(TJV NEWS) President Donald Trump has warned that Venezuelan fighter jets will be shot down if they endanger U.S. naval forces, a threat that underscores a dramatic escalation in Washington’s widening war on narcotraffickers.

The warning followed a second flyover this week in which Venezuelan F-16s passed dangerously close to the USS Jason Dunham, one of eight American destroyers deployed off Venezuela’s coast. “If they put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down,” Trump said, branding Nicolás Maduro’s regime “in trouble.”

U.S. officials described the confrontation as a perilous “game of chicken” after Caracas ordered repeated flyovers of American vessels stationed in international waters. The White House insists the warships are part of a full-scale mission to dismantle cartels that Trump accuses Maduro of protecting and funding.

The showdown comes only days after Trump ordered a deadly strike on a suspected smuggling boat linked to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, killing 11 people aboard. That attack marked the most lethal single incident in Trump’s new anti-narcotics campaign and signaled a shift from law enforcement to direct military action. “There’s more where that came from,” Trump warned after the strike.

To reinforce U.S. forces, Washington has dispatched 10 F-35 fighter jets to the Caribbean and more than 4,000 soldiers to support naval destroyers, including the Gravely, Jason Dunham, and Sampson. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the campaign a “deadly serious mission” that would not end with a single operation.

Maduro, for his part, has responded with sweeping mobilization, ordering more than four million Venezuelan troops to prepare for defense. He accused Trump of seeking regime change under the cover of counter-narcotics operations, vowing “maximum preparedness.”

Tensions between the two leaders have been rising since Trump designated cartels as “terrorist organizations” at the start of his second term—a move that he says grants legal authority for military strikes against smugglers before they reach U.S. shores. Alongside the bounty on Maduro’s head, now doubled to $50 million, Washington has seized hundreds of millions of dollars in assets allegedly tied to the Venezuelan leader.

The conflict has become increasingly personal, with Trump accusing Maduro of “mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of terror across the hemisphere.” The Venezuelan president insists his forces are defending national sovereignty and has pledged to meet U.S. pressure with force.

With armed destroyers shadowing Venezuela’s coast, American fighter jets patrolling overhead, and Maduro’s F-16s challenging U.S. vessels, the standoff is now one of the most volatile flashpoints in Trump’s declared war on drugs—one that could erupt into direct conflict at sea.