The Latest: US military says its forces intercept another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean

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U.S. forces have boarded another oil tanker in the Caribbean Sea. The announcement was made Friday by the U.S. military. The Trump administration has been targeting sanctioned tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.

The pre-dawn action was carried out by U.S. Marines and Navy, taking part in the monthslong buildup of forces in the Caribbean, according to U.S. Southern Command, which declared “there is no safe haven for criminals” as it announced the seizure of the vessel called the Olina.

Navy officials couldn’t immediately provide details about whether the Coast Guard was part of the force that took control of the vessel as has been the case in the previous seizures. A spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard said there was no immediate comment on the seizure.

The Olina is the fifth tanker that has been seized by U.S. forces as part of a broader effort by Trump’s administration to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following the U.S. ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid.

The latest:

Trump insists he’s never happy. But now he has a lapel pin that is.

The president sported a tiny version of himself on his suit’s lapel Friday, under the miniature American flag pin he and other presidents have traditionally worn.

“Somebody gave me this. Do you know what that is? That’s called a Happy Trump,” the president said when a reporter asked about the accessory during an event in the White House East Room with oil executives discussing future U.S. control of Venezuela’s energy industry.

The pin features Trump with a cartoonishly large head and open-mouthed expression that some online immediately said looked like a bobblehead version of the president. Trump didn’t say who gave him the pin.

“Considering the fact that I’m never happy, I’m never satisfied,” the president continued, holding out his lapel and looking down at the pin, then looking back at reporters with a playful smirk. “I will never be satisfied until we make America great again, but we’re getting pretty close, I tell you what. This is called a Happy Trump.”

Trump’s desire to possess Greenland and his administration’s decision not to rule out military force is meeting significant resistance from GOP lawmakers this week.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is retiring after crossing Trump last summer, took to the Senate floor to proclaim that he was “sick of stupid.” He specifically criticized White House deputy chief of policy Stephen Miller, who made comments that Greenland should be part of the U.S.

“I want good advice for this president, because I want this president to have a good legacy,” Tillis added. “And this nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing, and the amateurs who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”

Other Republicans, including Thune and Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Roger Wicker, also gently pushed back on military threats against Denmark, which is a NATO ally of the U.S.

After meeting with the Danish ambassador, Wicker said it was Denmark’s right not to sell Greenland.

“I’m troubled by Greenland. I’m troubled by some of the things he does. I don’t get it,” said Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, another retiring Republican. “I do feel like Congress should be more independent and should provide checks and balances here.”

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration cannot block federal money for child care subsidies and other programs aimed at supporting needy children and their families from flowing to five Democratic-led states for now.

The states of California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York argued that a policy announced Tuesday to freeze funds for three grant programs is having an immediate impact on them and creating “operational chaos.” In court filings and a hearing earlier Friday, the states contended that the government did not have a legal reason for holding back the money from those states.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it was pausing the funding because it had “reason to believe” the states were granting benefits to people in the country illegally, though it did not provide evidence or explain why it was targeting those states and not others.

The programs are the Child Care and Development Fund, which subsidizes child care for children from low-income families; the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which provides cash assistance and job training; and the Social Services Block Grant, a smaller fund that provides money for a variety of programs.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who was nominated to the bench by former President Joe Biden, is in place until further arguments are made in court.

▶ Read more about the funding

From pushback to Trump’s self-described “Donroe doctrine” of aggression in the Western Hemisphere to breaks in party unity over health care, Republican lawmakers are displaying signs of independence from Trump after spending much of the last year acquiescing to his practically every demand.

It showed a new dynamic in the GOP as Republicans embark on difficult campaign to keep control of both the House and Senate.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, speaking at the U.S.-Mexico border Friday with a group of Republican Senate candidates, said that Republicans were “going to be focused like a laser” on issues of affordability and pointed to legislation in the works on housing and health care.

Thune’s border trip and talk of affordability were a nod back to some of the core themes of Trump’s presidential campaign.

But the focus in Washington of late has instead been dominated by Trump’s military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, his threats to use military force to take control of Greenland, the release of case files on Jeffrey Epstein and a debate over extending subsidies for insurance offered under the Affordable Care Act — an issue where Republicans have long struggled to find unity.

▶ Read more here about fractures starting to show in the GOP

Leaders in Minnesota’s Somali community, which has been a frequent target of Trump, gathered Friday at the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent to call for an end to the immigration crackdown that has shaken the state.

