Could there be a better way to distract attention from Trump's crimes (yes, including his presence in the Epstein files) than starting a war? Probably not.
Killing people in boats was predictably not going to be enough for Donald Trump.
Last night Trump illegally launched a large scale attack on Venezuela against military and civilian targets in Caracas and other areas. Big announcements were trumpeted about the capture of Nicholas Maduro and his wife and that they have been flown to the US for prosecution for drug trafficking. Pam Bondi already announced Maduro’s indictment this morning.
While this was obviously a “decapitation” strategy to take over the Venezuelan government, fighting continues.
The news will be filled with “updates” for the foreseeable future, but how accurate the information will be is an open question given Pete Hegseth’s clampdown on information from the Pentagon.
Here are a few factoids we can string together:
- Trump does not actually have Constitutional authority for this kind of military action. He will claim, and has already done so via Marco Rubio, that the military action was to protect law enforcement officers that were arresting Maduro and his wife.
- Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world and under Maduro’s predecessor, Chavez, kicked out American oil companies that were extracting those deposits. Trillions of dollars of value can be attached to those reserves.
- All of Trump’s actions against Venezuela to date have been illegal. Bombing boats, instituting a blockade of shipping both are violations of international law and in the case of the “drug” boats, murder. But then actual law and Trump have never been pals—witness is 34 count felony convictions and attempts to flout other laws, especially against corruption.
Trump’s post about his actions on Truth Social.
Domestic Implications
Trump had been forced to end his National Guard occupations of some cities because of a complete lack of legal authority. Will his de facto war with Venezuela provide justification for some sort of emergency declaration to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act?
Trump’s popularity is at an all-time low. Republican candidates are losing elections by double-digit margins in Republican “safe” areas. Deep red Iowa just elected a Democrat to the state senate by a 71 percent margin last week. These factors do not bode well for Trump and the GOP in the Midterms 11 months from now. There is a distinct possibility that the GOP could lose both houses of Congress and thus expose Trump to his third impeachment and this time probable conviction and immediate removal from office.
This same fate could befall the blatantly corrupt members of the Supreme Court who have been enabling him.
In the tiny mind of dictators everywhere lurks the festering terror of every criminal in history. The fear of everyone looking directly at them and wondering if everyone knows how deep and far-reaching their crimes really are. Anyone who even glances in Trump’s direction amplifies this terror. So distracting attention is of paramount importance.
Trump is a felon, a pedophile, a rapist and one of the world’s most successful con artists, making millions upon millions just to license his name on bullshit products and real estate. Could there be a better way to distract attention from his crimes (yes, including his presence in the Epstein files) than starting a war? Probably not. The fact that people have been and will be killed in his pursuit of this distraction means less than nothing to him.
But he certainly will claim credit for “settling” this war in his fevered fantasy of getting a Nobel.
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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