It has been an accusation long levelled at certain US politicians that their brains might have been softened by a lengthy diet of television, Westerns, and the heroic triumphalism of the prattling cowboy. There was never going to be a break with this tradition regarding President Donald Trump, except the fact that he claimed to be more restrained on the draw. Of late, that restraint has vanished. A buildup of US army personnel in the Caribbean; the bombing, on fatuous grounds, of vessels in the Caribbean Sea carrying fictional narco-cargo destined for the United States and, just to top things, delirious notions about attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran in the early hours of the morning in the event protestors are shot.
It was clear after the release of the 2025 National Security Strategy that this administration was going to shred the inhibitions imposed by international law and opt for the more liberating costumery of gangsterism. In the Western Hemisphere, the United States would assert its muscle and dictate terms, as it has done previously, to countries in Latin America. Washington desired “a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations,” one “that remains free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets, and that supports critical supply chains” and ensured “continued access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine.”
Venezuela has become the first target of this corollary. On January 3, a little after 2 am local time, Caracas, and other sites in the country, were attacked by US forces as part of Operation Absolute Resolve. By 4:21 am, Trump announced that the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores had been captured. The Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, at a press conference held at the President’s Florida compound, spoke of, “An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise.”
Caine also revealed that US intelligence teams had been eyeing Maduro and his wife for months. With a thuggish flourish, the general explained that those teams had monitored the leader to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, and what were his pets.”
Trump, in explaining the rationale behind the Venezuelan action, spoke ever immodestly about the “Don-roe Doctrine.” The Maduro regime had hosted “foreign adversaries in our region and acquiring menacing offensive weapons that could threaten US interests and lives.” This was “in gross violation of the core principles of American foreign policy, dating back more than two centuries.” The Monroe Doctrine had been “a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, a real lot. They now call it the ‘Don-roe Doctrine’.”
US Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly announced that Maduro had been indicted in the Southern District of New York on a fruit salad array of implausible charges: “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States.” As with previous, implausibly elastic categories of combatant hatched by the US Justice Department and White House – that of “unlawful combatant” or “unprivileged belligerent” conceived by the administration of George W. Bush comes to mind – a category has been invented to inspire a false resolution.
The invented category of narco-terrorism has revealed the limits of legal literacy of the Trump administration. Such a term, imputing links between government officials, organised crime and terrorism, supposedly vests war making powers in the executive along with, it transpires in the case of Maduro, abduction powers regarding the foreign leader of a state. The US Congress has again been roguishly sidestepped.
The dress rehearsal for this commenced on September 2 last year when Trump stated in a War Powers Resolution notification to Congress that military strikes on alleged narco-vessels operating in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean were “self-defense” measures motivated by “the inability or unwillingness of some states in the region to address the continuing threat to United States persons and interests emanating from their territories.”
In October, a presidential notice was issued turning those killed in alleged drug smuggling as “unlawful combatants,” thereby twinning this administration’s lexical imagination with that of George W. Bush. For Bush, that imagination extended to fictional weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) held by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq that might be used against Americans and their allies at any given moment. Furthermore, they might fall into the hands of non-state actors.
In Trump’s case, fantasies about Maduro as a wily drugs chieftain hosting rebel groups pullulate. Much of this is sheer nonsense given that the country has little to nothing to do with the flow of cocaine into the US. But there is oil to be seized and managed by US companies and the Don-roe doctrine to maintain.
In responding to this act of breezy criminality, countries programmed to emphasise the “rules-based” international order find themselves in a bind. The European Union, instead of spluttering and raging, proved meek, mocking Maduro’s status as Venezuela’s leader yet finding it hard to condemn Trump’s flouting of convention and the UN Charter. The EU high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, was most indicative: “The EU has repeatedly stated that Mr Maduro lacks legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition. Under all circumstances, the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be respected. We call for restraint.”
In Britain, Trump fanboy and leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage expressed that ecstatic confusion that comes with admiring an untutored, unrestrained bully in international relations. “The American actions in Venezuela overnight are unorthodox and contrary to international law – but if they make China and Russia think twice, it may be a good thing.”
