MaddowBlog-Trump confirms U.S. strike in Venezuela in the clumsiest possible way [View all]

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Did the president boast about a foreign strike that didn’t happen, or did he disclose a strike he wasn’t supposed to talk about? Now we know the answer.

The pattern is eclipsed by countless other scandals, but it’s easy to imagine a world in which Trump is best known for blurting out sensitive national security information.

It’s happened ... a lot. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-12-30T14:02:02.490Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-confirms-u-s-strike-in-venezuela-in-the-clumsiest-possible-way

While The New York Times and CNN reported that it was the CIA that struck a port facility in Venezuela last week — reporting that has not been independently verified by MS NOW — Trump personally confirmed much of what happened during a brief Q&A with reporters at Mar-a-Lago, though he did so in the clumsiest way possible.

“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he said. “They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area. It’s the implementation area; that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”

Asked whether the U.S. military was responsible for the operation, Trump said: “It doesn’t matter.”

Q: Can you say any more about the explosion in Venezuela that you mentioned in a radio interview. Did the military do that?

TRUMP: Well, it doesn't matter. But there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs. We hit the area.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-12-29T18:31:01.528Z

....Indeed, this keeps happening. In October, the Times reported that the president had “secretly authorized” the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela. And just hours after the article reached the public, Trump confirmed the whole story.

NBC News reported at the time, “The CIA’s operations abroad are usually shrouded in secrecy, but President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had authorized it to take unspecified action in Venezuela, an extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgment from a commander in chief.”

Two months later, these extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgments are still happening.

Trump has a scandalous record of blurting out sensitive national security secrets for no apparent reason. The fact that he keeps adding to the list is extraordinary.