It can fairly be said that the most precarious jobs in the world are those of a golf ball collector at a driving range, a mascot at a Chuck E. Cheese, and a Trump Administration lawyer.
That was evident at the press conference yesterday as President Donald Trump blew apart the carefully constructed narrative presented earlier for the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Some of us had written that Trump had a winning legal argument by focusing on the operation as the seizure of two indicted individuals in reliance on past judicial rulings, including the decisions in the case of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and General Dan Caine stayed on script and reinforced this narrative. Both repeatedly noted that this was an operation intended to bring two individuals to justice and that law enforcement personnel were part of the extraction team to place them into legal custody. Rubio was, again, particularly effective in emphasizing that Maduro was not the head of state but a criminal dictator who took control after losing democratic elections.
However, while noting the purpose of the capture, President Trump proceeded to declare that the United States would engage in nation-building to achieve lasting regime change. He stated that they would be running Venezuela to ensure a friendly government and the repayment of seized U.S. property dating back to the government of Hugo Chávez.
This city is full of self-proclaimed Trump whisperers who rarely score above random selection in their predictions. However, there are certain pronounced elements in Trump’s approach to such matters. First, he is the most transparent president in my lifetime with prolonged (at times excruciatingly long) press conferences and a brutal frankness about his motivations. Second, he is unabashedly and undeniably transactional in most of his dealings. He is not ashamed to state what he wants the country to get out of the deal.
In Venezuela, he wants a stable partner, and he wants oil.
Chávez and Maduro had implemented moronic socialist policies that reduced one of the most prosperous nations to an economic basket case. They brought in Cuban security thugs to help keep the population under repressive conditions, as a third fled to the United States and other countries.
After an extraordinary operation to capture Maduro, Trump was faced with socialist Maduro allies on every level of the government. He is not willing to allow those same regressive elements to reassert themselves.
The problem is that, if the purpose was regime change, this attack was an act of war, which is why Rubio struggled to bring the presser back to the law enforcement purpose. I have long criticized the erosion of the war declaration powers of Congress, including my representation of members of Congress in opposition to Obama’s Libyan war effort.
The fact, however, is that we lost that case. Trump knows that. Courts have routinely dismissed challenges to undeclared military offensives against other nations. In fairness to Trump, most Democrats were as quiet as church mice when Obama and Hillary Clinton attacked Libya’s capital and military sites to achieve regime change without any authorization from Congress. They were also silent when Obama vaporized an American under this “kill list” policy without even a criminal charge. So please spare me the outrage now.
My strong preferences for congressional authorization and consultation are immaterial. The question I am asked as a legal analyst is whether this operation would be viewed as lawful. The answer remains yes.
The courts have previously upheld the authority of presidents to seize individuals abroad, including the purported heads of state. This case is actually stronger in many respects than the one involving Noriega. Maduro will now make the same failed arguments that Noriega raised. He should lose those challenges under existing precedent. If courts apply the same standards to Trump (which is often an uncertain proposition), Trump will win on the right to seize Maduro and bring him to justice.
But then, how about the other rationales rattled off at Mar-A-Lago? In my view, it will not matter. Here is why.
The immediate purpose and result of the operation was to capture Maduro and to bring him to face his indictment in New York. That is Noriega 2.0. The Administration put him into custody at the time of extraction with law enforcement personnel and handed him over to the Justice Department for prosecution.
The Trump Administration can then argue that it had to deal with the aftermath of that operation and would not simply leave the country without a leader or stable government. Trump emphasized that “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
I still do not like the import of those statements. Venezuelans must be in charge of their own country and our role, if any, must be to help them establish a democratic and stable government. Trump added that “We can’t take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn’t have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.”
The devil is in the details. Venezuelans must decide who has their best interests in mind, not the United States.
However, returning to the legal elements, I do not see how a court could free Maduro simply because it disapproves of nation-building. Presidents have engaged in such policies for years. The aftermath of the operation is distinct from its immediate purpose. Trump can argue that, absent countervailing action from Congress, he has the authority under Article II of the Constitution to lay the foundation for a constitutional and economic revival in Venezuela.
He will leave it to his lawyers to make that case. It is not the case that some of us preferred, but it is the case that he wants to be made. He is not someone who can be scripted. It is his script and he is still likely to prevail in holding Maduro and his wife for trial.
N.B.: This column appeared on Fox.com
The only way to effectively reduce the “supply” of illegal drugs is through legalization. Then you can tax it, regulate it and provide needed medical services for people with addiction problems. There are no good solutions but this is the lesser of the evils that don’t require American troops on the ground in hostile foreign nations.
Since the 1960’s American taxpayers have paid over $1.5 trillion on the so-called “War on Drugs”. This extremely failed policy has produced MORE illegal drugs over 60 years and done nothing to reduce the supply or demand for illegal drugs.