“We want to tell President Trump, and his MAGA, that we want ICE out of our neighborhoods,” said Khalid Omar of the Somali American Leadership Table, as hundreds of protesters began chanting “ICE out! ICE out!”

Omar urged residents to look out for their neighbors.

“Division will not work in Minnesota, nor in this county,” he said.

Trump has referred to Minnesota’s Somali community as “ garbage.”

The Trump administration has launched a sweeping crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers are taking part in what the Department of Homeland Security has called the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever.

The Washington National Opera announced Friday that it had decided to end its arrangement with the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital, though it said it was hoping for an “amicable transition.”

“To ensure fiscal prudence and fulfill its obligations for a balanced budget, the WNO will reduce its spring season and relocate performances to new venues,” the Opera said in a statement.

It said the decision stemmed from the center’s new business model, which “requires productions to be fully funded in advance — a requirement incompatible with opera operations.”

Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi told The New York Times, “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship.”

Artists ranging from “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to rock star Peter Wolf have called off events at the Kennedy Center since Trump ousted the previous leadership early last year and arranged for himself to head the board of trustees. The board’s decision in December to rebrand the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center led to a new wave of cancellations.

WNO’s announcement did not mention Trump.

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s largest lobbying group, called the White House meeting a “constructive, initial conversation” that highlighted both Venezuela’s energy potential and challenges, including security and stable governance.

Still, no commitments were made.

“Legally, each company will need to independently evaluate the situation and make its own investment decisions, but we look forward to ongoing engagement with the administration ... as this situation continues to unfold,” said Bethany Williams, an API spokesperson.

Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips, told Trump the entire Venezuelan energy system may need to be restructured, while ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela “uninvestable” right now.

The jobs report Friday that showed a subdued increase of 50,000 jobs in December and a tick down in the unemployment rate was “amazing,” Trump said.

Yet overall job gains last year were just 584,000, the smallest annual increase outside of a recession since 2003. Uncertainty from tariffs and the rollout of artificial intelligence, as well as strong hiring after the pandemic, have caused many firms to hold back on adding jobs.

Trump also touted a Thursday estimate from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta that the economy would grow at a 5.4% annual rate in the final three months of 2025. (That figure was marked down to 5.1% Friday.)

Such growth would indeed be impressive, but the Atlanta Fed’s figure is more a tracking estimate rather than forecast and will undergo significant changes before the government issues its first estimate of fourth quarter economic growth Feb. 20. The New York Fed’s tracking estimate is at just 2.6%.

Trump hasn’t laid out how the profits from the sale of Venezuelan oil will be divided, but he told oil company executives that they needed to start making investments to get their share.

“We have to get them to invest, and then we have to get their money back as quickly as we can, and then we can divvy it all up between Venezuela, the United States, and them,” Trump said. “I think the formula is simple.”

But the president left it unclear how the money would be split, an issue still subject to negotiations with the businesses that he said would be led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Late Thursday, Trump posted a graph showing job gains in 2025 that included updated figures through December that weren’t supposed to be released until the Labor Department issued the monthly jobs report Friday morning.

The secrecy of the jobs numbers are closely guarded because they can cause sharp swings in financial markets. White House economic officials receive the report Thursday afternoon and appeared to write up a report with Friday’s data included. Trump posted a graphic from the White House report Thursday night.

“I don’t know if they posted them. I said post ’em whenever you get a chance, I don’t know,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “They gave me some numbers. When people give me things I post them.”

Government officials with early access to the jobs data sign agreements to keep it confidential, subject to legal penalties, Erica Groshen, a former commissioner of the agency that produces the data, said. Previous breaches, however, she said have typically been met with a slap on the wrist.

The U.S. president said he plans to meet with Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition party, either Tuesday or Wednesday.

“I’m honored that she’s coming here,” Trump told reporters during his White House oil event.

Machado, Trump said, is coming to “pay her regards to our country” and to himself, although the president elaborated that he is the representative of this country.

He then complained that he wasn’t awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Darren Woods told Trump a lot of work would need to be done in Venezuela before the oil major would be ready to return to the country.

“If we look at the legal commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela today, it’s uninvestable,” Woods said. But he said he was confident that “those changes can be put in place.”

