Trump orders US carrier strike group to Caribbean

[douglas9]

Source: Politico

President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the U.S. attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Deploying a carrier is a significant move for any White House, and often suggests larger scale military operations.

The arrival of the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean, alongside several destroyers and a submarine, will add to what is already the world’s largest naval deployment.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move on X, saying the deployment “will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere. ”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/24/trump-orders-us-carrier-strike-group-to-caribbean-00621968

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Is Been A Dick Donald planning a Tonkin Gulf like incident that he can blame on Venezuela?

It wouldn't surprise me if that's his plan so he can justify an invasion or bombing campaign against Venezuela.

[AverageOldGuy]

2. You don't have to ask.

Besides, Hogsbreath needs a war to justify his new title.

It's been a long time since body bags started landing at Dover; I wonder if Trump or Hogsbreath will be there to greet the body bags they filled?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

4. Of course they won't be there,

they don't give a rat's ass about our men and women in the armed forces, for them, it's all about the power and ego.

[LudwigPastorius]

21. With Republican sycophants controlling the other branches of government,...

he doesn't really need to justify anything he does now.

If he started striking targets in Venezuela tomorrow, there's be an AUMF passed by Congress the day after.

[pfitz59]

3. The carrier alone costs

$1 million a day to operate. Add that to the cost of all the supporting elements. Meanwhile, the government is still shutdown.

[Chasstev365]

5. Every elected Republican needs to be held responsible for the actions of this evil Mad Man

[in2herbs]

18. The other day someone on DU posted that the Trump ballroom should be turned into a court room to

Nuremberg every R in Congress. I agree. And after than every R's picture should be hung in the ballroom with their conviction information included. This way their families can share in their traitor behavior.

[sop]

6. Trump will launch airstrikes on Venezuela targeting Maduro and his government, perhaps follow it up with ground troops.

Trump hoped Venezuela would respond to his murderous strikes on alleged "narco-terrorists" so he could use that as a pretext to launch a military strike and overthrow Maduro. I think he's tired of waiting, the military overthrow of the current Venezuelan government has been set in motion. More than likely opposition leader María Corina Machado will be installed as the head of a new Venezuelan government.

[lapfog_1]

9. nothing unites a nation more than an attack from the outside

Venezuela can field a force of around 330,000 ( 109,000 regular army plus reservists and other police forces ).

I am certain they would get a large amount of logistical support from both Russia and China. Weapons, etc.

This move kills any moral high ground the US has in relation to Russia / Ukraine.

This is all about oil... and the relatively undeveloped oil fields in Guyana that Venezuela wants to annex.

[nitpicked]

7. Hegseth Orders USS Gerald R. Ford to U.S. Southern Command

https://news.usni.org/2025/10/24/hegseth-orders-uss-gerald-r-ford-to-u-s-southern-command

Hegseth Orders USS Gerald R. Ford to U.S. Southern Command
Mallory Shelbourne and Sam LaGrone
October 24, 2025 1:36 PM

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tasked aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) and its escorts to U.S. Southern Command to support the Trump administration’s ongoing counter-drug efforts, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday on social media.
(snip)

As of Friday, Ford was in port in Split, Croatia, after arriving on Wednesday, according to ship spotters. Based on the carrier’s location, it will take at least one week for the carrier to sail across the Atlantic to reach the Caribbean, USNI News understands.

The Ford Carrier Strike Group deployed from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., in June with USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG-81), which is operating as the air defense commander, in addition to USS Bainbridge (DDG-96), USS Mahan (DDG-72), USS Mitscher (DDG-57) and USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98) making up Destroyer Squadron 2. Carrier Air Wing 8 is embarked aboard Ford. It’s unclear which destroyers will make the journey with Ford to SOUTHCOM, a source familiar with the movements told USNI News.

As of Monday, USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98) was operating in the Red Sea and USS Mitscher (DDG-57) was in the Arabian Sea operating independently from the strike group.
(snip)

[nitpicked]

10. More from the USNI article

(snip)
Ford and the strike group will join U.S Navy warships in the region, including guided-missile destroyers USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109), USS Gravely (DDG-107), USS Stockdale (DDG-106), guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70), Littoral Combat Ship USS Wichita (LCS-13), and a nuclear attack submarine. In addition, amphibious warships USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), USS San Antonio (LPD-17), with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked. In addition, U.S. Air Force assets have been sent to Puerto Rico, including F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters.
(snip)

[lapfog_1]

8. Malcolm Nance predicted this

and went further saying that this would need to happen as a prelude to all out war.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. Please tell me there's a lawsuit right now on some judge's desk that can stop

this idiocy. We will be in a war once he strikes land.

[JoseBalow]

12. Um, isn't there a hurricane there?

[mercuryblues]

13. How and why are his bombing of fishing boats

His threats to blow up whoever he wants and now this, not considered acts of war?

[LudwigPastorius]

22. No, they're "Special Military Operations"...

in the style of his buddy Vlad Putin.

[popsdenver]

23. A carrier strike force?

to attack a few small fishing? boats, or "possibly" even a few small drug boats????????

Trump and Putin want to install a Venezuela dictator they can boss around.......Why? Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, even bigger than the Saudis.......

So this is how Putin and Trump (Republican Party) plans on establishing a new world order, consisting of tyrant controlled nations, taking other nations over by overwhelming force?????????

[thought crime]

14. The Mission: Defend Mar-a-Lago!

Trump is ultra-paranoid as well as extremely ignorant with respect to military stuff. Combined with Hegseth's mania this could end up being another big mess.

[popsdenver]

24. It is all because

he couldn't DEMAND the Nobel Peace Award, and this is his way to tell us all: "I'll Show You"
So he starts a war with Venezuela, installs HIS dictator, then arranges a peace deal with the new tyrant, so he can declare he deserves the Nobel Peace Award next time around......

[C_U_L8R]

15. Project My Good Friend Epstein is apparently underway

Donald is gonna launch his missiles… you better duck or it will get messy.

[popsdenver]

25. LOL

OPERATION EPSTEIN WHO????????..........

EPSTEIN, .....you know.!!!!!... the guy you partnered with, for decades, to operate an INTERNATIONAL CHILD SEX RING.....
Ask Putin.....he'll remind you........

[orangecrush]

16. Fuck, here we go.

[mwmisses4289]

17. It's not expecting Venezuela to fight back.

I think it and its sycophants are in for a really nasty shock.

[groundloop]

19. This is an insane response to ALLEGED DRUG-RUNNING BOATS

ZERO proof, and even less legal grounds for such action.

[Evolve Dammit]

20. Epstein

[purr-rat beauty]

26. So....that storm

Deploying into the path of the storm?

[J_William_Ryan]

27. An attempt by Trump to deflect from a failing economy, sinking poll numbers, and Epstein.

It’s also an escalation of the lawless killing of civilians absent evidence off wrongdoing.

A madman controls the world’s most powerful military, the consequence of an America having gone insane.

[Zorro]

28. Uhhh...there's a major hurricane in the Caribbean right now...

[Ilsa]

29. There's actual war occuring in Eastern Europe, but

he removes US presence from the Med? I thought some admirals might pobject to this.

[Bayard]

30. I hope members of the military that carry out his illegal orders,

Are aware that they can also be tried for war crimes.

Big question is, why have they not tried just capturing one of these boats to see if its carrying cocaine or tuna? Of course, if the supposed drug runners are only fishermen, this government would never admit it, and spoil their game plan.