In an exclusive phone interview with NBC News, Trump talked about his offensive against Venezuela, his plan for health care and his outlook for the midterm elections.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump told NBC News that war remains possible with Venezuela, a country whose leadership he labeled a terrorist regime and which he has targeted militarily because of alleged drug smuggling. "I don’t rule it out, no," Trump told NBC on Dec. 18 in a phone interview.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried the “status quo” with the Maduro government as “intolerable” as the Trump administration on Friday announced new sanctions on family members of the embattled Venezuelan leader.

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Sixty-three percent of respondents told Quinnipiac they are against military action against Caracas, with just 25 percent expressing support.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro has said that President Donald Trump's threats against his nation are "simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense." Speaking in Caracas on Wednesday, he said that Trump's aim was regime change to impose a "puppet government that wouldn't last 47 hours,

The president has shied away from endorsing regime change, leaving some aides unsure about his ultimate goal.

The president said in a Truth Social post Venezuela should return those assets to the U.S. and declared an oil tanker blockade.