U.S. military seizes oil tanker off Venezuelan coast, Trump says

The United States on Wednesday seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said, sharply escalating tensions with his counterpart, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker, very large,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Then he added that “other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later.”

Trump did not offer further details about the seizure of the ship, including about its owner or the nation where it is flagged, but Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed later on X that it was transporting sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.

“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” Bondi said.

Bondi also shared a 45-second video of the seizure.

The American military has been destroying small boats the U.S. claims are running drugs off the Latin American country’s coast, though it has offered little evidence to support those allegations. Trump said Saturday that he intends to expand the military campaign against alleged drug traffickers from sea to land soon.

Lawmakers, legal scholars and former U.S. military leaders have said the strikes amount to extrajudicial killings, violating both American and international law.

Maduro, whom the Trump administration has designated as the head of a foreign terrorist organization, has alleged that the U.S. is “fabricating” a war. He has called the American military presence in the Caribbean “the greatest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years.”

Venezuela is a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and sits on the largest oil reserves in the world. Its fragile economy depends disproportionately on oil exports, meaning Wednesday’s seizure hits squarely on a strategic vulnerability.