Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is facing a stark choice as U.S. pressure intensifies: negotiate with President Donald Trump or face a targeted U.S. military strike aimed at crippling his regime, former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Monday.
“If the Venezuelans do not agree to talk to President Trump and stop the transfer of narcotics through their networks to the United States, then I think you might see a strike that would decapitate his means of terror, the apparatus that he uses to terrorize his own people,” Wilkie, former undersecretary of defense and now co-chair of the Center for National Security at the America First Policy Institute, told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.”
Trump’s posture mirrors historic U.S. pressure on hostile regimes, according to Wilkie, pointing to former President George H.W. Bush’s handling of Manuel Noriega in Panama.
In Venezuela’s case, Wilkie said the stakes are similarly high and time is running short.
“It would be a decapitation attack, as I said, eliminating his means of terrorizing his own people,” Wilkie added. “Remember, these security services were put in place and trained by the Cubans. The Iranians are there as well. And, in some instances, Russian security services are there.
“So, you know, it’s a rogue’s gallery supporting this, essentially this street thug, who has the economy of one of the richest, potentially richest countries on the planet.
“He – and Chávez before him with the oil reserves that are equal, or in some cases greater than, Saudi Arabia – has bankrupted this country. People are leaving daily by the thousands because of this man, and he sustains his regime through criminal activity.”
The comments came as the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group looms off Venezuela’s coast, signaling U.S. readiness.
Wilkie stressed that Trump is open to talks — but will not hesitate to act if Maduro refuses cooperation. He underscored that any potential strike would be a high-precision operation, not a deployment of ground forces, in line with the president’s long-standing reluctance to put American troops in harm’s way.
“The president is not one who wants to automatically put American troops on the ground, and I don’t think he’ll do that here,” Wilkie told co-hosts Marc Lotter and Sharla McBride.
Newsmax writer Eric Mack contributed to this report.
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