President Donald Trump decided on a course of action for Venezuela after three days of deliberations with his National Security team, the Wall Street Journal reported in an article cited on X between 10:16 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. UTC on December 18, 2025. Simultaneously, a U.S. show of force remained in progress off Venezuela's coast during the same 29-minute period. The Ford Carrier Strike Group deployed all its E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, all E-2D Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft, and several fighters, according to an X post by @FaytuksNetwork. The U.S. Air Force also deployed an E-3C Sentry airborne early warning aircraft with callsign GRINCH01, as confirmed by Flightradar24 data cited in the post. This activity follows a U.S. Air Force E-11A aircraft arrival in the Caribbean between 8:46 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. UTC, as previously reported by @Nexus_osintx on X.
