Trump, ramping up pressure on Maduro, says it would be ‘smart’ for Venezuelan leader to step down
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the creation of the “Trump-class” battleship during a statement to the media at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on December 22, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump announced the new class of ship will become the centerpiece of his “Golden Fleet” program to rebuild and strengthen the U.S. shipbuilding industry. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(FLORIDA) — President Donald Trump is continuing to ratchet up pressure on Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, saying it would be “smart” for him to step down and warning him not to play “tough.”
Trump, taking reporter questions at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Monday evening, was directly asked if his administration’s ultimate goal in Venezuela is to force Maduro from power.
“Well, I think it probably would. I can’t tell him. That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But again, we’re going to find out,” Trump said.
At the same time, Trump issued a warning to Maduro.
“He can do whatever he wants, it’s alright, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough,” Trump said.
The president added, “We have a massive armada for him. The biggest we’ve ever had and by the far the biggest we’ve ever had in South America.”
The U.S. has built up its military presence in the region in recent weeks, with 15,000 U.S. troops and several warships standing ready in the Caribbean.
Trump last week also ordered what he called a “complete blockade” of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela, targeting the government’s main source of revenue.
Maduro said Venezuela would continue to trade oil in the face of the “blockade,” and has said regime change “will just not happen, never, never, never.”
Separately, since September, the U.S. military has launched dozens of strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean allegedly carrying drugs. These strikes have killed more than 100 people, according to numbers provided by the administration. The strikes have several raised legal questions from lawmakers of both parties and legal experts, though the administration’s justified the use of lethal force as part of what it calls its “war” on drug cartels.
“We’ll be starting the same program on land,” Trump said on Monday. “The land is much easier.”
While Trump continued to tease that land strikes on Venezuela, he also took it a step further and threatened land strikes on other countries.
“Anywhere drugs are pouring in. Anywhere, not just Venezuela,” Trump said when asked if he was only referring to Venezuela land strikes.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters as Senate Republican leaders hold a press conference following their weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 15, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he offered Democrats an opportunity to address their biggest priority in an effort to end the government shutdown — but it was not enough to end the stalemate.
Thune, during an interview on MSNBC that aired Thursday morning, said he has offered Democrats a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, but that he couldn’t guarantee an outcome.
“I’ve told them. I said, and I’ve said, ‘We are willing to have the conversation.’ I’ve said, ‘If you need a vote, we can guarantee you get a vote by a date certain.’ At some point Democrats have to take yes for an answer,” Thune said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday.
Senate Democrats have been demanding fixes to health care to avoid a spike in premiums for many low- and middle-income Americans to unlock their support for funding the government. Democrats have been unwavering in their demands as the shutdown drags on into its 16th day.
The Senate failed on Wednesday for a ninth time to advance the GOP’s government funding bill. On Thursday, the Senate is set to vote again on the short-term government funding bill — but Thune is set to try a new tactic, adding a procedural vote on a bill that would fund the Department of Defense for the full calendar year and ensure paychecks for the troops.
Thursday’s vote is a different sort of vote than previous ones related to the shutdown. This vote begins debate on one of 12 regular order annual appropriations bills that keep the government running.
Thune has signaled that if the Senate does successfully support this package Thursday, he’ll attempt to affix funding bills for additional agencies to it using regular order on the Senate floor.
Reopening the government is a crucial first step to continue discussions about reforms to health care, Thune said on MSNBC. He committed to conversations, but not an outcome.
“There is a path forward, I believe, but it has to include reforms, and can I guarantee an outcome? No. And that’s what people want to see — guarantee us that this is going to pass,” Thune said. “I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass. I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote.”
Asked about Thune’s comments, Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated Thursday morning that no health care outcomes can be guaranteed.
“It’s not possible for Leader Thune to guarantee to Chuck Schumer some outcome on that, because we haven’t finished those deliberations. I mean, that’s just as simple as it is,” Johnson said during his Thursday morning news conference.
There is bipartisan interest, Thune said, in keeping health care costs down. But changes to the program need to be made, and negotiations on those changes start with opening the government, Thune said.
