Trump Says "We're Going To Run The Country." Not The USA. Venezuela.
Early on the morning of January 3, a military operation extracted President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and his wife from Caracas and brought them to the U.S. aircraft carrier Iwo Jima. There, they await transportation to New York to face arraignment in the United States District Court for the Southern District Court on an indictment charging them with drug offenses.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and DJ Trump at a news conference in Palm Beach on the same day, the Trump administration did not inform the Congress in advance for fear of “leaks,” although congressional leaders were informed while the extraction was taking place. They didn’t trust Republican leader John Thune?
At that news conference the president announced, “We’re going to run the country,” indicating secretaries Rubio and Hegseth and joint chiefs chair John Daniel “Razin” Caine. Vice President JD Vance was not in attendance.
Those at the news conference emphasized that no U.S. military personnel were injured during the two-hour extraction and that no materiel was lost.
Remaining at their posts in Caracas despite DJ’s promise to “run the country” are Delcy Rodriguez, formerly vice president, and now president; interior minister Diosdado Cabello; and military head Vladimir Padrino Lopez. Apparently DJ told us but did not tell them. All owe their jobs to the extracted president Maduro.
At the news conference DJ said that he spoke to president Rodriguez and that she agreed to cooperate with the United States, according to him. He did not mention the serving interior and military ministers.
(A previous extraction of a disputed head of state took place in 1989-1990 when the U.S. military entered Panama after Panama had declared war on the United States. The object of that attack was unelected military dictator Manuel Noriega [he had lost an election that he annulled] formerly one of the CIA’s most valued intelligence sources. He was tried and sentenced to 40 years.)
Much of the January 3 news conference involved discussion of Venezuelan oil. DJ said that U.S. oil companies would modernize oil wells and enhance oil production for the benefit of the people of Venezuela and the oil companies. Some of the proceeds would go to the United States to defray its costs, he said. Sixty percent of Venezuela’s current oil production goes to China.
The news conference was a load of crap.
-Venezuela is run by entrenched Venezuelans
-the invasion was wholly illegal under international law and will be widely condemned
-the action in Venezuela tramples on DJ’s assurances of “America first,” and will distress MAGA adherents
The question is whether President Petro of Colombia is next on the DJ agenda. Followed by President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez of Cuba.
These international misadventures are insane in the face of domestic mayhem as health care goes out the window. Work on America, Mr. Trump, make it just and fair!