On “Taxi,” the TV comedy starring Danny Devito, among others, and Christopher Lloyd, who played the brain-burned character Jim, there was an episode showing Jim as a brilliant student at Harvard, cajoled into trying a “special” brownie. One bite, and he morphed into the skew-faced idiot he was on the show.
For some reason, I thought of that after Trump announced his invasion of Venezuela. A taste of power, and he went mad.
Because Trump was never a brilliant student anywhere, the analogy fails. Still, in his second term as “president,” he’s been nibbling power bit by bit, and finally swallowed it whole. Also, one who’s already mad can’t “go” mad. The analogy fails there, too. So never mind. Clearly, though, Trump is deliriously stoned on power.
The military operation was well-planned and brilliantly executed. How well thought out were the consequences and follow-up is suggested by the shallowness of Pete Hegseth resurrecting his Fox “news” and only qualification roots, crowing, “They effed around and found out.” The preening, testosteronical emanations that dominated the news conference all but made light of the seriousness of what happened. It confirmed, however, that it was never about drugs, obvious from the persisting lies that boats blown up and people killed by Trump were heading to the US bearing fentanyl.
Still more revelatory about the lack of long-term planning are contradictory statements, mostly from Trump and Secretary of State/National Security Advisor/Viceroy of Venezuela Marco Rubio. “We’re running the country,” quoth the Ravin’. “We’re working with their government,” says Marco. Which raises the question: what does it mean to “run” a country, a phrase Trump loves to spout referring to what he does to the US, and believes he’ll be doing to Venezuela. Here’s an experienced general, describing how failure derives from such chaos.
Running a country requires having people downstream to carry out plans. And more people, further downstream, willing and able to do the actual work. By firing competent people and hiring sycophantic yes-ones, Trump made inroads (but not roads) here at home. Stephen Miller and Russell Vought tell him what to do, he orders morally bereft lackeys, like Bondi, Patel, Hegseth, Noem, et nauseati, to carry it out. Trump’s monarchy has eliminated and/or ignored Constitutional checks, so it’s been working very well. Not for you and me, of course. But, for him and his spawn’s and cronies’ bank accounts, it’s been magical.
Neither Trump, who, between golfing and posting social-media jeremiads, hasn’t the time, nor Rubio, who hasn’t the downstream cooperants, can “run” Venezuela. Trump could have turned to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, but, too bad for her, she won “his” Nobel Peace Prize. Vice-President Delcy Rodriquez, a Maduro acolyte, initially responded to the kidnapping by demanding Maduro’s return and promising that no one would be allowed to steal their resources. To which Trump replied, aping Al Capone, “If she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” As this was never about drugs, neither was it about creating democracy. Was Tucker Carlson wrong, too?
The “peace president” has become the bully of the Western Hemisphere, threatening whomever and taking whatever he wants. Some see this as dangerous dereliction; others – MAGA and Foxoid media, predictably – see it as USA! chant-worthy. I’m among the former, given the license this has provided our adversaries to do the same, one of which already has. Which might explain Trump’s antecedent defense of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine: tilling his own soilage.
If the outcomes of Trump’s adventurism are unknowable (recall Bush’s Iraq invasion, about which V.P Cheney promised we’d be greeted as liberators and SecDef Rumsfeld said it’d be over in days), some are predictable. First, Trump’s dismissal of alternative energy in deference to fossil fuelers will continue, accelerating climate change, probably irreversibly; and, second, if American oil companies do return to Venezuela, rebuild its oil infrastructure, and resume pumping and selling the oil, Trump will cash in with a pre-arranged personal cut of the profits. It’s the only consistent aspect of his foreign policy. He admitted to working with oil companies, but not Congress, in advance of the invasion.
How on board they are with the risk and expense is unclear, but Trump offered up US taxpayers to foot the costs.
Trump considers the oil underneath Venezuela “ours.” By any law, it never was; but it’s true that American oil companies once harvested it as if it were, taking from Venezuela billions in profits, making it unsurprising that the country would eventually take back control. Or, as Trump says, steal it. To evaluate that characterization, it’s worth knowing the history. Here’s one source. And another.
Maduro is a bad guy. Considering what Trump has done, and if he follows through on his threats to other sovereign countries, how does Trump compare? Opinions will vary.
