President Donald Trump has gone from threatening Venezuela to mocking the country’s military might.
In a Truth Social post, Trump shared a video of several women running clumsily with rifles.
“TOP SECRET: We caught the Venezuelan Militia in training,” Trump captioned the video before sarcastically adding, “A very serious threat!”
Before Trump’s jokes, the president made cryptic threats against the Venezuelan government on his Truth Social platform.
“We want Venezuela to immediately accept all of the prisoners, and people from mental institutions, which includes the Worst in the World Insane Asylums, that Venezuelan ‘Leadership’ has forced into the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Saturday.
“Thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these ‘Monsters.’ GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT NOW, OR THE PRICE YOU PAY WILL BE INCALCULABLE!”
“We do not seek war with anyone. We have never declared war on anyone,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello Rondón told NTN24 reports, according to Mediaite.
“But we have learned to defend ourselves, and we have also learned to carry out devastating counterattacks when necessary.”
Trump announced earlier this month that the U.S. military had destroyed three different boats that were allegedly crewed by members of the Tren de Aragua gang smuggling drugs to the U.S. from Venezuela.
The first attack, which killed 11 people in international waters, has been described by critics as a serious violation of human rights, possibly amounting to a war crime.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, the president was asked to clarify his Truth Social tirade. “Well, you’re going to have to figure that out,” was his unhelpful reply.
The White House later gave some further clarification on the president’s remarks in a follow-up statement.
“President Trump is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding in to our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast.
“The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela, it is a narco-terror cartel, and Maduro is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the U.S. for trafficking drugs in to the country,” Kelly said.
Then, while speaking to reporters on Sunday, the president suggested the aggressive tactics against alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers were working: “You don’t even find a fishing boat, you don’t even find cruise liners anymore. There’s nothing in the water near Venezuela.”
“It’s actually strange,” Trump added. “You know what that means: That means there are no drugs coming in.”
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