President Donald Trump declined to answer a question from a reporter—only to instantly forget and then confirm exactly what she’d just asked him.
During the flight back to D.C. from his Mar-a-Lago holiday stay on Sunday, a reporter asked Trump aboard Air Force One: “The New York Times reported you spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Did you?”
“I don’t want to comment on it,” he said before adding, without pause: “The answer is yes.”
Over the past several weeks, the Trump administration has launched a sweeping military campaign against narcotrafficking operations in the Caribbean Sea, which legal experts say very likely represents an ongoing violation of both domestic and international law.
The president has repeatedly targeted the Maduro regime, even labeling the Venezuelan leader the head of the Cartel de los Soles—despite no credible evidence that the government’s alleged ties to the narcotrafficking network make Maduro its leader.
Against the backdrop of growing U.S. military presence in waters north of the Latin American country, Trump’s comments about Maduro have sparked fears that mounting tensions between the two countries could eventually spill over into direct conflict.
First reported by the New York Times, Trump’s call with Maduro is understood to have included a possible in-person meeting to discuss the situation, which would in turn mark a rare direct engagement between Washington and a Venezuelan government long isolated from much of the rest of the world by U.S. sanctions and hostility.
After the president confirmed his call with Maduro had indeed taken place, the reporter further pressed him: “Can you tell us a little bit about it?”
“No, I can’t do that,” he responded, before again adding: “I wouldn’t say it went well, or badly. It was a phone call.”
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