Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a naval blockade of “sanctioned oil vessels” leaving and heading to Venezuela, sharply escalating his pressure campaign against Caracas.
The US has for months been building a major military deployment in the Caribbean – with the stated goal of combatting drug trafficking, but Venezuela views the operation as a campaign to oust Nicolas Maduro.
Though the US already has sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector, seizing its exports could cripple its already struggling economy. Last Wednesday, the US seized an oil tanker that was carrying Venezuelan crude.
Trump declares Venezuela ‘completely surrounded’ by US armada
In a post on social media announcing the blockade, Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes.
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,” Trump said on Truth Social. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before … today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
Trump said the armada – which includes the world’s largest aircraft carrier – “will only get bigger” until Venezuela returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us”.
Hegseth says Pentagon won’t release full video of deadly Caribbean strike
The Pentagon will not make public the full video of a September attack in the Caribbean that killed two individuals as they were clinging to the wreckage of a burning boat, Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
The strike has been the most controversial development in Trump’s campaign against Venezuela, which has seen US forces blow up vessels alleged to be transporting narcotics from the South American country to the USand threaten further military action against Nicolás Maduro.
Ilhan Omar says Trump’s repeated attacks fuel climate of political violence
US congresswoman Ilhan Omar has warned that Trump’s repeated personal attacks and dehumanising rhetoric are fuelling a climate of political violence that could have dangerous consequences.
Speaking days after the president called for her to be thrown out of the country, Omar said Trump’s incendiary language reaches “the worst humans possible” and encourages them to act.
Trump signs order to further restrict entry of foreign nationals to US
Trump has signed a proclamation further restricting and limiting the entry of foreign nationals to the US, the White House said.
The US has imposed full restrictions and entry limitations on nationals from five countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria – in addition to the initial list of 12 countries, the White House said.
Trump believes ‘there’s nothing he can’t do’ as president, Wiles says
Trump believes “there’s nothing he can’t do, nothing, zero” as US president, the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, said in a rare interview that shines an unvarnished spotlight on his second administration.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Wiles described Trump – who is teetotal – as having “an alcoholic’s personality”, an insight she ascribed to her relationship with her late father, the broadcaster and NFL star Pat Summerall, who had alcoholism.
BBC vows to defend itself in Trump lawsuit
The BBC has vowed to defend itself against the $10bn lawsuit that Trump filed against it. In a complaint, Trump sought $5bn in damages each on two counts, alleging that the BBC defamed him, and that it violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Republicans call for Muslim ban after Australia shooting
Democrats are condemning two Republican members of Congress who said, in the wake of the mass shooting in Australia, that the US should ban Muslims from the country and kick out those who already live here.
White House ballroom construction matter of national security, officials say
Trump’s administration argued on Monday in a court filing that the president’s White House ballroom construction project must continue for reasons of national security.
The filing came in response to a lawsuit filed three days earlier by the National Trust for Historic Preservation asking a federal judge to halt the ballroom project until it goes through multiple independent reviews and wins approval from Congress.
What else happened today:
Barack and Michelle Obama were due to meet Rob and Michele Reiner the same day that the couple were found dead, the former first lady has said.
A leading Muslim civil rights group in the US has sued Ron DeSantis over his order designating it and another organization as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 15 December 2025.
