US latest: Trump to give press briefing with defence secretary - amid Venezuela tensions

Nearly 30 US ambassadors and other senior diplomats have been removed from their posts by the Trump administration to ensure embassies reflect its "America First" priorities.

The individuals, who ‌were posted to countries where the top US representative has traditionally been from the foreign service, were ordered back to Washington and encouraged to find new roles in the State Department, a US official ‍told the Reuters news agency.

The State Department did not provide a list of those being recalled. 

A senior department ​official said the move was "a standard process in any ​administration". 

"An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it ‍is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda," the official said, speaking on condition of ‌anonymity. 

Some diplomats reported being notified by phone with no explanation, according to the American Foreign Service Association, which represents US foreign service officers.

Donald Trump has sought to ‍place loyalists in senior roles since starting his second term in January, after encountering resistance during his first term advancing his foreign policy priorities.

Donald Trump has previously sent ambiguous signals about whether his military build-up near Venezuela is the start of a greater military intervention.

But he expressly left the possibility of a war with Venezuela on the table in a phone interview with our US partners NBC News.

"I don’t rule it out, no," he said.

When he was asked whether he rules out the possibility that the US strikes on alleged drug boats and tanker seizures could lead to war, he said: "I don't discuss it."

Trump also declined to say whether ousting Maduro was his ultimate goal.

"He knows exactly what I want," he replied. "He knows better than anybody."

The comments are notable as Trump has long campaigned on being able to keep the US out of foreign conflicts, while claiming to have ended a number of wars himself.

We will see if the US president expresses the same opinion in his upcoming press briefing.

BELLA 1 is the crude oil tanker reported as being ‘pursued’ by the US military. Distress calls sent by the tanker suggest it was in pursuit on Sunday.  

The tanker last appeared on tracking on 17 December heading towards Venezuela.

On Sunday, the tanker made 39 distress calls. The first distress call was made at 12:26pm and the last at 17:13pm. These distress calls help us understand the most recent location of the tanker, it was just over 500km from the coast of Antigua and Barbuda, shown on the map above.  

Bella 1 is sanctioned by the U.S Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in June 2024 for its involvement in Iranian oil transport and is currently listed by the IMO as having a missing flag.   It is registered to a company based in Turkey, Louis Marine Shipholding ENT, also sanctioned.  

According to Kpler, an analytics company, before crossing the Atlantic, Bella 1 loaded crude oil at Kharg Island in Iran, early September. The vessel switched off its AIS in the Strait of Hormuz prior to loading, a common tactic observed among vessels loading sanctioned Iranian crude oil.  

Photo of what appears to be Bella 1 at Kharg Island, Iran on 3 September.

Overall, between Oct 2021 and Sep 2025 – Bella 1 had directly exported 7.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, as well as 3.7 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil, both to China, according to TankerTrackers. 

Our US correspondent James Matthews has been previewing Donald Trump's press briefing later this evening, where he believes Venezuela will be firmly on the agenda.

"We may learn more in terms of the specifics at this news conference," he says.

"There are questions about this tanker, but more broadly, what's next on Venezuela? 

"The administration said initially that the targeting of Venezuela, this build-up of a US armada, was about stopping drugs in the first instance, targeting narco terrorists. 

"Officials now are very much acknowledging, whatever it was to begin with, it's very much about removing Maduro now."

There are political voices in the US "talking about this being a provocation [and] a prelude to war", Matthews adds, "so [there is] much to learn about Trump's motivations and his thinking on Venezuela,."

Watch Matthews' analysis here...

Donald Trump may have to wait for any pressure on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to pay off, a former US ambassador to Venezuela says.

Charles Shapiro tells presenter Mark Austin that ships flying the flag of a country where they are not registered and in international waters can be stopped by the navy of any nation.

The US had a judge order to seize the first Venezuelan-linked vessel but didn't for the second one that was taken on Saturday, he says, while the case of the third ship currently being chase is unclear.

