Trump Says He’s Certainly Looking at ‘Strikes On Land’ In Fight Against Venezuela Drug Smugglers

President Donald Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he was “certainly” looking at land strikes on the country of Venezuela – following recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats from the country.

“What’s the next step in this war on cartels, and are you considering options? Are you considering strikes on land?” an off-camera reporter asked Trump.

“Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump replied, adding:

We’ve had a couple of days where there isn’t a boat to be found, and that—I view that as a good thing, not a bad thing. But we had tremendous amounts coming in by boats, by very expensive boats.

You know, they have a lot of money: very fast, very expensive boats that were pretty big. And the way you look at it is, every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. So every time you see a boat… And you feel badly, you say, “Wow, that’s rough.” It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people—these are people that are killing our population.

Earlier on Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Trump “secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela.”

The report by Julian E. Barnes and Tyler Pager called the authorization the “latest step in the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign against Venezuela” and its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The Times report detailed exactly what the authorization allows the CIA to do: “The new authority would allow the C.I.A. to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and conduct a range of operations in the Caribbean.” The Times added:

The agency would be able to take covert action against Mr. Maduro or his government either unilaterally or in conjunction with a larger military operation. It is not known whether the C.I.A. is planning any operations in Venezuela or if the authorities are meant as a contingency.

Watch the clip above.