Thune was pressed on efforts by the White House to rescind congressionally appropriated funds. Democrats have said that the use of rescissions has made them leery to work on funding deals. Thune did not explicitly say he wanted the White House to stop making rescissions, but he said regular order appropriations were the preferred method.
“The rescission power is something that constitutionally the president has — the question of whether they use it or not — yeah, I mean, that’s obviously something I think that they would need to talk to the White House about,” Thune said.
He said he’s had “conversations” on the topic with the White House and that “I do think that it’s in everybody’s best interest, including the White House’s, to have a normal appropriations process where people are bought in.”
As Thune sat for this interview, the House was in its third consecutive week of recess. Thune was asked if it was the right choice for the House to remain out of town. He said it was a “judgement call” for Speaker Johnson to make.
“There isn’t anything right now. They did their job. They passed their bill. The game is in the Senate,” Thune said.
He also couldn’t guarantee the shutdown would end any time soon. When asked by Ali Vitali if he thought it would be over by Thanksgiving, Thune didn’t commit.
“I hope it doesn’t last through Thanksgiving, because that’s going to be a lot of harm to the American people,” he said.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to reporters following a vote on Capitol Hill on November 9, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Eight senators who caucus with Democrats broke rank on Sunday and forwent extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year — a move could bring an end to the government shutdown, but has led to criticism from many within their own party.
Sens. Angus King, Tim Kaine, Dick Durbin, John Fetterman, Magie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen — none of whom are up for reelection 2026 — voted Sunday to support a short-term funding bill that would reopen the government through Jan. 30.
The 60-40 vote barely put the continuing resolution over the finish line in the Senate, and the legislation will need to pass in the GOP-controlled House and receive President Donald Trump’s signature before it can go into effect and fund the government.
In the end, Democrats did not receive their one key demand in the shutdown battle: extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year. Instead, the deal promises a vote on health care subsidies in the coming weeks — something Senate Majority Leader John Thune had already offered as part of a deal over a month ago.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who has been a vocal leader in the fight to extend health care subsidies, posted a video on X Sunday night captioned: “Tonight was a very bad night.”
“This was a very, very bad vote,” Sanders said, adding that the deal “raises health care premiums for over 20 million Americans” and “paves the way for 15 million people to be thrown off of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.”
Sanders said last week’s elections — in which Democrats across the country won by historic margins — shows that “the American people want us to stand up to Trumpism, to his war against working-class people, to his authoritarianism. That is what the American people wanted. But tonight, that is not what happened.”
Sanders was not alone. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said the party “lost” the fight over health care. Sen. Chris Murphy argued there was “no way to defend” the yes vote.
“My fear is that Trump gets stronger, not weaker, because of this acquiescence,” Murphy wrote on X.
Several key Democratic governors, some of whom are rumored to be considering a bid for the White House in 2028, are criticizing the deal. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the negotiations a “deeply disappointing result” with the administration steamrolling Congress. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker wrote in a post on X that instead of a deal, it’s an “empty promise,” and California Gov. Gavin Newsom curtly called the move by Senate Democrats “pathetic.”
Even Sen. Shaheen’s own daughter Stefany Shaheen, who is running for Congress in New Hampshire, came out against the deal her mother supported.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday said the party will continue to fight for health care, adding that the Democratic senators who voted for the GOP plan will have to defend their votes.
“With respect to senators … they are going to have to explain themselves,” Jeffries said during a news conference Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, despite voting no on the Republican spending bill, has faced calls from Democrats in Congress to step down from Senate leadership over his failure to keep members of his party in line.
Some Democrats, such as progressive Rep. Rho Khanna, are calling for Schumer to walk away from the job entirely.
“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” Khanna wrote on X Sunday night. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
Democratic Rep. Mike Levin wrote on X on Monday that “Chuck Schumer has not met this moment and Senate Democrats would be wise to move on from his leadership.”
The rouge Democrats defended their yes vote Sunday night, claiming that Republicans would now work with them on the issue of health care.
