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Trump Gave Maduro A Last Friday Deadline To Step Down As Venezuelan President

Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2025 - 02:03 AM

Update(2103ET): According to Reuters on Monday night, Maduro told Trump he was prepared to leave Venezuela in last week's recently revealed phone call, but Trump rejected nearly all of his additional conditions - including a demand that Vice President Delcy Rodríguez lead a transitional government before new elections.

Reuters further reports that Trump gave Maduro a deadline of last Friday to depart the country, after which the American leader announced on Saturday that Venezuelan airspace was "closed." 

Things are beginning to move faster, as it looks like Trump plans some kind of significant military action against Caracas, at a moment such a huge Caribbean deployment, including the USS Ford Carrier group, is racking up high bills per day at the expense of the US taxpayer. According to a summary of the latest via Reuters:

  • Trump rejected Maduro's requests for amnesty, sanction removal, sources say
  • Maduro's safe passage offer expired, prompting US airspace closure, sources say
  • Maduro proposed Delcy Rodriguez lead interim government before new elections, sources say
  • Maduro's administration seeks another call with Trump, sources say

* * *

A big Washington Post report issued Friday detailed allegations that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to "kill everybody" aboard an alleged drug boat in September.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation," the WaPo report reads. "The order was to kill everybody," it quotes a Pentagon official as saying.

After that, "A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck."

AFP/Getty Images

From there, Hegseth's 'kill them all' order was followed through with. "The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water," the Post wrote based on its sources.

President Trump on Sunday addressed the allegations, which the report present as tantamount to 'unlawful orders' and a war crime, as he traveled back to Washington D.C. after the Thanksgiving weekend. Some Congressional leaders, mostly Democrats, have expressed outrage and vowed to look into the apparently standing orders.

Trump in his response declared that he has complete confidence in Hegseth in the top Pentagon post. While Trump said that he personally would have ordered a second strike on the boat, he explained, "I don’t know anything about it. He said he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent."

"He said he didn’t do it. He said he never said that," Trump emphasized when asked specifically about the second strike. "He said he didn’t do it, so I don’t have to make that decision." According to more from Trump's response:

“Number one, I don’t know that that happened,” Trump said, when asked whether a hypothetical second strike would be illegal. “And Pete said he did not want them — he didn’t even know what people were talking about. So, we’ll look at, we’ll look into it.”

“But no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” he continued. “The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around. But Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him.”

A reporter asked the president if he was “saying there’s no second strike.” “I don’t know,” Trump responded. “I’m going to find out about it. But Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”

Trump was asked "would you be OK if he did do it?"

This is after Hegseth late in the day Friday had blasted the "fake news" Washington Post report, calling the series of strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats "lawful". If Hegseth and Trump as commander-in-chief were to actually say they gave an order to "kill everybody" - such an order could open them up to international legal action related to war crimes, as it would be tantamount to openly admitting to giving orders to pursue extrajudicial killings. This is also given that any survivors of an initial strike would not be a threat, and they would likely be unarmed.

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