(Zero Hedge)—President Donald Trump has reportedly rejected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s request for broad amnesty during a newly disclosed phone conversation last week, telling Maduro and his top advisers to drop their demands and swiftly exit Venezuela as US military pressure intensifies, which has lately included an order to halt all flights in the country’s sovereign airspace.
According to people familiar with the exchange who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, Trump and Maduro discussed a sweeping amnesty plan, during which time Maduro is said to have sought blanket legal protection for himself, his senior officials, and their families. “Trump told Maduro that if he didn’t leave willingly, the US would consider other options including the use of force, according to people familiar with discussion,” WSJ wrote.
Many of those same officials are at this moment under US sanctions or face criminal charges related to corruption and narcotics trafficking.
President Trump is said to have dismissed the proposal while warning Maduro that the United States would ramp up military action if he refused to step down. This is consistent with prior Washington regime change operations in places like the Middle East, which has seen many longtime rulers overthrown – including Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Bashar al-Assad.
A number of top-ranking Maduro officials have been called out by the Trump administration, and urged to leave the country immediately – including Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez.
Trump while speaking at Mar-a-Lago during Thanksgiving, apparently days after the secretive Maduro phone call, hinted that US ground operations against Venezuela could begin soon. “The land is easier. That’s going to start very soon. We warned them, stop sending poison into our country.”
According to some of the details of the newly disclosed call via The New York Times:
The conversation took place late in the week, two of the people said. It included a discussion about a possible meeting between the two men in the United States, according to the people with knowledge of the matter, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. There are no plans at the moment for such a meeting, one of the people said.
The phone call, which included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came days before a State Department designation of Mr. Maduro as the leader of what the administration considers a foreign terrorist organization, the Cartel de los Soles, came into effect.
After this, Trump announced that the airspace over Venezuela should now be considered closed. “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote on X.
Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned pilots to “exercise caution” near Venezuela’s airspace due to the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity.
?Alert: In Emergency Phone Conference between President Trump and Dictator Maduro, Trump tells Maduro the only way to stop an attack is to step down and leave the country NOW!! pic.twitter.com/IIgtKdC9fd
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) November 30, 2025
The Pentagon has been deploying warships and other military assets in the Caribbean this year. The deployment centers around bolstering Hemispheric Defense, and the Trump administration has formally characterized Nicolás Maduro as the head of a terrorist organization and considers his government illegitimate.
Quick response after the US orders what’s effectively a total airspace closure over the Latin American country:
0 planes over Venezuela after Trump shuts its airspace pic.twitter.com/wyUwzcTcjy
— RT (@RT_com) November 30, 2025
This policy hearkens back to the first Trump administration, during which time there appeared to be clandestine efforts to foment unrest or else a military coup. These activities didn’t amount to much, however, and Maduro had vehemently denounced external meddling and vowed to go after and punish collaborators.
Last year, on the Trump campaign trail, the would-be second term president didn’t mention anything in his policy platform about sweeping regime change action in Venezuela – which likely would have been met with a lot of opposition within the MAGA movement.
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