President Donald Trump has denied that he is seeking regime change in Venezuela even as he has ordered a large build-up of U.S. military assets off its coast and increased threats against the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro.

“We're not talking about that,” Trump told reporters Friday when asked if the U.S. was looking to oust Maduro—something that he attempted in his first term .

The Trump Administration says its military build-up in the Caribbean is aimed at stopping cartels smuggling drugs into the United States. The Pentagon took military action against what it claimed was a cartel target for the first time on Tuesday, killing 11 people in a boat it said had departed from Venezuela and was carrying drugs to the United States.

But Trump officials have increasingly accused Ma

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