UNRAVELING

Trump’s Bomber Claim Instantly Blows Up in His Face

Flight trackers fact-checked the president as he denied reports about a U.S. operation.

Two U.S. bombers were tracked flying a Caribbean mission close to Venezuela—despite Donald Trump having denied a news report detailing the mission as “false.”

The B-1B Lancers scrambled from Texas and flew toward the Venezuelan coast while staying outside its airspace, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a U.S. official and open-source tracking.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned outlet reported that the mission was aimed at increasing pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, and possibly represented a widening of Trump’s campaign targeting alleged drug traffickers and cartels.

Pressed by reporters on Thursday about reports of Lancers “near” Venezuela, Trump, 79, answered: “Not accurate. No. It’s false.”

That denial blew up minutes later, when flight tracking data showed two B-1Bs from Dyess Air Force Base operating over international waters, as part of what ABC News described as an expanding U.S. “show of force” against the country.

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand posted on X that “they were easily viewable on flight radar,” adding that at their closest one B-1 was “a little more than 50 miles from the Venezuelan mainland.”

Thursday’s flights signal “seriousness and intent,” said David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “You’re bringing an enormous set of capabilities…endurance, payload, range and precision,” he said.

The B-1B can sprint at supersonic speed and haul roughly 75,000 pounds of munitions—more than any other U.S. bomber. With its range, it can reach targets anywhere in the Caribbean directly from U.S. bases, a defense official told The Wall Street Journal.

Thursday’s B-1B mission followed a separate one a week earlier when three B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, orbited about 90 miles north of the coast, paired at times with Marine F-35Bs out of Puerto Rico.

While denying the B-1B flight, Trump did signal an escalation against the South American country. In the past few weeks, the president has railed against Maduro, 62, as U.S. assets surged into the region.

Since early September, the U.S. has been steadily expanding military operations around Venezuela. The Associated Press reported the presence includes warships, drones, F-35s, and a submarine—on top of lethal maritime strikes that have killed dozens.

After at least seven hits on go-fast boats and a submersible in the Caribbean since early September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday the U.S. also struck two vessels in the eastern Pacific this week.

The president also suggested “land action” could come “soon,” even as formal plans have not been announced.

LAWLESSNESS

Trump Makes Bone-Chilling Threat to Just Keep Killing People

Catherine Bouris

While Trump was reticent about the latest bomber mission, previous strikes have targeted what the administration says are Venezuelan “narco-trafficking” boats.

The White House has released dramatic clips of explosions while offering few public details about who was killed or what drugs may have been aboard.

The Pentagon says it is all part of a counter-cartel push from Venezuela, which it is framing as acts of war against the American people. But the Trump administration’s escalatory approach has triggered blowback at home and abroad.

ROCKING THE BOAT

Trump Blasted as Secret War Moves to New Theater

Farrah Tomazin

Critics, including GOP Sen. Rand Paul, have been unhappy over the government’s refusal to share legal justifications or raw video in classified briefings, warning that innocents—or even U.S. citizens—could be among the dead.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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