Senator reveals that Trump discussed military strike against Venezuela.

247, with Sputnik - Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated that US President Donald Trump discussed with him a few weeks ago the possibility of using military force in Venezuela.

Venezuela is going through a political crisis, and President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly claimed that the US is orchestrating a coup in his country.

"He [Trump] said, 'What do you think about using military force?' and I said, 'Well, you need to go slowly, this could be problematic.' And he said, 'Well, I'm surprised, you want to invade everyone,'" Graham told the Axios news website about his conversation with the US president.

According to Graham, military force should only be used when U.S. national security interests are compromised. The senator added that Trump was being "very aggressive" toward Venezuela.

Citing senior Trump administration officials, the news site reported that there were no signs that Washington actually planned to invade Venezuela, as the US president only wanted to accelerate regime change in the Latin American country for economic and diplomatic reasons.

On January 23, the conflict between the government and the opposition in Venezuela escalated when the president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, proclaimed himself interim president of the country. The US and several other countries recognized Guaidó. In turn, Maduro accused Washington of orchestrating a coup and said that Caracas was breaking off diplomatic relations with the US.

Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been tense for a long time. In August 2017, Trump commented that he would not rule out a "military option" to end the chaos in Venezuela.

Russia has supported Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela and has demonstrated its willingness to mediate in establishing relations between the authorities and the opposition in Venezuela, should such efforts be deemed necessary.