Former Trump administration official Robert Spalding predicted Friday that regime change in Venezuela would occur “before Christmas” as the Trump administration intensifies its hostilities toward the South American nation.Appearing on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Spalding praised the Trump administration’s deadly strikes on suspected drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean, strikes that have killed at least 83 people and have been described by critics – including prominent Republicans – as potentially illegal “extrajudicial killings.”“I think the president is doing the right thing for the first time in a long time!” Spalding declared.Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade posed a question for Spalding regarding Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, asking if he believed Maduro might be “squeezed out, maybe before Christmas?”“I do,” Spalding answered bluntly. “I don’t know the timing of it, but the pressure is just going to get too much for his regime, and I think it’s time that that happened too. He’s facilitating the transfer of these chemicals into the country, so it’s right that he should go!”Beyond the deadly strikes, the Trump administration has also increasingly talked of enacting regime change in Venezuela. Trump has reportedly considered outright assassinating Maduro, with an anonymous senior White House official saying the president is “keeping it as an option.” Hawkish GOP lawmakers and officials have also increased their calls for regime change in recent months, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio having aggressively called for Maduro’s administration to be toppled since at least 2017. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) also took to Fox News recently to demand the United States invade Venezuela and enact regime change, and thereby allow American oil companies to be “in Venezuela for the next 100 years.”The Trump administration has justified its aggression towards Venezuela – which includes the illegal closure of its airspace and the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group to its coast – as measures to combat drug trafficking. However, Trump’s own Drug Enforcement Administration, in its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment report, made no mention of Venezuela as a major source or supplier of narcotics.While Trump has yet to explicitly confirm his administration would pursue regime change in Venezuela, he did issue a vague comment in saying that land operations in the South American nation would begin “very soon.”“It is an enemy of the state, and the president has to protect America, that’s his chief responsibility as a commander in chief!” Spalding said.Fox & Friends predicting (and championing) regime change in Venezuela “before Christmas.”Both Brian @kilmeade and @robert_spalding cite Venezuela’s role in drug traffickingTrump’s own DEA made no mention of Venezuela as a major source/supplier of narcotics in its 2025 report pic.twitter.com/KcxEucWXgH— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) December 5, 2025
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