Meanwhile in the world that exists outside of Trump’s dementia fantasies, Maduro’s VP has been sworn in as acting president and doesn’t sound too keen on the idea of his goons “running” her country.
https://www.axios.com/2026/01/03/trump-maduro-venezuela-delcy-rodriguez
Colored pencils are for the daughter he doesn’t want to fuck.
But only two of them. Children don’t deserve 37 pencils.
I’m sure she isn’t, and I’m not sure Trump cares much. If she becomes too much of a nuisance, what’s to stop Trump from having her removed as well?
What media is in place to do their job with this administration? The Pentagon only has a press pool which the Pentagon has approved. The gaggle at the White House has been pared down. There’s no press there to question them.
From a practical standpoint, he can’t just keep kidnapping presidents on phony charges forever, and I’ve seen no indication that he actually has any kind of plan for how to occupy and control a heavily forested and mountainous country of 30 million.
If Roodriguez refuses to play ball, and it seems she won’t, then it’s going to take more than a few helicopters in order for him to “run” Venezwayler.
Could it turn into Vietnezuela?
I keep wondering if Maduro will be ..”Shot while trying to escape” or
like Epstein…..”He committed suicide”
I agree that those are crucial concerns, and things that the U.S. people have a right to know. However…
…Trump wouldn’t answer that question if it was asked.
…if Trump did answer, I wouldn’t believe him.
…if, by some miracle, Trump answered and told the truth as he currently believes it, I wouldn’t expect the future to play out as Trump expects.
From what I remember from a single journalism class in junior high, news stories start with the big picture, and fill in the details further along. I kinda feel like the questions in the OP are skipping to the details while the press is still trying to get the big picture stuff.
Personally, I don’t think Trump, or anyone in his administration, has the first clue about what will happen in Venezuela. This is not someone who makes plans. He acts in the moment and expects the details to just work themselves out.
It’s possible that Trump will send tens of thousands of troops to try to run Venezuela, and gets the U.S. involved in an epic foreign quagmire. It’s also possible that next week someone will ask Trump what his plans are to run Venezuela and he’ll answer “I never said that.”
“Round up the usual suspects.”
Newest update headline on all this, on CNN:
“Trump threatens Venezuela’s acting president in new interview”
It will probably work out the way Bush’s Iraq invasion did: fragmentation into a mess of warlord fiefdoms.
There is a persistent wistful illusion that ‘democracy’ is in some way a ‘natural’ or ‘inevitable’ form of government. Short term thinking: that idea has only been around for a couple of centuries.
In a telephone interview this morning, President Donald Trump issued a not-so-veiled threat against the new Venezuelan leader, Delcy Rodríguez, saying that “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro,” referring to Nicolás Maduro, now residing in a New York City jail cell. Trump made clear that he would not stand for Rodríguez’s defiant rejection of the armed U.S. intervention that resulted in Maduro’s capture.
He seems nice.
He doesn’t need to. Two or three times at most, each one a bit more forceful.
To run the place? Sure. But it would only take a few helicopters to remove Rodriguez.
To be clear, my position isn’t that this is in any way a well thought-out plan. It never is with these clowns. But they aren’t playing and they have the might of US Special Forces to use at their disposal. They certainly aren’t going to say, “well, we got the guy we wanted so she can run the country now.” They want the country’s oil and will do what it takes.
To be honest, the funniest part is hearing Pete Hegseth trying to sound tough. Actual military officers manage to convey their message without the false bravado.
In a shocking turn of events, it turns out that Donald Trump might have been making shit up.
Thirty something years ago Colin Powell mentioned the Pottery Barn rule, about the difficulty of managing a country after invading it. Do we learn nothing from history?
You’re correct. Democracy is difficult to achieve, and equally difficult to maintain. The only reason it exists is because people want it. It doesn’t exist because it’s natural. All government comes from the strong ruling the weak, and the “natural” form of that is via tyranny. You avoid tyranny by using democracy to bring together a coalition of people that is strong enough to keep power. Once that’s lost, tyranny is going to happen again.
I don’t think trump has the faintest idea what’s going on. He does whatever Stephen Miller tells him to do and Miller makes him think it’s his own idea. Then trump blathers to the press what he imagines is happening. .
Wait, what? I thought that everyone in Venezuela was overjoyed at Trump’s actions!