President Donald Trump speaks to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thanksgiving Day. Alex Brandon/AP

Intensifying US threats against Venezuela are raising expectations of imminent military action as President Donald Trump heaps pressure on the Caracas regime and flexes power in the Western Hemisphere.

Every public sign and warning by the president raises the risk that the US is on an inexorable path toward a military confrontation that would represent a big political gamble given the public’s antipathy toward new foreign wars.

Controversy is also mounting because of new concerns about the legality of any potential action against Venezuela and warnings that the administration’s lethal strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Carib

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