President Donald Trump suggested that Colombia’s president may be a target after a successful U.S. operation resulted in former President Nicolás Maduro’s arrest and extradition from Venezuela.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening that Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, “likes making cocaine,” but that he would not be “doing it very long.” On Saturday, Trump had said that Petro should “watch his *ss.”

“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,” Trump told reporters. The president seemed unwilling to elaborate until a reporter suggested that another operation may be launched against Petro.

“Sounds good to me,” Trump responded.

The military operation to arrest and extradite Maduro was carried out after federal prosecutors secured an indictment against the Venezuelan dictator in 2020 for drug trafficking. During a five-hour mission early Saturday morning, explosions rocked Caracas as American service members arrested Maduro and put him on board a U.S. warship to be taken to New York for trial.

Trump has continued to ramp up the pressure on Maduro in recent months, amassing warships and thousands of troops in the southern Caribbean. But even as the United States built up forces off the coast of Venezuela, Petro taunted Trump.

In the wake of Maduro’s arrest, Petro has continued to publicly attack the United States, claiming that the operation was an “assault on the sovereignty” of South America. Petro has denied the accusations of drug trafficking against himself and also defended Maduro against similar charges made by the United States.

The United States military has targeted drug boats between South America in the United States for months, mostly in the Caribbean, but some boats have been destroyed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia, as well.

U.S. officials have also issued public warnings for Cuba, as well. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that “the Cuban government is a huge problem.”

“I’m not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard, but I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime,” he said in an interview on NBC.

The State Department’s Farsi-language X account posted a series of ominous messages late Sunday as the Iranian regime conducted missile tests and security forces continued their crack down on demonstrators around the country, defying President Donald Trump’s call for a stop to violence.

“President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know, now you know,” the account wrote, a reference to comments Secretary of State Marco Rubio made after Trump sent in the American Special Forces to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.

The post included an image of Trump alongside Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, accompanied by the Farsi-language warning: “Don’t play with President Trump.”

رئیس‌جمهور ترامپ مرد عمل است.

اگر نمی‌دانستید، حالا می‌دانید. https://t.co/eYvbMXpmuc pic.twitter.com/WtxROv3Xpn

— USAbehFarsi (@USABehFarsi) January 4, 2026

Trump reiterated his threat to intervene against the Iranian regime for attacking protesters on Sunday night.

“If (Iran) starts killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re gonna get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.

The death toll has risen to at least 17 during the week-long protest, according to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, with most victims reportedly killed by direct gunfire from regime forces. 

Various videos circulating on social media separately show Iranian security forces violently attacking demonstrators and protesters chanting anti-regime slogans, including “freedom” and “death to the dictator.”

This comes in the days after Trump warned that this activity would lead to an American response.

“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump posted to Truth Social early Friday morning. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Iran over the weekend launched missile and air defense exercises, with air defense fire heard in Tehran and Shiraz, Iran International English reported. Such tests conflict with Trump’s warning issued last week during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when the president said he would back more Israeli military strikes on Iran if Tehran continues to develop ballistic missiles.

“The missiles, yes. The nuclear, fast,” Trump said. “One would be yes, absolutely, the other was, we’ll do it immediately.” 

Other recent posts from the State Department’s Farsi-language account include a clip of Rubio from the press conference following Maduro’s capture, in which he warned that Trump does not make idle threats.

“I hope people now understand,” the post states, quoting Rubio. “The President of the United States is not a game player. When he tells you he’s going to do something and address a problem, he means it.”

Another post features Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth referencing the U.S. B-2 bomber strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June during the same press conference.

“Nicolás Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance — until they didn’t and until he didn’t. He F’d around and he found out,” Hegseth is quoted as saying in the Farsi post.

The growing domestic unrest has posed a serious challenge to the Iranian regime’s grip on power, and has been further complicated by Trump’s bold action against Nicolás Maduro, a close ally of the regime.

According to the New York Times, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the body in charge of internal and external security, had a meeting late Friday night to discuss how to curb the protests without violence, and how to prepare for possible military strikes. Officials said the Islamic Republic is operating in “survival mode,” according to the report.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has attempted to separate the economic grievances that initially sparked nationwide protests from the broader anti-regime demonstrations around the country.

Pezeshkian said last week that merchants who first took to the streets over soaring prices and economic hardship had “legitimate demands,” citing the regime’s failure to prevent the country’s financial freefall with the Iranian rial losing more than 56 percent of its value over the past six months. The drop has led to a 72 percent increase in food prices compared to last year.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, took a harsher tone against protesters, posting that the “rioters must be put in their place” and that there is “no point in talking with a rioter.”