Trump Has Vetoed Military Action Vs. Venezuela—For Now; Will Pursue Talks

Nov. 28--President Donald Trump has for the foreseeable future vetoed any military action against Venezuela, sources close the White House report. In so doing, he has rejected the insane ravings of his gusano Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other hotheads in the military establishment that, with the massive naval and related forces the U.S. has assembled off the Venezuelan coast, that the U.S. move in and topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro, who Rubio last week, without any factual supportive evidence, called the "kingpin" of the Cartel de los Soles, which was labelled a "Foreign Terrorist Organization."

Instead, preparations are in process, these sources report, for phone call between Trump and Maduro, which could happen as soon as next week. Trump wants to see if a diplomatic solution to his concerns about the Maduro government and drug trafficking, while he still holds the military option as a possibility.

These sources say that Trump may consider sending his special envoy for the region Rick Grenell to meet with Maduro. Grenell had previously worked a deal which involved sanctions relief for the exchange of an American held in Venezuela, only to have the State Department veto the U.S. concessions. Trump has full faith in Grenell, a source said. He later named him to head the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The pressure coming from Rubio and the military to use force to bring about regime change and to strike a blow against the drug cartel is intense, although people say that the evidence that Maduro works with the cartel is "weak."

Axios reported Nov. 24 that the planning for the call between the two leaders in "underway."

Among the anonymous White House personnel cited, one told Axios that right now no one is “planning to go in and shoot him or snatch him…. I wouldn’t say never, but that’s not the plan right now.” But in the meantime, however, “we’re going to blow up boats shipping drugs. We’re going to stop the drug trafficking.”

Another official stated: “No one would hazard a guess as to what Trump will say to Maduro or how he plans to say it; the cliché ‘all options are on the table’ applies.” The news agency notes that, because Maduro will have been just named as the head of an FTO, this gives Trump “more of a pretext to take military action.” But, Axios notes, since Trump has made up his mind to speak directly with Maduro, “there’s more talk about talking and less talk about bombing…. I see a diplomatic solution as being very likely,” one advisor said.