Trump gathered oil executives to try to get investment deals in place. Some noted that they’ve had their facilities and equipment confiscated multiple times by the government of Venezuela in the past.

Trump brushed off those comments by saying “we’re not going to look at what people lost in the past.”

The president reiterated his threat that the U.S. would intervene in Iran, saying, “If they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.”

But Trump quickly said it would not involve sending troops.

“That doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.

The president said Iran has treated its people “very badly, and now they’re being paid back.”

Carlson was spotted seated with guests in the East Room. The White House said he joined the event with oil executives because he had been at the White House for lunch.

The conservative commentator has been at the center of a firestorm within the Republican Party in recent months after he had an interview with a far-right activists known for his antisemitic views and embrace of Hitler.

Trump in November defended Carlson, saying he had said nice things about him over the years.

A consumer advocacy group is criticizing Trump’s meeting with oil executives as a giveaway to Big Oil.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program, called the U.S. military’s removal of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro “violent imperialism” and said Trump’s goal appears to be to “hand billionaires control over Venezuela’s oil.”

U.S. taxpayers are likely to shoulder much of the risk of drilling and exporting the heavy crude oil from Venezuela, Slocum said.

“While Trump works to ensure Big Oil’s risks are covered by the U.S. public, Americans suffering with high home heating and electricity prices will see no relief,” he said.

Trump is meeting with oil executives at the White House on Friday in hopes of securing $100 billion in investments to revive Venezuela’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.

he president said there were additional executives he would have invited to the East Room event. He remarked that, “if we had a ballroom, we’d have over a thousand.”

Trump then stood up and left a table where he was seated with the executives and administration officials and went to look out a window to look at the construction of his large ballroom where the East Wing used to stand.

The president, standing alone, looked out the window with his back facing everyone in the room—including the news cameras.

“Wow, what a view,” he said. “This is the door to the ballroom.”

He turned back around and said, “unusual time to look.”

Trump invited the media to go back and take a look if they wanted. No journalists immediately did.

Trump announced on Friday he’d meet with President Gustavo Petro in early February, but called on the Colombian leader to make quick progress on stemming flow of cocaine into the U.S.

Trump, following the ouster of Maduro, had made vague threats to take similar action against Petro. Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart after a friendly phone call in which he invited Petro to visit the White House.

The countries said a delegation from the Trump administration arrived in the South American nation on Friday.

The small team of U.S. diplomats and diplomatic security officials traveled to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, the State Department said in a statement.

Venezuela’s government on Friday acknowledged that U.S. diplomats had traveled to the South American country and announced that it will send a delegation to the U.S. but it did not say when.

In a statement, Delcy Rodríguez’s government said it “has decided to initiate an exploratory process of a diplomatic nature with the Government of the United States of America, aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries.”

Venezuela’s government on Friday acknowledged that U.S. diplomats had traveled to the South American country, and announced that it will send a delegation to the U.S. but it did not say when.

In a statement, Rodríguez’s government said it “has decided to initiate an exploratory process of a diplomatic nature with the Government of the United States of America, aimed at the re-establishment of diplomatic missions in both countries, with the purpose of addressing the consequences derived from the aggression and kidnapping of the President of the Republic and the First Lady, as well as addressing a work agenda of mutual interest.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters in Minnesota that his agency has launched a series of actions to combat fraud in the state.

Key actions include FinCEN investigations into Minnesota-based money services businesses, enhanced transaction reporting requirements for international transfers from Hennepin and Ramsey counties, and alerts to financial institutions on identifying fraud tied to child nutrition programs.

“Treasury will deploy all tools to bring an end to this egregious unchecked fraud and hold perpetrators to account,” he said.

The department in December announced that it would begin targeting businesses that people use to wire money to family members abroad, focusing on remittances to Somalia.

The new action was prompted in part by a series of fraud cases, including a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future accused of stealing pandemic aid meant for school meals. Prosecutors have put the losses from that case at $300 million.

The State Department says it has sent a small team of diplomats and diplomatic security officials to Venezuela to make a preliminary assessment about the potential reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.

The department said the team, led by acting ambassador to Venezuela John McNamara, arrived in Caracas on Friday. The team is from the Venezuelan Affairs Unit, which is based outside of the country and has been since the embassy was shuttered in 2019.

The team is there “to conduct an initial assessment for a potential phased resumption of operations,” the department said.

U.S. officials say no decision has yet been made on whether or when to fully reopen the embassy.