Trump says the U.S. took out a 'big facility' in Venezuela amid strikes on alleged drug boats
Source: NBC News
Dec. 29, 2025, 9:05 AM EST
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York that the U.S. had “knocked out” a Venezuelan facility, a move that would be a major escalation in U.S. military strikes to counter alleged drug-trafficking by the South American country.
The apparent attack follows months of U.S. military pressure, including dozens of strikes on boats in international waters. The White House has claimed that the boats carried drugs, though officials have not provided evidence.
In the short phone interview on Friday, Trump responded to a comment about Venezuela by touting the administration's attacks on alleged drug boats before referring to a strike on a "big plant or big facility" that he said took place two nights earlier. "We just knocked out — I don't know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from," Trump said in the interview. "Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard."
Trump did not provide further details about the apparent attack on the facility, which if correct would be the first known land strike in the U.S. counternarcotics efforts against Venezuela. NBC News has not independently confirmed the strike. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the president's remarks.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-land-strike-venezuela-facility-drug-boats-rcna251329
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walkingman
(10,285 posts)
sakabatou
(45,746 posts)If the boats were smuggling drugs, it would've been better to stop and inspect the cargo than just blow the boats up.
Probatim
(3,209 posts)"big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from"
William Seger
(12,183 posts)
Wiz Imp
(8,830 posts)EX500rider
(12,136 posts)Probatim
(3,209 posts)EX500rider
(12,136 posts)Probatim
(3,209 posts)lives in a hyperbolic chamber.
Vinca
(53,277 posts)
chouchou
(2,762 posts)
TBF
(35,544 posts)he mentions these things in passing and I'm like "WHAT?!?" ... who knows what the heck they have been doing. They funneled so much money into Defense/ICE. I suspect when this regime is finally gone, we are going to learn about a lot more horrendous happenings that have not even come out yet.
popsdenver
(1,471 posts)Reagan's PANAMA INVASION.............the Media in the U.S. hardly said anything, and yet the Media in countries all around the world was reporting the atrocities committed by the U.S. Military, that we hear in the U.S. heard absolutely nothing about.
There was even an award winning Documentary of the atrocities, that was circulated worldwide and BANNED from distribution in the United States. I got a friend in Europe to convert the video to the U.S. standards for video, and had him ship it to me.......
UN-fucking real what happened down there, that the U.S. Citizens never knew................
The reality was, that Reagan/HWBush had to deflect attention from something else they had done, and created the BS Panama Invasion........and had the U.S. Media only show what OUR government wanted their people to see....
Polybius
(21,430 posts)Reagan never invaded Panama. Bush did, on December 20th, 1989. Operation Just Cause, to depose of Manuel Noriega.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
popsdenver
(1,471 posts)That entire CABAL, HWBush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/ETC were also intertwined it is hard to keep it all straight.
azureblue
(2,654 posts)Lies again
mitch96
(15,622 posts)Botany
(76,304 posts)We are murdering innocent people in Venezuela because of Epstein and oil.
I hope this enough for the other other Western Democracies to pull their Ambassadors
this was an act of war on a Country that was not a threat to America. What “big facility”
a marina? A fishing or shipping port?
Martin68
(26,990 posts)
Prairie Gates
(7,147 posts)It was only a matter of time before he started "hallucinating" (as we say these days) military attacks.
There was no plant or "facility" "you know, where the ships come from" hit by anything. The press needs to corroborate Trump's goofy claims at this point.
BidenRocks
(2,715 posts)with extreme consequences.
America is a pirate state, a terrorist state, an aggressor state and a clear and present danger to the world.
We need to show we stand against this or we will face more attacks.
Remember 2025 started with a car driven into a crowded street, killing 15 in New Orleans.
Germany shortly after. Keep poking that bee hive!
The world hates chump and he is doing everything so the world hates Americans. Even Americans.
Grins
(9,230 posts)"Hugely big! You wouldn't believe how big! The likes of which no one has ever seen!"
Prairie Gates
(7,147 posts)"It was the greatest operation in the history of humanity!"