“After weeks of bipartisan conversations, I voted today to reopen the government so that we can get back to the work of helping families. This agreement funds SNAP and food assistance programs ensures that law enforcement, air traffic controllers and other federal workers get paid, reverses the president’s recent reckless layoffs and prevents them from happening in the future, and crucially, gives Congress a clear path forward to protecting people’s health care,” Hassan said Sunday.
“And if [a deal on health care] is not successful, then shame on the Republican party and shame on Donald Trump. But the American people will see who stands with them on health care and who does not, and that will be the platform of the next stage of the fight,” added Shaheen.
On Capitol Hill Sunday night, Kaine, Hassan, Shaheen, Cortez Masto and King stressed there is still a critical need for ACA tax credits, but that the impact of the government shutdown was becoming too dire. Additionally, the group said the Republicans were “clear” in their refusal to negotiate with Democrats over health care while the government remained closed.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time in more than two decades, the Pentagon has begun sending conventional ground forces to Panama to train in the jungle there, returning U.S. soldiers and Marines to a three-week course once called the “Green Hell” because of its similarities to Vietnam.
The training program at Base Aeronaval Cristóbal Colón, formerly known as Fort Sherman, is relatively small in scope but is expected to ramp up over the next year, according to one defense official.
The program began earlier this year and is not intended to prepare troops for a potential mission, including inside Venezuela, the official said.
Still, the military’s interest in jungle warfare in Latin America is noteworthy given Trump’s heightened focus there. Since taking office, Trump has vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal and repeatedly threatened to attack Venezuela because of its alleged role in transiting illegal narcotics.
“If you can train and fight in one of the most difficult and challenging locations in the world, you build a really lethal, effective force,” the defense official said of the rationale behind the new training program.
Alex Plitsas, a former Pentagon official and senior fellow at The Atlantic Council, said the new training course wouldn’t likely play a role in potential operations inside Venezuela. The training effort appears to be more about building Panama’s capacity to handle security threats in the region.
But the move signals a shift in priorities by the Trump administration, he said.
“It’s an expansion of an existing military relationship, but it’s not happening in a vacuum,” Plitsas said. “It’s happening as a broader change in policy. There’s a renewed interest in South America, where the president sees the drug flow to the United States as a national security issue with the intention of potential military action.”
Jungle training hasn’t been a priority for the military since 9/11, when the nation’s focus shifted to counterterrorism operations in the Middle East. The Defense Department in recent years has relied on a smaller Army jungle training center in Hawaii and at a Marine Corps site in Okinawa, Japan.
During the Vietnam War, however, Fort Sherman was considered a prime location where most troops could hone their jungle survival skills before shipping off to war.
Conditions at the Panamanian training site are considered among the harshest in the world, including venomous snakes and several layers of thick, towering vegetation that can make it difficult to operate communications and night-vision equipment or evacuate wounded personnel.
By 1999, the training site shuttered and the last of the U.S. military departed Panama as part of an agreement ceding U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
Shortly after taking office, though, Trump expressed renewed interest in the region, declaring the U.S. would be “reclaiming” the Panama Canal. That effort has since been couched by Pentagon officials as a renewed “partnership” with Panama to prevent Chinese influence over the canal, which the U.S. relies on heavily for shipping.
Trump also has overseen an unprecedented buildup of U.S. troops to the region, deploying 10,000 troops and, more recently, the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The public display of force appears to be a kind of pressure campaign aimed at forcing out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
By August, the military had set up the “Combined Jungle Operations Training Course” with Marines and Panamanian forces training as part of a pilot program. A military spokesperson said there have since been 46 graduates of the three-week course: 18 Marines, one Army soldier and 27 personnel from Panama’s National Aeronaval Service, National Border Service and National Police.
According to the Defense official, the Army plans to ramp up training over the next year, eventually sending in platoons of some 40 soldiers at a time to train.
Steve Ganyard, a retired Marine Corps colonel and ABC contributor, said the renewed interest in Panama is likely a practical one, but it also can be used to send a message.
“From a practical perspective, it’s easier to get to Panama than Okinawa. And the jungles of Central and South America have their own unique challenges,” he said. “That said, no doubt a message is being sent to Maduro by conducting combat training in his neighborhood.”
