Part of me thinks I’m overthinking this. It could easily be that someone told Trump Venezuela has more oil than anyone, and he decided he wanted it.
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@RedOverTheWater That is treating this as way too normal an admin.
There are people in Trump’s orbit using Venezuela/Maduro as a way to get what they want out the Trump admin. The 3 distinct ones I think you can point to are 1) the standard GOP attitudes to latin american socialists (Rubio driven), 2) a vehicle for enacting a draconian anti -immigrant policy (miller), and 3) most bonkers of all people wanting to get into his good graces by giving him absurd 2020 election conspiracies and using Maduro (or even the long dead Chavez) as antagonists who helped Biden.
From there you have a child running things who is easily manipulated, and while he doesnt have the attention span for actual wars, he loves the short term spectacle of bombing shit. Exercises that allow him to feel tough when watching on TV, but quick enough that he can go back to beefing with B list celebs on social media by lunch time. So he was worked up by those 3 factions into focusing on Venezuela and whether they thought he would do this or not, ultimately he did something that will give him the TV win he wanted without having to spend much time on it and will soon enough wash his hands of it.
Keep in mind there are credible reporters talking about Trump being angered into pulling the trigger because Maduro danced in a public appearance last week in a way Trump took as mocking him and his double jerk off dance
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How much do you think China’s influence in the region is a factor?
I personally think it is a big reason. Trump sees a world where China operates in their patch, and he is bothered about Chinese influence on his doorstep.
I also agree with everything else you are saying.
Our attitude to China is incoherent (see back and forth with tarrifs and recent about turn with the AI enabling chips) so it may be some part of what is happening, but not in any joined up way.
They have given Trump a boogey man, explained a 150 year old doctrine to him that he can use and rebrand to make it seems like he knows what he is talking about, and let him bomb stuff before redirecting his energy elsewhere.
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And don’t forget who’s paying for his Big Beautiful Ballroom too.
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Its not another forever war, its just a new different war every week
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So, Machado would seem the obvious person for Trump to install as president of Venezuela.
In February 2023, El País described Machado as being part of the “most radical wing of the right”, whose views on social media are defended by the national right ", sometimes described as the expression of “the Venezuelan far right”. (Wikipedia)
The fact that he’s ignored her looks like a petty strop after the supposed Nobel “snub”.
Surely the US president couldn’t be that childish, could he?
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Of course he could be that childish,he does it every day.
To him,being beaten by anyone is bad enough,but by a woman!!!
Wouldn’t matter if she was to the right of Ghengis Khan.
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It’s so hard to tell what’s satire these days.
The lack of backbone in supposed world leaders is no joke though.
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I was highly sceptical of that reporting. It would appear that the US had soured on her over a period of time when she was unable to convince administration officals that she had a convincing plan of how to get her party into power. She had also apparently drawn the ire of Venezuelan business leaders due to her support of sanctions.
Which reporting? El Pais calling her an extreme right winger?
No , WAPO were reporting that the dealbreaker for Trump was her winning the Nobel. Dedicating it to him wasn’t enough apparently , she should have refused it.
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Lest we forget…
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There are always two prongs to any of these developments - what is being driven by the remnants of a normal process, and how Trump’s personal motivations interact with that.
The normal process would have said 2 things about this operation: 1) the aftermath of removing him would create a very dangerous power struggle that would likely make things worse, and 2) the best chance of avoiding that was always going to be a transition to a higher up in the party rather than the opposition. Latin America hawks would have viewed that as relatively pointless and you see lots of the initial celebrations of Venezuelan diaspora already giving way to feelings of betrayal. But Trump doesn’t care about those things. Once a door has been opened for him decisions get made based on his petty child like mind where his support goes behind whomever has antagonized him the least or given him the most concessions.
So you will have CIA types convincing themselves that straight sober intelligence analysis is why we have seemingly thrown our weight behind Delcy, but Trump would almost certainly give you a different answer
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It’s like playing chess with a three year old who’s allowed to change the rules at will.
Jeezus , I’d almost forgotten the significance of this date. Haven’t come across a mention of it anywhere yet.
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NYT did this the other day. It is of course completely true and fair, but the fact they can now concede makes so much of their coverage of him over the past 5 years so baffling
When it happened I thought - Fuck! That’s horrible, but at least they’ll understand now. At least common sense will prevail. It’s now obvious what Trumpism is. But no, it kept on coming, the people who were supposed to stop it stepped aside and now we’re here, just where I feared we’d be. Facing down the barrel of a fascist dictatorship.
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Absolutely incredible stuff
Is Maduro going to actually win his court case and be sent back?
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