This time they're all like "No comment." Bull-fucking-shit. Trump made it up on the spot or one of his WH minions told him to mollify him, but asked him not to tell anybody because it's completely fabricated. But of course he did, because he's a senile old fool. Now everybody has to scramble, pretending that something actually happened.
It's so embarrassing that the Times actually published a piece on this. They have no proof that anything even happened. Clown shit.
mwmisses4289
(3,162 posts)at the BBC, CBC, The Guardian, al Jezeera, and especially the South American news organizations. Nothing. Addle brain spouting lying delusions, as usual.
riversedge
(79,234 posts)admit that I have been buzy so only glanced at several papers over the weekend.
BumRushDaShow
(165,376 posts)in tiny font on their front pages -
The Guardian - US struck ‘big facility’ in Venezuela, Trump claimed without offering details
ABC News - Trump says US 'knocked out' a 'big facility' in Venezuela
BumRushDaShow
(165,376 posts)(in tiny font and basically "below the fold" )
Most of the news sites the past couple days have been MIA other than focusing on 2025 "Year in Review" articles, with Ukraine as the main headlined "news", and filling things out with sports, entertainment and other fluff pieces. The other "news" on those sites ends up being repeats of news from days ago and even regurgitating old articles from months, and years ago.
AZProgressive
(29,815 posts)Exclusive: CIA carried out drone strike on port facility on Venezuelan coast (CNN)
The CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.
The drone strike, the details of which have not been previously reported, targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for onward shipping, the sources said. No one was present at the facility at the time it was struck, so there were no casualties, according to the sources. US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation, sources said, underscoring their continued involvement in the region.
President Donald Trump appeared to first acknowledge the attack in an interview last week that initially attracted little notice, though he offered few specifics, including when reporters asked directly about it on Monday.
The strike could significantly escalate tensions between the US and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the US has been pressuring to step down through an aggressive military campaign.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/29/politics/cia-drone-strike-venezuela
Prairie Gates
(7,147 posts)They have no details as to location nor do they have any independent corroborating evidence. They are reporting that these admin sources say that something took place.
The whole thing sounds made up, frankly. It was a drone strike with no casualties, but Hegseth didn't release the video? Tell me another one.
Where was this "important dock?" I mean, hell, even when they bombed some no-name village in Nigeria they at least told the press which one. Here, it's operational silence? Come on, now.
There was no strike, drone or otherwise.
AZProgressive
(29,815 posts)Meaning I don't buy it was a location for a gang but mainly an excuse to launch a regime war.
Outside of that it isn't really hard to believe. It wouldn't be the worst thing the CIA did in South America.
Prairie Gates
(7,147 posts)Just a bunch of admin sources covering for Trump's lies, sounds like.
"Yeah, we ... uh... hit a remote dock. It was very important, but we can't tell you where it was. Nobody else saw it. It was a drone, but we have no video to show you. But it was a giant explosion, just like Trump said."
This is approaching the proverbial Canadian girlfriend territory.
riversedge
(79,234 posts)...........In the short phone interview on Friday, Trump responded to a comment about Venezuela by touting the administration's attacks on alleged drug boats before referring to a strike on a "big plant or big facility" that he said took place two nights earlier.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna251329
...........
Bayard
(28,435 posts)Or, Miller is whispering it in his ear.
But, here's the main reason:
"Venezuela is going to provide a lot more oil to the United States of America if Maduro leaves,"
I think media would be all over it if he had actually started his land war.
LudwigPastorius
(14,101 posts)Kegsbreath threw out all of the credible reporters in the Pentagon, so who really knows what the fuck is going on?
True Dough
(25,715 posts)
Bayard
(28,435 posts)I had no idea.
If I had added in years and posts under my first moniker, it would be many more of both.
Thank you, dear! Love the GIF.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(132,515 posts)31st Street Bridge
(67 posts)Is a LIE!