Marijuana convictions alone (a product safer than cigarettes or liquor) has sent over 1 million African-Americans to prison with permanent criminal records. Reducing lifetime income, reducing lifetime assets and reducing lifetime homeownership for African-Americans. White kids did the same thing in the suburbs but were rarely subject to arrest.
Trump may mean well, but risking American troop casualties in Venezuela and Central American will do nothing to reduce supply & demand. Legalization is terrible also but the lesser of all the evils. Hopefully Congress will intervene.
If Trump supporters really want to help Trump, they should tell Trump to stop hiring “Yes-Men” and “Yes-Men”. Trump needs to stop firing truth-tellers. The net result of hiring yes people is gross incompetence.
Trump is very intelligent on some topics, but nobody – not even Trump – is an expert on every topic. Why would Trump fire someone with decades of experience that tells him the truth?
Now Trump is proposing American troops on the ground doing nation building. Maybe Trump might want a truth-teller advisor instead of a “Yes-Man” to prevent harm to American troops. Trump has a responsibility when sending U.S. troops into dangerous situations.
So, if I’m Venezuala, I say whatever you want Mr Trump, let US oil companies (re)build the infrastructure necessary to extract economically and at volume (which will take 5-10 years) and then renationalise everything. That gives me 5-10 years to make my presidential security look less like a colander.
Fair comment. I don’t think anyone here is gonna think like that though. Also that kind of assumes the United Socialists manage to stay in power.
This huge blunder in American policy is probably just an honest mistake by Trump. Trump apparently was watching reruns of the 1960’s series “Beverly Hillbillies”.
In the tv series, Jeb and his dog are out hunting and his bullet strikes the ground creating an oil geyser. Jeb instantly becomes rich overnight. The problem is in the Beverly Hillbillies series Jeb hit “Light-Crude” oil (very liquid) that will travel easily through pipes.
According to real oil experts, Venezuela has “Heavy-Crude” – even if you drill it, it’s like gelatin and won’t travel through pipes without being diluted with water first. Then all that diluted oil takes longer to refine.
Also according to oil experts, with the danger involved for oil companies. They would have to sell that oil for probably $80 to $90 per barrel – unless subsidized by American taxpayers and risking the lives of American troops. Today in 2025 the international oil market price is about $60 per barrel.
If things go very successful, a huge increase of oil supply could happen by 2035 or later. When that happens it will drive international oil prices lower than $60 per barrel. American oil drillers simply stopped drilling in Texas if oil prices drop that low, although American oil refiners might benefit.
John Say says: <i<I do not much care what the answer is – because Russia is THEIR [Ukraine’s] problem – not the US’s anymore.
To quote somebody quite close to you: “You are free to beleive whatever you want”. For myself, I am amused at that sentence that ignores not just the massive elephant hiding in plain sight in that isolationist room (what specifically did US presidents promise Ukraine that was more valuable than keeping nukes for deterrents against Russia while selling others to nations like Iran and North Korea to raise hundreds of billions of dollars?). But the same time continuing dropping posts every day pointing out where you see Russia being reduced in the level of threat it poses to us here in the USA.
Reminds me of the Democrats willful blindness while regularly trying to have their cake and eat it too.
And I continue being happy as Trump continues reducing the threat Russia poses to our internal security and economic trade around the world. It would be nice if he did better at honoring what we promised Ukraine in order to get them to agree to surrender those thousands of nuclear weapons, but partial wins are far better than the Democrat alternative.
The second and third order consequences of world leaders indifferent to the value of American populism are going to take their own view of America reneging to promises they made to Ukraine after ten years of Ukraine fighting beside us in Afghanistan in our war.
After all, hajji Muslim terrorists were never a problem for Ukraine at any time before or after 9/11, nor all the years they voluntarily fought beside us in our wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
As long as international oil prices are around $60 per barrel, no private companies will make huge investments in extracting Venezuelan oil. According to oil experts, Venezuela also has a grade of heavy crude which is more expensive to refine.
So the math doesn’t add up. There is no market for private investment and it’s more expensive to obtain. If they succeed, oil prices would drop lower. Competing American oil fields with American workers stop pumping if market prices go too low. Low oil prices create unemployment in Middle Eastern nations increasing the risk of future terrorism.
The only American oil workers that would benefit would be the refineries, not the American oil fields.
Trump says he is totally okay putting American boots on the ground to make this happen.
Trump says he is totally okay putting American boots on the ground to make this happen… As long as international oil prices are around $60 per barrel, no private companies will make huge investments in extracting Venezuelan oil.
Two things you can’t trust Democrat communists to deal with:
1. The truth.
2. Business/economic analysis
If Trump had actually said he was okay with sending in the Marines – communist Democrat Maduro supporters would be quoting him verbatim. Rather than lyin’ like a Biden claiming he said that.
As to what private companies who had their investments in Venezuela stolen by the communist dictators like Maduro will do… their decision will probably have a lot to do with what they foresee in future returns or payment of legal awards they are owed by Venezuela due to its’ communist leaders.