Asked if the US interceptions of oil tankers will have a real impact, Shapiro says: "It'll have an impact but it will take time, and that's what the Trump administration is up against. 

"Clearly they're trying to pressure Maduro out of office, and the president's got a menu of options to turn up the heat on Maduro to increase the pressure, and this is one of them.

"I can't tell you what will be next, but this will be slow. It's not going to be something that'll turn Maduro around overnight, and that's going to complicate things for Donald Trump."

Watch Shapiro's interview here...

It proved to be a busy weekend of international operations for the Trump administration, as US forces were also active in the Middle East.

Pete Hegseth - who is joining Donald Trump at his press briefing later - said the US launched strikes to "eliminate ISIS fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites" in Syria on Friday.

A US official described it as "a large-scale" strike that hit 70 targets in areas across central Syria.

Three US citizens - two National Guard members and a civilian interpreter - were killed and three more were wounded in an attack in the Syrian desert on 13 December.

Trump blamed the killings on Islamic State fighters.

"Because of ISIS's vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria, whose beautiful souls I welcomed home to American soil earlier this week in a very dignified ceremony, I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible," he said in a Truth Social post.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more strikes should be expected in the region, so Trump may well have an update to give on these.

We're expecting an announcement on shipbuilding from Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth later (see 17:00 post).

On Friday, the US Navy Secretary John Phelan said he had signed off on the construction of new ships forming part of the US president's so-called 'Golden Fleet'.

"Built on a proven American design, in American shipyards, with an American supply chain, this effort is focused on one outcome: delivering combat power to the Fleet fast," Phelan said on social media.

An executive order signed by Trump in April this year called for Washington to "revitalize and rebuild domestic maritime industries and workforce" in the US.

The order stated:

"The commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States has been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to the decline of a once strong industrial base while simultaneously empowering our adversaries and eroding United States national security. 

"Both our allies and our strategic competitors produce ships for a fraction of the cost needed in the United States."

The US constructs less than one percent of the world's commercial ships, while China is responsible for producing around 50%, the order said.

US forces were engaged in the attempted interception of a Venezuelan-linked vessel yesterday, their third such operation in less than two weeks and the second one of the weekend.

After seizing the Centuries ship on Saturday, the US Coast Guard chased the Bella 1, a sanctioned tanker linked to illicit Venezuelan oil trade, off the coast of the South American country.

The status of the "active pursuit" remains unclear, but a seizure has not been officially reported.

Watch footage of yesterday's pursuit by US forces here:

Earlier this week, Donald Trump promised a "TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS" on social media as his government accuses Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, of running a drug cartel. 

The US pressure campaign has also included strikes on so-called 'drug boats' and a military build-up off Venezuela's coast.

A $50m reward has been offered for Maduro's arrest since August this year.

Previous comments from the Trump administration suggested the goal could be to oust the authoritarian leader and take advantage of Venezuelan oil reserves.

Venezuela is sitting on the world's biggest reserves of heavy oil, alongside Canada and Russia.

The Reuters news agency, citing a White House official, is reporting that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth will make an announcement on shipbuilding at their press briefing.

However, it seems highly unlikely that the recent escalation in tensions between the US and Venezuela won't come up, either from both men directly or in questions from the gathered media.

There is also the question of the Epstein files following their release on Friday.

Only some of the files - which were heavily redacted - were released, despite the Department of Justice being given a deadline of that date to publish all of the documents related to the convicted sex offender.

Trump has so far avoided answering questions or making comments on the matter.

Hello, and welcome to our coverage of today's US politics.

Donald Trump will be holding a press briefing in Florida later, where he will be joined by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The US president is then due to make a separate announcement. 

It comes after US forces attempted to intercept a Venezuelan-linked vessel in international waters yesterday - the third such incident in two weeks.

We'll be providing all the key details of the briefing here, so stay with us for live updates.