It took longer than I expected. But we’ve attacked Venezuela, kidnapped President Maduro and his wife, and apparently intend to take them to New York to stand trial under United States law. I’m not linking any direct news articles because they’re almost all video and quite frankly, this is gonna be impossible to memory hole or lie over because it’s been some Made For TV shit, just like every other foreign intervention we’ve had since Gulf War 1.
Here are sometimeline highlights, however.
We had some remarks from President Trump at around 8 AM pacific time today. In true Trumpian fashion, he proceeded to self-aggrandize (biggest operation since World War 2!) and bloviate about how great he is. But also in keeping with that, he kept up his knack of saying out loud the shit that others in his admin probably wish he wouldn’t have. To whit:
- This is all about narco terrorism, of course, with some truly inflated numbers about how many americans die per drug boat that makes it to the United States. Just don’t ask about his pardon of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was literally convicted of drug trafficking.
- Despite being about narcoterrorism, naturally, Trump had to chime in about Venezuela’s oil. That Venezuela’s oil industry would be rebuilt by companies based in the United States. He couldn’t even keep from saying that part of the problem with Venezuela was that it just wasn’t pumping enough oil. This is, of course, the crux of the problem: Venezuela has a shitton of resources that private companies want and feel entitled to, and that cannot be allowed to continue.
- In terms of who’s running Venezuela, Trump said: “we are going to run the country until we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition” although there is no indication of when that might be, what the criteria might be, or even any indication of consultation with Venezuelans.
- He continued: “We’re basically taking over the country.” This is my shocked face.
Now, perhaps most chillingly, at the end of his press conference, he did offer a hint as to what’s next, with one single offhand statement:
“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.”
So let that sink in, on this day of January 3rd, 2026.