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.

Trump plans to hold a meeting at the White House Monday evening about next steps on Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend, as well as White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

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 Caribbean have infringed the laws of war. Congressional committees are pledging vigorous, bipartisan oversight of the attacks — a rare occurrence in Trump’s second term.

And in an extraordinary move over the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump appeared to undercut the rationale that he’s fighting regional cartels with the offer of a pardon to a former Honduran president jailed last year in the US for funneling cocaine into the country.

Trump fueled expectations of looming warfare in Venezuela by warning on Thanksgiving Day that the US will “very soon” start taking action to stop alleged drug-trafficking networks on land. On Saturday, he declared the impoverished, oil-rich country’s airspace should be considered closed. An armada of US ships is stationed in the Caribbean Sea off Venezuela, led by the world’s mightiest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford. Administration officials have meanwhile spent weeks crafting legal arguments for action against regional drug traffickers that critics warn fall short of legal and constitutional stipulations.

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