Why is Trump suddenly interested in waging war on Venezuela? First, he's a filthy coward who promised his MAGA herd he doesn't want to shove the US in foreign wars. So he chooses two pathetically weak countries to harass: Venezuela (supposedly to fight drug trafficking) and Nigeria (supposedly to defend Christians there). Both are obviously pretexts for the silverback moron to beat his chest and pretend he is fighting drugs and defending Christians.
Why doesn't he confront China (a one-party communist dictatorship that appoints its own subservient Christian bishops), or Saudi Arabia (where Christians are not even allowed to practice, and where practicing Christian rituals (prayers and such) (التنصير) in one's home is illegal (An AI search gave: public practice of Christianity is forbidden in Saudi Arabia, and there are severe restrictions on religious gatherings and expressions of faith. While private worship is technically allowed, it is not legally protected, and violations can lead to arrest or deportation).
Second, he is fast losing ground on the domestic front. As the 2026 elections loom, it is typical for a dumb American voting public to become automatically "bored" with their politicians nearing the end of their term ("sitting ducks", they call them). It's a knee-jerk reaction by "consumers" who get bored with the junk toys they bought last year. Scandals, corruption, nepotism, display of tasteless wealth (ballrooms, lavish dinners...) while people's standard of living keeps sliding, primarily because of Trump's policies (tariffs, currting off all federal social support networks, massive layoffs by both the government and the giant corporations colluding with Trump).
Therefore Trump needs to distract and amuse his bored American people. What better than a jolt of fake tacky flag-waving "patriotism"? When Bush Jr. invaded Iraq on the basis of the deliberate lies that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, the American patriotic herd followed him even as they suspected he was lying to them. He waged the war (and never really won it, other than causing the death of millions of Iraqis and some 6,000 US soldiers) and temporarily improved the economy by domestic expenditures on military equipment (and making huge profits for Dick Cheney's Haliburton among many companies in the military-industrial complex), but it soon caught up with him and the economy collapsed during his last year in office. Barack Obama was elected and he fixed the economy and avoided stupid wars overseas.
And now Trump is doing the same, claiming he is fighting drug trafficking. But drug use is a US problem. The question we should be asking is why do so many Americans consume so much illicit drugs, which drives the manufacture and supply of drugs by the cartels? The US government goes to war against foreign suppliers of drugs, but never against domestic producers while drug use by Americans is never questioned. Never combated. Never punished. In fact, it is increasingly legalized. For decades, fighting the drug trade has never been a serious undertaking and is mostly a pretext to interfere in other countries for political objectives (removing leftwing dictatorships and replacing them with rightwing ones).
If Trump really cared about the growing drug trade and its nefarious impact on American society, he should be issuing executive orders drastically raising the penalties for drug use by his own American people instead of blaming other countries.
US Republicans thrive on foreign wars. Whereas Democrat presidents have to be dragged into wars (Woodrow Wilson in World War I; Franklin D. Roosevelt in World War II), Republican presidents initiate wars. Not because of necessity, but for marketing (show of force) and profits (drum up the economy with expenditures on the war effort).
Republican presidents often fail in the economic management of the country. As their popularity starts sinking, they resort to wars overseas to distract the American people and shore up their declining popularity. Reagan did it, Bush Sr. did it and Bush Jr did it.
Like his predecessors, Trump’s worsening situation on the domestic front (declining economy, corruption, nepotism, favoritism, sinking popularity, enmeshed in scandals, etc.) is making him turn to foreign wars in the “backyard” of the US, in Latin America. It may also represent a tit for tat message to Vladimir Putin: You are messing with our allies in your European backyard in Ukraine, we can mess with your left-wing allies in our backyard in Latin America. Which is an added incentive for China to mess with its own backyard in Taiwan and everywhere else in southeast Asia.
