{"id":193304,"date":"2025-12-12T04:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/why-is-trump-threatening-venezuela-what-to-know-after-tanker-seized-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T04:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T04:28:17","slug":"why-is-trump-threatening-venezuela-what-to-know-after-tanker-seized-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/why-is-trump-threatening-venezuela-what-to-know-after-tanker-seized-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Trump threatening Venezuela? What to know after tanker seized. – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump<\/a> is continuing to ratchet up pressure on Venezuela, after United States military forces seized an oil tanker<\/a> off the South American country’s coast and unveiled new sanctions on it.
The Dec. 10 seizure is the latest escalation<\/a> in a stand-off between the American president and Venezuelan President Nicola\u0301s Maduro. Trump has been vocal about his desire for the Venezuelan president to step down, and has accused Maduro’s\u00a0government of drug trafficking and terrorism<\/a>.
The administration plans to transport the\u00a0tanker\u00a0to a U.S. port and claim the oil it’s carrying, the White House said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt\u00a0told reporters<\/a> during a Dec. 11 press conference that the oil tanker is currently under a forfeiture process. U.S. officials are aboard the vessel interviewing crew members and seizing evidence, she added.
“There is a legal process for the seizure of that oil and that legal process will be followed,” Leavitt said.
Attorney General\u00a0Pam Bondi<\/a>\u00a0confirmed Dec. 10 that the tanker was used to take sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
The Venezuelan government has called Trump’s position a “colonialist threat,”<\/a> and in response to the tanker seizure, accused the United States of “blatant theft,” Reuters reported. Officials have also described the seizure as “an act of international piracy” and said it would denounce the incident before international bodies.
The Trump administration also ramped up sanctions on the country \u2013 according to multiple media reports on Dec. 11 \u2013 including on three of Maduro’s nephews and several other tankers that help export the country’s ample oil supply.
Trump announced at a meeting at the White House on Dec. 10 that the U.S. seized the Venezuelan oil tanker.
“Largest one ever seized, actually. And other things are happening,” the president said. \u201cI assume we\u2019re going to keep the oil\u201d from the ship, he added later.
Leavitt said at the Dec. 11 White House briefing that the oil tanker seizure was an example of Trump delivering on his campaign promise to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the country.
The press secretary also said the Department of Justice obtained a warrant to seize the vessel that\u2019s part of Iran\u2019s shadow fleet, known for carrying black market, sanctioned oil to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Three people with knowledge of the matter told USA TODAY the cargo on board was owned by a businessman with ties to Maduro, and the boat was bound for Cuba.
Venezuela is an oil-rich country whose economy collapsed in recent years, prompting widespread poverty and violence. The country faces international scrutiny for alleged corruption and oppressive crackdowns by the ruling government.
Maduro was the hand-picked successor of former socialist leader, Hugo Cha\u0301vez. Maduro’s United Socialist Party, widely considered a left-wing dictatorship, has held elections considered undemocratic.
After the country’s 2024 elections, international observers and Venezuelan opposition leaders said Maduro had soundly lost.
He has remained in power.
Trump has accused Maduro of being a\u00a0drug trafficker, sending fentanyl<\/a>\u00a0that has contributed to the American opioid crisis and blaming the country for a wave of immigration.
Over the past several months, the administration has ratcheted up its stance toward the South American nation, including deploying a major military buildup near its coast.
In August, the\u00a0United States doubled the reward for information<\/a>\u00a0leading to the capture of Maduro to an unprecedented $50 million. The U.S. says he is linked to drug trafficking and criminal groups.
In November, the\u00a0State Department designated Maduro and other high-ranking government<\/a>\u00a0officials as part of a foreign terrorist organization, Cartel de los Soles. Experts have told USA TODAY that Cartel de los Soles is a loose network of corruption and not a real drug trafficking organization. The Venezuelan president has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.
The Department of Justice indicted Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials<\/a> on drug trafficking and corruption charges in 2020.
The seizure comes as the U.S. has built up military forces around Venezuela for months and carried out repeated strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The strikes killed dozens, including some Venezuelans.
The administration claims the hits have targeted suspected\u00a0drug smuggling boats<\/a>\u00a0from Venezuela, while critics have called the strikes illegal and said they amount to extrajudicial assassinations.
Trump said the administration’s strikes on the alleged drug boats were aimed at deterring suspected Venezuelan traffickers. He has also said he is targeting human traffickers.
Since September, the administration is known to have\u00a0carried out strikes on nearly two dozen boats<\/a>\u00a0in international waters, including in the Caribbean, that killed 83 people.\u00a0
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly claimed<\/a> Trump’s actions are intended to gain access to the country\u2019s lucrative oil and gas reserves.
Venezuela has the world’s largest share of crude oil reserves by country, according to data<\/a> from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. It exported more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day last month, Reuters reported<\/a>.
Its main buyer is China.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Joey Garrison, Zac Anderson and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY; Reuters.<\/em>
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at<\/em>kapalmer@usatoday.com<\/em><\/a> and on X @<\/em>KathrynPlmr<\/em><\/a>. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump is continuing to ratchet up pressure on Venezuela, after United States military forces seized an oil tanker off the South American country’s coast and unveiled new sanctions on it.The Dec. 10 seizure is the latest escalation in a stand-off between the American president and Venezuelan President Nicola\u0301s Maduro. Trump has been vocal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-193304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}