Giving Trump the Benefit of the Doubt

I guess it depends on the meaning of "pretty well".

BREAKING 🚨 Bill Maher: “We did the move in Venezuela, which that one you have to say worked pretty well.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA): “Yeah, well remember people lost their sh*t over Venezuela. Nobody talks about Venezuela anymore... We’re not talking about Gaza anymore, and… pic.twitter.com/i7oUOvAaI0

— Dr Charlie Ward (@DrcharlieWardQ) July 17, 2026

Nicholas Maduro was snatched from Caracas on January 3 and brought to Washington, D.C. to be prosecuted for being a "narco trafficker." He was replaced, as required by constitution in Venezuela and Donlad Trump, by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who like Maduro has been a part of the Chavista regime, which has ruled the country for over a quarter century. The ousted president

was not the head of a drug trafficking organization, but rather the facilitator and protector of a corruption system that allowed generals and senior political figures to profit from the drug trade. That system – the Chavista regime – remains in place, although the architect of the hybrid criminal governance model is now on trial in New York.

Rodríguez, though outside the praetorian core of the Chavista regime and not facing any US indictments, is believed to have been involved in criminal activity, corruption, and even drug trafficking. The criminal dimension of the tightrope she is walking involves preventing public scandals of corruption and drug trafficking that might provoke further US intervention, while still allowing the flow of criminal rents to regime figures to preserve loyalty. 

That doesn't sound like "pretty well."  On a positive note, the Trump Administration has been assisting disaster relief in Venenzuela. However

David Smilde, a Venezuela researcher at Tulane University, said the earthquake has exposed a deeper weakness in the Venezuelan state.

“They’ve had the capacity to repress people and jail people,” Smilde said, “but they don’t seem to be in a position to offer even some of the most basic elements of disaster relief."

The military is one of the most powerful and well-funded parts of the Venezuelan state. But Smilde added that it has been shaped less around emergency response than around regime survival.....

Smilde said Rodríguez’s government moved quickly at first — declaring a state of emergency, communicating with allies and accepting aid offers from different countries, including former political foes. But what came after, he said, revealed a government with very little capacity to deliver basic disaster relief.

I don't attribute the view of Maher and Fetterman that things have worked out well in Venezuela to anything but ignorance.  There has been little attention paid to that nation since Maduro was arrested in what could be considered a law enforcement operation rather than an intervention in a foreign, sovereign state. No American life was lost and in our country, we would applaud anything the military does as long as Americans aren't killed.

But there is a lesson here. Maher referred to the $330 million for Donald's new ballroom as "couch money" and Fetterman quipped "if he came out for ice cream and lazy Sundays, we would f*ckin' hate it."  The Senator has stated "right now, our party is governed by the TDS (i.e., Trump Derangement Syndrome) and now it's made it virtually impossible without being punished as a Democrat to agree something's good, or I agree with the other side."

The Venezuelan operation, quick and dirty, painless and innocuous, was the foreign policy equivalent of ice cream and lazy Sundays, politically incorrect to question. Yet, it accomplished nothing of value and helped reinforce our nation's reputation as a malign bully.  It stands as an example of how the default position for a Trump action should be that it is self-serving and likely to harm ourselves and others. 

We need to replace  Trump Derangement Syndrome with Trump Is Deranged Syndrome.

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The Peace President Strikes Again

Washed-up, right-wing actor does not know the meaning of the word "threat."

Maduro smuggled 200+ TONS of heroin into this country, you blithering jackanapes. Then there’s the fentanyl and all the rest of it. Thats no threat? https://t.co/2ajbRtblxo

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 5, 2026

Connecticut senator Chris Murphy notes

America doesn't want this war. Nobody asked for this becuase it has nothing to do with American national security. I think that's the most important conversation to have.

Venezuela is not a security threat to the United States. They're not threataening to invade us. there is no terrorist group like Al Qaeda operating there that has plans to attack the United States. To the extent that you care about the drug trade, yes, that brings drugs but the drugs go to Europe. Fetanyl is the drug that's killing Americans. That's not coming from Venezuela. Venezuela produces cocaine. Ninety percent of  it is nor coming to the United States.

The military action of this past weekend, which was one-sided, constitutes less a war than an attack, even an invasion. However, Murphy is right about everything else. As a reporter for KCRA 3 in Sacramento, California has explained

drug seizure data shows that it's not as prominent a supplier of cocaine to the U.S. as other South American and Latin American countries.

There is also no evidence that any significant level of illegal fentanyl — the primary killer in U.S. overdose deaths — is produced in South America, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

UNODC analyzes global drug trafficking based on reporting from its member states, open sources and drug seizure information.

Most illegal fentanyl enters the U.S. from Mexico, per UNODC and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Illicit fentanyl can also be diverted, or stolen, from legal sources as medical professionals use the drug....

Venezuela is not among the primary direct traffickers of cocaine to the U.S.

