Trump snaps at reporters ridiculous question in | Political News

Donald Trump slammed a reporter who requested him whether or not the CIA has the authority to take out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The U.S. President snapped back, “I don’t want to answer a question like that. That is a ridiculous question to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”

It comes just hours after U.S officers revealed the Trump administration secretly licensed the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, according to the New York Times.

The new directive authorizes the CIA to conduct deadly missions and other covert operations throughout Venezuela and the Caribbean—either on its own or as half of a bigger U.S. navy strategy. According to The New York Times, it is still unsure whether or not these operations have begun or if the authorization is solely a precautionary measure.

The United States struck another small boat accused of carrying medication in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people, on Tuesday.

Those who died in the strike had been aboard the vessel, and no U.S. forces had been harmed, the president said in a social media post.

It’s the fifth lethal strike in the Caribbean as Trump’s administration has asserted it’s treating alleged drug traffickers as illegal combatants who must be met with navy pressure.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike Tuesday morning, said Trump, who launched a video of it as he has in the past. Hegseth later shared the video in a post on X.

The black-and-white video confirmed a small boat that appeared stationary on the water. Seconds into the video, it’s struck by a projectile from overhead and explodes. The boat is then seen floating aflame for a number of seconds.

Trump said the strike was performed in worldwide waters and “intelligence” confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was related with “narcoterrorist networks” and was on a identified drug trafficking route.

The Pentagon didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail from The Associated Press in search of more data on the latest boat strike, but one protection official confirmed that the main points in the social media post had been correct. The official was not licensed to converse publicly on the strike and spoke on condition of anonymity.

What might the long-term influence be?

James Story, former U.S. ambassador for the Venezuela Affairs Unit from 2018 to 2023, served under Trump’s first time period and under President Joe Biden. He told The Associated Press that ongoing American strikes on boats in the Caribbean might in the end hinder counternarcotics efforts. By ruffling the feathers of longtime American allies in the area like Colombia, Story said, the strikes probably “hurt our ability to gather intelligence” from allies to crack down on drug trafficking organizations.

“If they believe that the intelligence they provide us will result in what some could describe as an extrajudicial killing, and nobody here is sympathetic to the plight of drug traffickers … that puts us in a pretty bad spot,” Story said. ”It places us in contravention with worldwide law and it undermines our capacity to work in the hemisphere.”

Meanwhile, frustration with the Trump administration has been growing on Capitol Hill among members of both major political events. Some Republicans are in search of more data from the White House on the legal justification and particulars of the strikes. Democrats contend the strikes violate U.S. and worldwide law.

The Senate last week voted on a warfare powers decision that would have barred the Trump administration from conducting the strikes unless Congress particularly licensed them, but it failed to move.