Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Donald Trump is preparing to brief Congress on planned military operations inside Venezuela and Colombia once he returns from his trip to Asia this week.
“I think President Trump’s made a decision that (Nicolás) Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, is an indicted drug, drug trafficker, that it’s time for him to go, that Venezuela and Colombia have been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long,” Graham said Sunday on “Face the Nation.” “President Trump told me yesterday that he plans to brief members of Congress when he gets back from Asia about future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia.”
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As of Friday, at least 43 people have been killed in 10 U.S. strikes against alleged drug boats hailing from the two nations, primarily in the Caribbean Sea. The campaign escalated last week when the U.S. military destroyed another boat in the Pacific Ocean, the first in that body of water.
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Trump first teased a congressional briefing on the strikes during a White House meeting on Thursday. No date for the briefing has been announced, and the White House did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment.
“We may go to Congress and tell them about it, but I can’t imagine they’d have any problem with it,” Trump said on Thursday. “I think, in fact, while we’re here, I think it’s a good idea. Pete (Hegseth), you go to Congress, you tell them about it. What are they going to do?”
U.S. land strikes on Venezuela are “a real possibility,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says, telling @margbrennan President Trump plans to brief Congress about potentially expanding the U.S. military operations “from the sea to the land.”
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) October 26, 2025
“I support that idea. But I think he has… pic.twitter.com/q7iBG7D0H7
Trump also said that land strikes are the next phase of the operation.
“The drugs coming in by sea are like 5% of what they were a year ago, less than 5%. So now they’re coming in by land,” Trump said. “And even the land is concerned because I told them that’s going to be next. You know, the land — it’s going to be next.”
Graham said the Trump administration is using valid precedent for the strikes, citing former President George H.W. Bush’s 1989 invasion of Panama, which was not sanctioned by Congress.
“Panama and Grenada are two examples in our backyard, where Republican presidents chose to go after countries and leaders that were threatening our people,” Graham said.
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Trump administration’s actions in the Caribbean are equivalent to “murder.”
“If this president feels that they’re doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard,” Gallego said. “If it’s an act of war, then you use our military, and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder. It’s sanctioned murder that he is doing.”
Graham responded to the characterization on “Face the Nation”: “This is not murder. This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.”
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