The response from Roderich Kiesewetter, MP from Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, was more tutored. “The coup in Venezuela marks a return to the old US doctrine from before 1940: a mindset of thinking in terms of spheres of influence, where the law of force rules, not international law.” The reaction from the Cuban government was much in the same vein, though more colourful: “This is a blatant imperialist and fascist aggression with objectives of domination, aimed at reviving US hegemonic ambitions over Our America, rooted in the Monroe Doctrine, and at achieving unrestricted access to and control over the natural wealth of Venezuela and the region.”
The kidnapping of leaders by bullying powers in the post-1945 world is not new. Hungary’s deceived Imre Nagy, seen as the figurehead of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, was seized by the Soviet Union for disciplinary action that culminated in his trial and execution. Czechoslovakia’s Alexander Dubček, leader of the crushed Prague Spring of 1968, was spared execution but faced similar ideological chastisement by the Soviet leadership for implementing reforms. Within their sphere of influence, the Soviets were keen to dissuade unruly contrarians that their leaders might, at any moment, be kidnapped, executed or reprogrammed at will. Trump has, without knowing it, joined a most dubious club.
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USA already “runs” Australia so why not Venezuela and Iran also?
This is scary. With the idiot in control in the US no country is safe.
With increasing evils, criminality, lying, deceptions, killing, thieving, perversions, dodging, Trump is clearly lower than eelshit in the Marianas Trench. Caligula, Attila, Adolf, Josef, Pol Pot would all cheer. Disturbing…
“… “a Hemisphere whose governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels,…”
What a joke! The prime market for illicit narcotics is USA and the success of drugs penetrating that hallowed sanctity of democracy is because of corruption at US executive, legislative, judicial, intelligence military and health administrations. Big pharma groomed the public into believing that there is a pill for every ill and that pain must be eliminated by one of those pills. The marketing of oxycontin 2010-2014 by Purdue Pharmacologicals as being “safe and effective” lead directly to over prescription and addiction. Addicts turned to cocaine as cocaine became cheaper than oxycontin so cocaine addictions sky rocketed then fentanyl began to flood the market. The problem of reducing narcotic addiction lies squarely at home in USA.
Ref:https://merylnass.substack.com/p/imho-the-opioid-epidemic-is-due-to?utm_source=post-email title&publication_id=746368&post_id=183405796&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=4an0y2&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Trump just gave China’s dictator for life, Xi jinping the green light to invade Taiwan, a mission he’s been practising for in recent days. But Taiwan won’t go quietly and invaders won’t be welcomed with open arms. Tibet, , Xinjiang and Hong Kong know what integration with China feels like but they didn’t have the resistance resources Taiwan has. Despite probably overwhelming forces I can see Xi (metaphorically) getting a blood nose. If he is stupid enough to act on his threats.
I can see the day coming when New York will be populated by ex-presidents and prime ministers of foreign nations who have displayed the temerity of dissenting with American exceptionalism. Capture, lonely exile and erasure from history will be their legacy to their beleaguered nation.
RomeoCharlie
It is interesting to note that the USA has armed and funded a genocide and organized ethnic cleansing in Gaza, used tariffs to extort tribute from smaller nations, attacked without provocation Iran, bombed Nigeria, committed piracy on the high seas, conducted extrajudicial executions on the high seas, invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its leader, now threatens to attack Iran again, and all that you want to talk about is China.
There wouldn’t be some agenda at play here by any chance?
It is a difficult time for those who have provided context, justification and even support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
1. I doubt whether we will find any international law scholar or expert to endorse Trump’s position. Unless it is from a Trump sycophant.
2. There is no credible International law scholar or expert who states Russia’s invasion is in accordance with international law.