Like fentanyl, most cocaine enters the U.S. from Mexico and typically gets to Mexico via maritime transportation on both the Pacific and Caribbean sides, according to UNODC research officer Antoine Vella. Some also arrives in Mexico via land transportation.

While the Trump administration's early September attacks targeted Venezuelan boats, there is no known direct cocaine trade route from Venezuela to the U.S. via sea. The only known direct Venezuela to U.S. trafficking route is via air, according to drug seizure data from UNODC. Cocaine could still arrive from Venezuela to the U.S. through intermediary countries.

Colombia, Ecuador and Panama are among the main direct traffickers of cocaine to the U.S. via boat.

Coca, the plant cocaine is made from, is mainly grown in Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia....

The three coca growing countries also have the most illegal processing facilities.

A "threat," Merriam-Webster informs us, is "an expression of intent to inflict evil, injury, or damage." If we're concerned about nations which would like to inflict injury upon the USA, we can begin with Mainland China. If we're concerned about evil, Russia is #1, with both countries presenting a serious cyberthreat to the USA.

Selling drugs to willing customers, the drug users or middlemen, does not constitute a threat in the literal or practical sense. This does not suggest that hauling Nicholas Maduro into USA federal court is not a worthwhile endeavor if compatible with US law and national interest. However, if the narcotic activities of Nicaragua pose a threat justifying a violent attack, an assault upon Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, and China would be worthy.

And the major threat to hemispheric peace and stability does not presently come from any of those countries, but from the USA.  In recent days, President Trump has threatened both Colombia and Denmark and Little Marco has threated Cuba.  That's not to spank them with narcotics or with rifle toting, hormone-infused MAGAts, but with the most powerful military in history. 

Of course, Trump is little motivated by the proliferation of drugs, as his pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez demonstrates. It's about a lot of oil and rare earth minerals, probably with Donald's expectation of personal profit, as well as satisfying the wet dreams of much of his base by "kicking ass" while Maduro "f'ed around and found out," as Pete Hegseth put it.

Other factors also may have entered into the decision to employ the armed forces because Donald Trump always has an angle, and helping the country he has called "evil" is rarely one of them. James Woods may not understand this, but we can't be sure because he and many others will support any behavior from the most violent and degenerate creature ever to hold public office in this country.

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Conquest

With Secretary of State Marco Rubio, it's often difficult to determine whether he is grossly dishonest or equally naive. Among the interesting remarks he made at the Mar-a-Lago news conference called so that President Trump could congratulate himself and the US military for its raid on Venezuela was "Remember, at the end of day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job. Now there are broader policy implications here...."

Similarly, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has the ounce of integrity House Speaker Mike Johnson lacks

said in a statement that he had spoken with Rubio as well and argued Trump's actions wre undertaken as part of "the execution of a valid Department of Justice warrant."

"President Trump's decisive action to disrupt the unacceptable status quo and apprehend Madur. through the exectuion of a valid Department of Justice warrant, is an important first step to bring him to justice for the drug crimes for which he has been indicted in the United States," Thune said.

The kidnapping/arrest- of Nicolas Maduro may be the first step to bring the Venezuelan strongman to justice, but it is only the means to an end. And the Trump Administration is far more concerned with its goal of conquest than it is in prosecuting a drug kingpin.

The President didn't directly say that. The admission- or in his case, the brag- was clear. Donald remarked 

As everyone knows, Venezuela’s oil industry has collapsed for years. Production fell to almost nothing compared to what it should have been. We will bring in our largest U.S. oil companies – the biggest in the world – to invest billions of dollars and repair the severely damaged oil infrastructure....

We will restore production so the nation can generate real revenue again. And we are ready, if necessary, to launch a second and much larger operation. We were prepared for a second wave and expected it might be required.

The President did contend, as noted here, that "oil companies will pay directly for the cost of rebuilding Venezuela's crude infrastructure. But be prepared to be shocked: he added "They will be reimbursed for what they're doing."

Of course, they will. However, that promise is no promise and is not binding. Nonetheless, show Donald that they appreciate the armed forces being activated on their behalf, they may be fully reimbursed. Show Trump personally some love, and it will benefit them- and him. A win-win.  After Trump v. United States, none dare call it bribery.

Over two weeks ago, the extremely conservative Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, made more than one good point:

Thomas Massie is going NUCLEAR on Trump’s regime change war in Venezuela.

“How did it work out in Cuba, Libya, Iraq, or Syria?”

“Do we want another Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere?”

“This is about oil and regime change.”

“Previous presidents told us to go to war over… pic.twitter.com/XzwsC1uPpU

— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) January 3, 2026

"Venezuela also seized and sold American oil assets, costing us billions," maintained the President, which at least has the virtue of being closer to the truth than most of what he says, an extremely low bar. The nation's President now commingles the interests of Chevron and the USA, a dangerous coupling in any circumstance. And with that President being the King of Graft, what could possibly go wrong?

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