President Trump said that he was open to talking with President Nicolás Maduro but that the United States has “to take care of Venezuela” as the U.S. builds a military force in the Caribbean.
President Trump in the Oval Office on Monday. Last month, Mr. Trump called off efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement with Venezuela, but the president has raised the possibility of renewed engagement.
Faced with a mass defection on a bill to demand the release of the Epstein files, the president rushed to avoid an embarrassing loss, suggesting a slip in his iron grip on the G.O.P.
Demonstrators outside the Capitol last week. As Republicans gear up for midterm elections and some begin to plot a future after Mr. Trump, the Epstein episode is a rare instance in which he has lost control.
President Trump’s aides have provided conflicting accounts of what, exactly, they are seeking to achieve, as America’s largest aircraft carrier heads toward the Caribbean region.
“Either Trump is going to win or Maduro is going to win,” said Elliott Abrams, Mr. Trump’s special adviser on Venezuela in the first administration, and now a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations.
President Trump has been dining with billionaires and has taken a keen interest in crises overseas, leading to fears that he is drifting away from his more populist stances.
Shoppers at a grocery store in Brooklyn last week. Food prices have risen significantly this year, and a gauge of consumer confidence hit near-record lows this month.
Login
