President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that he had authorized the spy agency to take unspecified action in Venezuela.
Trump's comments were an extraordinary acknowledgement from a president, and they step up the administration's pressure campaign against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Oct. 15, 2025, 2:33 PM MST / Updated Oct. 15, 2025, 3:31 PM MST
By Dan De Luce
The CIA’s operations abroad are usually shrouded in secrecy, but President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the spy agency to take unspecified action in Venezuela, an extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgement from a commander in chief.
“Why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela?” a reporter asked Trump at the White House.
“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump said. “Number one, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America."
The second reason, the president said, was narcotics trafficking.
“And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela,” Trump said.
The president’s highly unusual remarks about his orders to the CIA came only hours after The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had authorized the CIA to carry out covert, lethal action in Venezuela.
The CIA declined to comment on the report.