Dave Bowman
(6,564 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(174,572 posts)If you voted for Trump because you expected restraint on foreign policy and the use of military force abroad, I have some bad news for you
It’s no small thing that Trump told the public last week that he ordered a military strike on a target on Venezuelan soil, and we have no idea whether he made that up. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-12-29T14:04:02.693Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/after-striking-nigeria-trump-pushes-dubious-claim-about-targeting-venezuelan-facility
The trouble is, there’s some uncertainty surrounding the existence of the operation.,,.
But while we’re left to wonder whether the sitting American president bragged about a foreign U.S. military strike that may or may not have happened, there’s far greater clarity about a foreign U.S. military strike that definitely happened. My MS NOW colleague Nicholas Grossman reported:
The United States military bombed Nigeria on Christmas, reportedly targeting ISIS militants. President Donald Trump claimed the U.S. struck terrorists ‘who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries.’
Nigeria has been plagued by sectarian violence, but that violence hasn’t primarily targeted Christians — and certainly not at historically unprecedented levels. America’s logic here isn’t clear, but the strikes appear driven more by Trump putting on a show for his evangelical base than trying to reduce violence in Nigeria or even advance U.S. national interests.
To be sure, the operation didn’t come out of nowhere. The Republican declared in early November that he was prepared to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” in response to conditions on the ground that he didn’t seem to fully understand.....
For those keeping score, as 2025 nears its end, Trump this year has launched preemptive military strikes on targets in Iran, initiated a bombing campaign in Yemen, targeted ISIS sites in Syria, launched a bombing operation in Nigeria, struck ISIS targets in Somalia, and launched at least 29 deadly strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.
It’s possible that he also “knocked out” a facility on Venezuela, though it’s also possible he just made that up....
For good measure, it’s worth noting for context that the American president has also announced his desire to annex Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Gaza Strip, and spoken publicly about possibly returning U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
gfarber
(195 posts)There once was a president’s claim
On radio waves, bold and plain:
“We knocked out a site,
Just a couple nights’ bite—
A big plant tied to drugs,” he did name.
For months there’d been pressure at sea,
With boats stopped repeatedly.
They said drugs were aboard,
Though proof wasn’t stored—
Just claims from the White House, you see.
In a call that was short, he went on,
Of ships and a place they’d come from.
“A facility big,
Where the traffickers dig—
We hit it,” he said, “job well done.”
But details were left in the air,
No photos, no briefings to share.
If land had been struck,
That would change all the luck
Of counternarcotics affairs.
Reporters all paused at the sound,
Since proof hadn’t yet been found.
NBC checked twice,
Couldn’t verify the slice—
And comments from aides? None around.
So the story now waits to be told,
With questions still carefully held:
Was a line crossed that night,
Or just talk on the mic?
Time will sort fact from the bold.
SergeStorms
(19,919 posts)That's a "facility." So is a church. 
That "nattering nabob of negativism" is nucking futs. 
riversedge
(79,234 posts)Seems Trumpy is spreading the rumor that the USA took out a "big facility" in Venezuela
Trump says US 'knocked out' facility. Was there a Venezuela strike?
President Donald Trump said the U.S. "knocked out" a "big facility." Rumors of a U.S. strike on Venezuela haven't been confirmed.
Portrait of Cybele Mayes-Osterman Cybele Mayes-Osterman
USA TODAY
Updated Dec. 29, 2025, 12:20 p.m. ET
By Megan Lebowitz
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York that the U.S. had “knocked out” a Venezuelan facility, a move that would be a major escalation in U.S. military strikes to counter alleged drug-trafficking by the South American country.
The apparent attack follows months of U.S. military pressure, including dozens of strikes on boats in international waters. The White House has claimed that the boats carried drugs, though officials have not provided evidence.
IronLionZion
(50,775 posts)must be too big for anyone to see the damage 
Aussie105
(7,583 posts)worthy of the USSR/Pravda cold war times.
Will he notch it up one more step and talk about WMDs?
AverageOldGuy
(3,295 posts)This from the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/29/trump-venezuela-strike-comment/
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump told reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday while greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “And that is no longer around.”
Prairie Gates
(7,147 posts)They have no evidence that this supposed strike ever took place.