President Nicolas Maduro joins a rally marking the anniversary of the Battle of Santa Isabel, which took place during Venezuela's 19th-century Federal War, in Caracas, Venezuela, December 10, 2025. CRISTIAN HERNANDEZ / AP
The United States has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, December 10, further escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas.
"We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large – the largest one ever seized, actually," Trump said at the start of a roundtable with business leaders at the White House. "And other things are happening, so you'll be seeing that later and you'll be talking about that later with some other people."
Trump did not immediately give further details on the incident.
His announcement came a day before Venezuelan Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was set to address the world from Oslo after coming out of hiding.
