Trump casually confirms first land strike on plant in Venezuela

Donald Trump gave a nonchalant confirmation of the first US land strike in Venezuela during a radio interview last week that received little attention. 

The President said that the Christmas Eve strike was on a facility 'where the ship comes from' – seemingly referencing the origination location of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months.

Speaking on WABC on December 26, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela. 

'I don't know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the – where the ships come from,' the President said during a call-in with radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who was filling in for Sid Rosenberg.

'Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard,' Trump confirmed.

On Monday afternoon, following the Daily Mail's reporting of the under-the-radar strike, Trump definitively confirmed the launch of land strikes in the region, saying that the US hit 'the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.' 

Asked whether it was the US Military or CIA forces, Trump said: 'I don't want to say that – I know exactly who it was.'

The President said since late November that the US is shifting away from maritime attacks on drug boats and will 'soon' be conducting land strikes in Venezuela. 

The latest is part of a continued campaign to apply pressure on Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, as boat strikes didn't appear to work to deter the so-called narco regime from continuing operations. 

The exact target of the Christmas Eve operation was not clear at first, and it remains unknown which US forces or government entities were involved after Trump declined to say if it was military or CIA. 

Trump did confirm, however, that the explosion was along the shore of Venezuela.  

A video posted to X last week showed a large explosion in the Zulia state of Venezuela near the second-largest city in the country, Maracaibo.

The state's San Francisco municipality sits on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela.

Zulia-based journalist Jhorman Cruz took the video of a massive fire with resulting explosions in the early hours of December 24. After it gained some traction on social media, Cruz downplayed that it could have been a US military strike.

'It is prudent to say that we still do not know what started the fire,' he wrote on X, according to a translation of his original post. 'Residents DID NOT see anything unusual, nor drones, nor cars, nor the presence of foreigners.'

'Be careful with strange hypotheses,' the El Público TV director warned.

The White House and Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail's request for clarification of the President's comments. 

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Starting on September 2, 2025, the Department of War has been conducting strikes against suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and Atlantic. 

The operations have killed more than 105 people and are aimed at trafficking routes the US says are to blame for a huge spike in overdose deaths.

But Trump has said that land targets are 'much easier' and has hinted at the shift with statements like: 'land strikes will start very soon' and 'soon we will be starting the same program on land.'

He has also warned Maduro it would be 'smart' to step down, but has not gone as far as to confirm that the US military operations are to force regime change.