Your move, Tovarish… give us your next best shot…
This is one of the dumber legal analyses I’ve read. “Because the arrest of the mypillow guy was legal, the cops were within their rights to run the company and give the assets to their buddies.” Grade school level clownery; a defense of corruption dressed in fancy clothes.
. All countries south of the United States are narco-states. Democrats are part of the US narco-state. The dems are currently showing their colors.
Congrats to DJT for not fearing the cartels.
Good luck in the new year.
2025 quote by Republican Rand Paul:
“If socialism is government owning the means of production…wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step towards socialism”
[published in the conservative libertarian outlet Reason Magazine].
“2025 quote by Republican Rand Paul: “If socialism is government owning the means of production…wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step towards socialism””
That’s on about the same level of abject stupidity as this:
Senator Rand Paul opposes the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities, expressing skepticism about its effectiveness and cautioning that it was too early to assess the outcome or predict Iran’s response. He highlighted concerns that the strikes may not have completely destroyed the sites and could have only delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months.
This is why the US military did not advise politicians like Rand Paul that this operation was going to take place.
Rand Paul and his intellectual elitist theoretical libertarian beliefs in pure American isolation may be persuasive to similar isolationists while merely amusing or head-shakingly stupid to most conservatives and Republicans.
However he leans, he isn’t persuasive to most Americans on this. Just as he was unpersuasive in his previous argument that Iran’s Mad Mullahs should have been left undisturbed by Trump while they completed their construction of functional nuclear weapons.
Did Reason magazine have a coherent argument for supporting Paul and his views on leaving Iran’s nuclear weapons program undisturbed?
Or are you going to do the Drop A Democrat Dump To Deflect And Disappear?
Maybe Trump had good intentions to lower worldwide oil prices. According to many oil experts, lowering worldwide oil prices will likely harm American workers and owners/operators of American oil drillers.
In other words, after 2030 (Venezuela reaches top capacity) Trump may have off-shored American jobs to Venezuela, bankrupting operators of Texas oil fields. For fans of the tv series “Land Man” – Trump’s policies would unemploy every character on the show and bankrupt their American employers.
The other result of drastically reduced oil prices, is likely future terrorism from Middle East oil producers. There is no middle class in these despotic Middle Eastern nations. These nations have super-rich and super-poor. Mass unemployment of working class Muslims (religious zealots) could result in that anger being directed at the United States.
If Trump had consulted Congress and surrounded himself with truth-tellers (instead of yes men), Trump would have known this.
“. . . lowering worldwide oil prices will likely harm . . .”
The Left condemns Trump for *not* lowering prices. And for lowering prices.
I think there’s a theme there.
re: Sam
The libertarian news outlet “Reason Magazine” (most voted for Trump) strongly oppose Trump’s constitutionally-liberal policies.
Reason Magazine’s January 2026 print edition is titled “Republican Socialism”. These are not leftists or liberals. These are real Republicans and real Libertarians criticizing Trump liberal policies.
The libertarian news outlet “Reason Magazine” (most voted for Trump) strongly oppose Trump’s constitutionally-liberal policies. Reason Magazine’s January 2026 print edition is titled “Republican Socialism”.
The same rational and reasonable libertarians who demanded Trump allow Iran’s terrorists to put their finishing touches on Iran’s first nuclear weapons, because bombing those facilities that were an existential threat to American lives was “unconstitutional”? What convinces you they aren’t idiots who neither understand socialism or Constitutionalism?
Trump Shreds the Constitution by Bombing Iran
https://reason.com/2025/06/21/trump-shreds-the-constitution-by-bombing-iran/
Make a credible argument for why their opinion should matter to Americans? Particularly the THOUSANDS of American families who have lost family members to Iran’s Quds Force in Afghanistan and Iran’s terrorist groups around the world. While first Obama/Biden and then Biden/Harris enabled Iran’s terrorist dictators to continue doing that.
Or at least convince us that they’re actually “real Republicans” in their opposition to bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities.
They write like they’re false flag Democrat propaganda apparatchiks: go ahead and change our minds.
The left does not condemn Trump for not lowering oil prices. The left condemns Trump for lying that he would lower grocery prices and lower housing prices. Nothing he has done directly lowered oil prices, though he takes credit for that, as well as taking credit, apparently, for those who raise laying chickens from recovering flock sizes after the bird flu killed a bunch of them.
Were he to take steps to break up the small number of companies which control the majority of the American food supply and take on those places with stupidly restrictive zoning that is solely to keep prices high, that would be something to support, but Trump will never do either because he doesn’t personally profit from it.
Sam
Im sure you know this was way more important than oil. Lock America’s backdoor and curtail the Chicom expansionism. Panama, Venezuela, Columbia…Mexico!
Consult congress and truth tellers – hahahaha. Nice parody congress, D’s, No Kings, Mondami, truth, got all the hits there.