Donald Trump confirmed the US destroyed a ‘big’ facility, and the Pentagon is washing its hands of what would be the first land strike on Venezuela

President Trump just confirmed that the U.S. military “knocked out” a massive facility in Venezuela, marking a significant escalation in the administration’s ongoing pressure campaign against President Nicolás Maduro, as per The Hill. This is a huge development, and it looks like the U.S. forces are taking the fight directly to the drug infrastructure on land.

The president revealed the attack during a Friday appearance on the “Cats & Cosby” show on New York’s WABC radio. After lauding the U.S. military’s existing attacks against purported drug-smuggling vessels in the region, President Trump dropped the major news that U.S. forces had hit a facility just two nights earlier.

He told hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby, “We just knocked out, I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from.” He added that the strike was carried out swiftly. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”

The war drums are ramping up

While speaking at Mar-a-Lago alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president described the target as an “implementation” area. He said that after hitting all the boats, “now we hit the area, it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.” The president specifically noted that there was a “major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” confirming that the action took place right along the shore.

This is the big deal: If this action is confirmed, it would mark the first known U.S. land strike inside Venezuela since the Trump administration started ramping up efforts against the Maduro regime. We still don’t have all the details, though. It’s unclear where the facility was located, exactly how the attack was carried out, what the extent of the damage was, or whether there were any casualties.

When asked about President Trump’s statements, the official channels weren’t exactly forthcoming. Both the Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command simply referred all inquiries back to the White House. That’s a classic move when the operational details are highly sensitive. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan government hasn’t made any public comments on the alleged attack either.

This confirmed strike is the latest step in a much larger, focused campaign aimed at cutting off the drug flow and pressuring Maduro. Since September, the U.S. military has already struck at least 28 alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Officials claim those maritime operations have resulted in the deaths of at least 105 “narcoterrorists.” The administration argues this whole effort is essential for curbing the flow of illicit drugs and protecting the U.S. homeland.

We know that President Trump has been thinking about authorizing land strikes inside Venezuela for some time. Experts previously noted that if the U.S. military were given the green light for strikes on land, it would likely target crucial drug cartel infrastructure, such as port facilities and warehouses used to store cocaine before it gets shipped elsewhere.