Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced Thursday that the armed forces are maintaining a full deployment along the country's coastline to achieve the "optimal point" of coordination and readiness to respond to the US naval buildup in the Caribbean Sea.

Venezuela has 5,000 Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defense positions,” its President Nicolás Maduro claimed on Wednesday, amid growing tension over the United States’ military deployment in the Caribbean.

A massive wave of U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotankers has moved into the Middle East, marking one of the largest aerial refueling deployments in recent months. Flight tracking shows aircraft departing from Atlantic bases and converging on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, headquarters of U.S. Central Command.

A divided U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday that Donald Trump can send National Guard troops into Portland, Oregon, despite objections by the leaders of the city and state, giving the Republican president an important legal victory as he dispatches military forces to a growing number of Democratic-led locales.

Senators, including Wyden and Merkley, call for an inquiry into the constitutionality and impact of military deployment in U.S. cities.

President Donald Trump is calling off any plans for federal deployment in San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Thursday after having a conversation with the president.

A Ninth Circuit judge warned that expanding the president's power to deploy troops at home could endanger democracy.