US lawmakers voice concerns about Venezuelan tanker seizure: ‘sounds a lot like the beginning of a war’ – US politics live

<p>Republican senator Rand Paul said it was ‘not the job of the American government to go looking for monsters around the world’</p><p>When <strong>Pete Hegseth</strong> was made <strong>Donald Trump’</strong>s secretary of war, there was shock and consternation. Since then he has put highly classified plans to bomb <strong>Yemen</strong> on a group chat and ordered executions of <strong>Venezuelans</strong> in the sea, reportedly insisting they “kill everybody”, even when the survivors who were seen <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/06/hegseth-boat-strikes">clinging to a boat</a> could pose no threat.</p><p>The former Fox News talkshow host holds one of the most powerful jobs in the world and has come to it with a clear ideology. He wants to bring his “warrior culture” to the <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/us-military">US military</a></strong>. <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/joseph-gedeon">Joseph Gedeon</a></strong>, a breaking news reporter for the Guardian US, tells <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/nosheen-iqbal">Nosheen Iqbal</a></strong>:</p><p>His whole thing is about what he calls the warrior ethos. His whole message is that America fights with one hand tied behind its back because of lawyers, oversight and cultural distractions.</p><p>We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/venezuela">Venezuela</a> – a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/dec/11/us-seizes-venezuela-tanker-democrats-republicans-donald-trump-latest-news">Continue reading...</a>

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