US President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, US, on Tuesday. Kevin Lamarque/ Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed that “all options” are being considered in his drive to bring down Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro.

“All options are on the table,” he told reporters in the White House. “It’s a shame what’s happening in Venezuela — the debt and the destruction and the hunger.”

Trump spoke at a meeting where he hosted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has backed the US-led campaign to pressure Maduro.

The United States and more than 50 other countries, including Brazil, recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido, the head of the National Assembly, as the country’s rightful president.

Later, the White House said Trump will discuss the Venezuela crisis with Caribbean leaders — including from the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Saint Lucia — at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday.

Agence France-Presse