Kinzinger: Trump targeting Venezuela ‘curious’

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said Wednesday it is “curious” that the Trump administration is targeting Venezuelan boats with military strikes, given the tremendous size and scope of the drug trade.

“Why Venezuela? We know that there are huge amounts of drugs that come through Mexico and other countries,” Kinzinger told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I never, and maybe this was my naivete, I’ve never put Venezuela as this leading drug issue in the United States. And so I think that’s curious.”

President Trump has authorized five known strikes against what the administration alleges, without evidence, are speedboats carrying drugs off the Venezuelan coast in the Caribbean Sea. The strikes, which began on Sept. 2, have killed about 27 people. 

The president also confirmed Wednesday reports that he authorized the CIA to carry out operations in Venezuela and against its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro. 

In justifying his administration’s actions against the South American country, Trump has cited concerns over illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. The Venezuelan government has pushed back, with Maduro saying last month that communications between his country and the U.S. are “broken.”

The White House, though, has not provided evidence of drugs being on the targeted boats. Last week, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-backed measure to halt the strikes. 

Kinzinger, who served in the Air Force and sat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that if the administration “can prove that there was a ton of drugs” on the boats, then Congress and the public “may be more supportive.” However, the GOP Trump critic noted that cocaine, not fentanyl, is the most common illicit drug that enters the U.S. via Venezuela.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2025 threat assessment report, Colombia is the primary source of cocaine entering the U.S. The report also says Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational criminal organization, conducts “small-scale” drug trafficking operations in the U.S.

“The interesting thing is it feels like we have declared war against fentanyl, which is obviously very dangerous, [but] it’s not a ton of fentanyl that comes from Venezuela,” Kinzinger said. “It’s largely cocaine, that cocaine is usually purchased by Americans. Even though it’s illegal, they choose to do it.”