The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 23rd, 2025: MYSTERY: U.S. Special Ops ‘Ghost Ship’ Spotted Off Venezuela & Kyiv Targets Moscow Again

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: America’s so-called “ghost ship” has surfaced in the Caribbean. We’ll tell you what this shadowy special ops vessel is capable of, and why it may be parked off Venezuela. Ukraine unleashes its largest drone attack on Moscow in months. Dozens were intercepted, but the barrage shows Kyiv isn’t letting up. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief CBDistillery: Visit https://CBDistillery.com and use promo code PDB for 25% off your entire order! Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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drone attack on Moscow in months. Dozens were intercepted, but the barrage shows that Kiev is not letting up. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. We're starting with a curious development out of the Caribbean today. A ship that many in the defense world call America's ghost ship has just been spotted off the coast of Venezuela. The vessel is called the Ocean Trader. On paper, it's an 11,000-ton cargo ship. In reality, well, it's something entirely different. It's a floating special operations base designed for missions and places where the U.S. wants to project power, but without the full weight and visibility of an aircraft carrier or an amphibious assault ship. Now, the Ocean Trader isn't new. The U.S. Military Seelift Command has operated the vessel

for more than a decade, but her mission profile is unusual. Unlike other ships in the fleet, the Ocean Trader doesn't carry cargo. It doesn't stop in ports for resupply. The vessel doesn't broadcast a position on AIS, which is the standard ship tracking system, and hasn't done so since 2017. In fact, the ship sails without any clearly visible name or markings, hence the catchy name the ghost ship. The Ocean Trader was converted into a floating base for America's most secretive missions. The ship can host about 160 special operators for weeks at a time. A flight deck allows helicopters to land while jet skis and fastboats can be launched straight off the stern with small teams ashore quickly. In short, the Ocean Trader is a mobile, deniable hub for special operators.

operations designed to quietly support missions far from home waters. And now, according to satellite imagery reviewed by open source analysts, the ghost ship is parked in the Caribbean within reach of Venezuela. The last time the ocean trader was seen was back in May near Bahrain. Her sudden reappearance in this theater raises big questions about what kind of operations the U.S. may be planning. And of course, this comes in a time when Washington has already escalated its activities in the region. As we've been tracking here on the PDB, U.S. drones have targeted vessels linked to Venezuela drug cartels, sinking so-called narco boats that were allegedly trafficking cocaine and other narcotics. The presence of the Ocean Traders suggest the Pentagon may be ready to expand beyond drones.

And the Ocean Trader isn't the only new asset in the region. The U.S. Navy just reinforced its Caribbean presence with the guided. missile destroyer of the USS Stockdale. The ship transited the Panama Canal over the weekend, in a high-profile passage caught on webcams and released by the Canal Authority. The Stockdale joins at least three other destroyers already in the area, plus cruisers, submarines, amphibious ships carrying Marines and surveillance aircraft. In Caracas, Venezuelan officials are watching nervously. Dostado Cabello, one of Maduro's top lieutenants and himself indicted on drug-charges in the U.S., warned of a, quote, devastating counterattack if Washington pushes too far.

Meanwhile, President Trump is ratcheting up rhetoric from the White House, demanding that Venezuela repatriate prisoners and migrants he claims were sent to the U.S. He's warning of incalculable consequences. That is not easy to say. Just try saying that incalculable consequences, if Maduro refuses. So, all this build-up an activity, you may well ask. What's the significance of it all? I am glad you asked.

The answer is that the U.S. is sending two very different signals at once. On one hand, highly visible assets like destroyers and amphibious ships send one message, and that is, here's the visible might of the U.S. military. On the other hand, the presence of a covert platform, like the Ocean Trader, sends a quieter, more unsettling signal, meaning there are more covert ways to deal with this problem. For Nicholas Maduro, it raises the possibility of targeted raids on cartel networks, seizures of smuggling assets, or even operations meant to destabilize his inner circle. And let's not forget, the Venezuelan despot is sitting in Caracas with a $50 million

bounty on his head, which is likely more money than he's paying his security detail. All right, coming up next, Russian air defenses, scramble as Ukraine launches its biggest drone strike on Moscow since March. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, you know those nights, frustrating as they are, when you just don't sleep. You know what I mean? Tossing and turning, maybe your mind is erasing, and sleep just won't come. Well, on the next day, of course, you're dragging, you're exhausted, and, well, everything just feels harder. That's where CBD from CB Distillery can make a real difference. But it's not just sleep products at CB Distillery. They've got solutions that work with your body to help with stress, pain after exercise, even mood and focus. And it's all made with the

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Is Cambrio amazing Bring a date, your team, or even your mom, book direct at choiceotails.com. See you on the roof. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. Ukraine mounted one of its largest drone barrages in months overnight, as the war spilled once again into the heart of Moscow, far from the front lines. The mayor of the Russian capital said air defenses that shot down at least 44 drones between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

But the wreckage told its own story. Falling debris mangled cars east of Moscow, while residents across multiple city districts reported explosions. According to the Beware Moscow Telegram Channel, which is a local feed that thrives on minute-by-minute crisis updates, residents posted shaky videos of the sky flashing with anti-air fire. The attack did more than rattle nerves. It brought air travel to a standstill. Sherry Medevo, Russia's largest airport, was forced into a four-hour shutdown that resulted in nearly 100 cancellations, dozens of delays, and terminals turned into makeshift dormitories as passengers

sprawled on mattresses. And that's a somewhat rare intrusion not normally felt by Moscow citizens typically insulated from the impact of Putin's three-year war on Ukraine. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency expanded restrictions to three additional Moscow regional airports, while Aeroflot, the country's flag carrier, acknowledged it was still trying to clear the backlog and as of midday today. Not since March, when Ukrainian drones killed three in the capital, had Moscow been hit this hard. This time, officials reported no fatalities, but emergency crews scrambled from one impact site to another. And Moscow was only part of the picture. The Russian defense ministry claimed air defenses downed roughly 230 Ukrainian drones on Monday alone, across eight

different regions, stretching from the capital to annexed Crimea, which, of course, used to belong to Ukraine, followed by another swarm into Tuesday. In Belgarod, a Ukrainian border region already bruised by months of war, Kremlin officials said seven people were injured from Ukrainian drones. Authorities in Kursk also reported blasts. The Kremlin sought to spin the onslaught as evidence of Keeves' reliance on Western-supplied technology, of course as opposed to Russia's dependence on Chinese and Iranian and North Korean-supplied technology. So far, Ukrainian officials have kept silent on the record-shattering drone assault. The barrage was as much psychological as it was military.

The drone storm was about pressure, proving Moscow can never truly escape the war and reminding the Kremlin that this conflict was not confined to distant battlefields, but could once again strike the capital's streets. The Monday night into Tuesday's strikes occurred just hours before, President Trump's scheduled meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly currently happening in New York. As we've tracked here on the PDB, Trump has styled himself as the broker of peace,

but his patience appears to have been wearing thin. Trump has pressed Zelensky to consider territorial concessions, even as he's urged Putin to ease up on his demands. So far, neither side has blinked. And if recent history is any guide, Russia's answer to this late, The latest drone barrage will come swiftly, as it has after every other major Ukrainian strike. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, the 23rd of September.

Now, if you have any questions or comments, and I do hope you do, please reach out to me at at thefirsttv.com. And, of course, to listen to the show ad-free, well, that's very simple. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.

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