict002

Thank god, all those VZ boats sure are a threat to democracy /s

TheSwissRussian

Played a lot of Civ in my day. This was always overkill on my part.

56Runningdogz

spokzagis

hampden34

The US is positioning for, and antagonizing, a war with Venezuela for no reason other than suspending the democratic process and ushering in autocracy. 

And not enough people give a shit.

The1Ski

I heard that, the ruskies arming the Venezuelans with some kind of short range missiles (igla-s)..

bandita07

What are we even doing? Now that we're "over" the war on terror the war on drugs requires military intervention? Or is this changing our stance on the Monroe Doctrine where we ourselves become the neocolonial actors in South America? This is a very slippery slope putting us on Russia tier of external intervention on our neighbors if so.

pangapingus

burnmenowz

One is saber rattling, you see a couple more head that way, something is about to go down.

ColdNorthern72

Is anyone really surprised considering this adminstration renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War? They continue to tell us their plans in advance so none of this should be surprising. 

  
FUCK TRUMP AND ALL HIS CROOK CRONIES.

They do not represent the interest of American people. What are we on? Week 3 of a shutdown? Still no Epstein files. People still being abducted by Nazi fucks. Our own taxpayer money blatantly being used to widen Trump's pockets while SNAP benefits are being cut. Farmers still struggling because no one wants our goods thanks to Trump's moronic 'tariff war'.

It's time to stop pretending. Trump is ANTI-AMERICA. He doesn't give a shit about us in case the AI video of him shitting over everyone wasn't clear enough. Him and anyone associated with him needs removed.

THING2000

Great, jungle warfare has always gone well for the US, historically speaking, right?

Mortlach78

Trump wants more beach front property like he wants in Gaza. Sycophants. Drug war my ass. If was interested in stopping drugs he would disband the CIA.

MonetizeYourEyes

PrairieScott

So we’re invading Venezuela around Spring, right? It’s not a war, though, guys, so don’t worry. We’re just going over there with troops and uhhh killing people.

StimSimPim

Imagine starting a war just to distract from your own criminality and possibly defer midterm votes.

boothash

B1 bombers did dry runs yesterday.  Was a lot of people noting the flew down there with their transponders on. Delighted the crowd on r/skycards

NZCUTR

Remember when Trump admins met with Mexican cartel family members? Now they are going after Venezuelan "drug boats" which is probably competition to Mexican cartels. I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

Gardakkan

The United States is escalating its military presence in Latin America to counter drug trafficking and exert pressure on the Venezuelan government.

US Military Deployment in Latin America

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want