The US might be concerned with a new leftwing tide similar to the one in the 1960s and 1970s. Wikipedia says that the “Pink Tide” (a turn towards left-wing governments in Latin America) may well be on its way in the aftermath of the crushing economic and social disarray in this 21st century caused by excessive liberalism, right wing policies, continuous rape of the environment, autocrats, right-wing populists, dictatorships (Russia, US, China…), support for genocidal ultra-religious right-wingers (Netanyahu in Palestine, Modi in India, etc.)
In Chile, for example, the presidential elections of this past weekend are between extremists of all brands. On the ballot are eight candidates with at least three frontrunners including José Antonio Kast, an ultraconservative politician whose father was a German Nazi and who has promised to "make Chile great again"; Johannes Kaiser, another German-stock libertarian who is considered even more radical than Kast; and Jeannette Jara, a longtime Communist Party member. None obtained the required percentage of votes, and a runoff is now set between Kast and Jara, with Communist Jara a favorite in the polls. Will the Trump administration orchestrate the killing of Jara (if she wins), like Nixon did with the killing of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973?
Virtually in every country on earth today there are people, especially young people, demonstrating against right-wing corruption, the dismantling of democratic institutions, the move toward illiberal policies that are destroying the foundations and gains of the past few decades. Particularly among a younger generation (recent Gen Z protests), there is a move toward more economically progressive or socially progressive policies aiming at restoring social and economic justice. Native indigenous people (Latin America, Palestine, etc.) are raising their voices and demanding power-sharing after centuries of European colonialism. They are also trying to fend off giant corporations trying to steal their ancestral lands and exploit them to the detriment of their environment-friendly traditions.
As automation and robotization (artificial intelligence) are beginning to throw people off the payroll ledgers, the younger generation is worried that the change is too fast and that steps they are taking today to ensure themselves a future may be outpaced by rapid change. There is no time to adjust.
With all these tensions and uncertainties, the right-wing establishments (capitalists, religious orders, the military, religious nationalists, racial nationalists…) have been reacting to social progress. Trump is such a symptom. Unfortunately, these dinosaurs know only one thing: The past, as they have no imagination for a different future. Their reaction is often a nostalgic return to the “old days” whose shelf-life never lasts forever. With social change, once a gain is made it is impossible to go back. Rights acquired cannot be surrendered back. Trump’s Make America Great Again is based on the illusion that we can delete all the social progress achieved over the past 100 years and return to the 19th century status quo of abusive enslavement and denial of rights to minorities, immigrants, women, workers, peasants, the middle class, indigenous people….
In Venezuela, Trump is copy-pasting 1970s Nixon: He is staging a coup against Maduro, much like Nixon used the CIA to topple and assassinate the duly and democratically elected Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. His “crime”? He was a Socialist. Trump has authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations and has dispatched the largest naval deployment of the 21st century along the coast of Venezuela.
Latin America's Pink Tide: Twelve countries on the left. Six countries on the right
RIGHT
Bolivia - Rodrigo Paz Pereira - Center right
Panama - José Raúl Mulino - right wing
Argentina - Javier Milei - right wing Libertarian
Dominican Rep. - Luis Abinader - Center right Modern Revolutionary Party
Paraguay - Santiago Peña - Conservative Colorado Party
Peru - José Jerí - right-wing political party We Are Peru
LEFT
Brazil - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva - Workers' Party
Chile - Gabriel Boric - Democratic Socialist
Colombia - Gustavo Petro - Marxist roots
Cuba - Miguel Díaz-Canel - Communist party
Nicaragua - Daniel Ortega - Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)
Venezuela - Nicolás Maduro - United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
Honduras - Xiomara Castro - Democratic Socialist - Liberty and Refoundation
Mexico - Claudia Sheinbaum - Left-leaning National Regeneration Movement (Morena)
Costa Rica - Rodrigo Chaves Robles - Social Democratic Progress Party
Guatemala Bernardo Arévalo - Center left - Movimiento Semilla party
Uruguay Yamandú Orsi - Left-wing Broad Front party
San Salavador Nayib Bukele - Leftist FMLN party but leaning center
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