3. When people are selective in their support (or opposition) regarding the use of illegal military action in pursuit of foreign policy objectives, they have little credibility
What strikes me is the sheer contradiction at the heart of this administration. While the US struggles with widening inequality, failing infrastructure, unaffordable healthcare, and declining living standards for millions, enormous political and military energy is being poured into theatrical foreign interventions. The “Don-roe Doctrine” is not about security or democracy, it is about spectacle, dominance, and distraction. As Kampmark shows, the language of gangsterism is no longer accidental, it is policy. Instead of addressing the deep social and economic crises facing ordinary Americans, power is projected outward to manufacture strength. History suggests this rarely ends well, either for the countries targeted or for the citizens at home who are told this is being done in their name.
RomeoCharlie
I think this comment runs well ahead of the evidence. There is no verified indication that China has been “given the green light” to invade Taiwan, nor that an invasion is imminent. Military exercises, even large ones, have occurred regularly for years and are not proof of intent. Assertions about Xi being a “dictator for life” or invasion plans tend to rely on media speculation rather than documented policy decisions or timelines.
The situations of Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are also fundamentally different in history, legal status, and international context, so drawing straight lines between them oversimplifies complex realities. If we are going to make claims about war or invasion, they need to be grounded in credible intelligence assessments, not assumptions or worst-case narratives. Alarmism may be emotionally compelling, but it does not help us understand what is actually happening or what evidence supports it.
About the only thing that sycophantic creature Bondi hasn’t charged Maduro with is stealing lollies from babies. Here’s hoping that the courts treat this maniacal lunacy with the contempt it so richly deserves. If it doesn’t get hijacked by Donnie and Hegseth for a military trial.
The rest of the Western world could well become complicit by association with their so far, and to put it bluntly, weasel words about The Donald’s invasion (couched in the words of “helping the people of Venezuela”) but at heart a giant robbery. If they kowtow to Trump then other countries will be attacked in the name of “democracy” then occupied and stripmined and drilled for the goodies and grabbing more and more millions for his bank accounts.
RomeoCharlie says:
4 January 2026 at 3:00 pm
He’s pretty much given his hero Putin the green light to continue the destruction and takeover of Ukraine, Netanyahu will continue his removal and destruction of the Palestinians and Xi will be woking on the plan to attack Taiwan.
We’re well and truly fucked!
Denis Haye & RomeoCharlie, on China and Taiwan.
China has indicated that it will use military force if necessary to reunite Taiwan with China. That doesn’t mean it has plans to invade what the world already acknowledges is Chinese territory. It means that if the US uses Taiwan as a proxy against China like the US has used Ukraine as a proxy against Russia, then it will resolve the issue with military force, just as Russia has been obliged to do. The US does not do diplomacy. It does murder, extortion, terrorism and sanctions along with its toadying vassel states, but never takes diplomatic solutions seriously.
It is the US, as usual that has been initialising aggression and trying to start a war with China. It is arming Taiwan to the teeth to provoke China into taking defensive action, just as it did with Ukraine to provoke Russian defensive action from the encroachment of NATO forces, bases and CIA spy stations up against the Russian border as if they were planning a pre-emptive decapitation strike. China like Russia has to tread carefully because they don’t want to give the US the excuse to escalate its hostilities against them as that risks an all-out nuclear exchange.
This attack on Venezuela is not just about stealing their oil, it is part of the US strategy to blockade China. Attacking ships carrying oil to China was getting too messy and dangerous so they have gone to the source to ensure all supply is permanently blocked. They also recently got terrorist insurgents to blow up China’s oil pipeline that had been built to circumvent the choke points the US has put around the South China Sea. All to contain China and prevent it from surpassing the declining US. And Australia is right besides the US backing every evil international crime that the US is prepared to commit.From genocide to environmental terrorism there is nothing that the US does that Australia will dare to criticise.
Many of us warned that Trump was a loose cannon and could not be trusted. This was NOT a humanitarian action; he wanted Venezuela for OIL!
IMO it is not for drugs (the market & US by demand is flooded with it), or for oil (the market & US (as a means to control current reliance) is flooded with it). As B. Sullivan states, it’s primarily a geopolitical threat & blockade against China, via a sudden turn against South America’s resurgent ‘Pink Tide’, and the many North/Central African nations’ (post-European dominated) current state of upheaval and confusion.