Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested in a Wednesday interview that the U.S. strike on a drug vessel that officials said hailed from Venezuela would not be the last as U.S. assets amass off the country's shores.

The big picture: Tuesday's operation marked a sharp escalation in already boiling tensions between the U.S. government and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. • President Trump on Tuesday said the deadly "kinetic strike" targeted "positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists," reiterating the disputed claim that Maduro controls the multinational crime organization. • The U.S. operation, which officials said is targeting drug trafficking, is threaded with hopes of regime change, Axios' Marc Caputo previously reported, as Maduro lives under the U.S. gov

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