The Utter Absurdity of Trump's Military Raid of Venezuela

Trump thinks you are an idiot…

Photo by Delfino Barboza on Unsplash

I took a well-needed break over Christmas to get over the insanity of 2025, as I imagine most of you did too. I mean, it’s not like, oh, I don’t know, a certain South African billionaire with ties to Epstein would publicly spread indecent images of children across the web with his moronic AI, or the anti-war US President would violently kidnap an elected leader of a sovereign country while I was away. Only imbeciles would openly paint their hands so vividly red. No, it was a sound plan; I could rest easy as nothing awful would happen while I was away. What’s that? That is precisely what happened? Okay… Well, let’s deal with the pedophilic mechahitler AI later, my god, we need to ease into 2026! So, let’s start off with the abduction of President Maduro, because this is possibly the most stupid, embarrassing, and brain-dead thing Trump has ever done.

So, let’s quickly get caught up. On the 3rd of January, US forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and his wife. They are both now standing trial in New York for charges of drug trafficking to the US. Despite these charges relating to cocaine trafficking, many in the Trump cabinet have said this abduction would help curb the fentanyl crisis, and they used the fentanyl crisis to justify the military action. Likewise, Trump has justified this military action by saying that Venezuela “stole” oil from the US, something which is not reflected in the charges against Maduro or his wife. But, after the abduction, Trump has claimed the US will “run” Venezuela, and get US companies to take over Venezuela’s nationalised oil industry.

Let me be clear here. Not only does this abduction break a truly vast amount of international laws, but the logic behind it is also so broken that it makes it seem like Trump and all his cronies have advanced dementia or have a major fentanyl problem themselves.

Drugs

Let’s start with drugs. Quite simply, where are they? Venezuela does not produce fentanyl at all. It does produce coca, the plant used to make cocaine, but in vanishingly small quantities. In fact, a 2024 report by the US government on the origin of US cocaine didn’t even mention Venezuela. There simply isn’t enough supply for a state-organised drug ring. In fact, the vast majority of US cocaine, well over 90% by some estimates, comes from Colombia, not Venezuela.

Now, yes, some of Colobia’s cocaine does flow through Venezuela, but experts have pointed out that only a tiny fraction of Colobian cocaine goes through Venezuela, and the vast majority of this is shipped to Europe, not the US. In short, Venezuela has very little to do with trafficking cocaine to the US. In fact, the vast majority of US-bound cocaine comes via the Pacific route, on the other side of South America to Venezuela. What’s more, it is believed that gangs operate Venezuela’s cocaine shipments, and there has been no evidence yet brought forward to tie Maduro to these cocaine logistics.

But let’s also not forget that, while cocaine demand is still relatively high in the US, it is still significantly lower than it was in the 80s and 90s. In fact, cocaine is now the 8th most deadly drug in the US, with fentanyl, heroin and many prescribed drugs causing far more deaths per year. So, cocaine isn’t causing enough damage to the US to warrant gargantuan US military action, even against a proven target, let alone a made-up one.

The drug narrative is demonstrably false, no matter how you spin it.

Drug Criminals

Moreover, if this is all about state-level drug trafficking, how come Trump pardoned and freed former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been convicted in the U.S. of helping smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine into the US? He actually did use his state power to corruptly enrich himself through illegal drug trafficking to the US. This wasn’t something he did ages ago, either; Trump freed him on December 1st, 2025, at the same time he was accusing Maduro of drug trafficking.

This either shows total moral inconsistency and disregard for the proper application of the law, or wild incompetence. Either way, a disqualifying mess for the President of the most powerful nation on Earth.

Election Credibility

Some have suggested this is actually about election credibility, and that the US is stepping in to restore democracy. After all, Maduro’s last election was contested. Now, that does not mean he did not win a fair election. After all, 91% of Venezuelans have an unfavourable opinion of the opposition leader Machado, according to a Hinterlaces poll. All that means is that someone with power disagreed with the result, and you can do that without a basis.

But let us not forget that Trump tried to steal the 2020 election, which he demonstrably lost! What’s more, there is more and more evidence that the 2024 election was, at the very least, meddled with in favour of Trump (read more here). Or, what about the fact that he let Elon run what was obviously illegal election bribery through a lottery during his campaign! Even one of Trump’s major backers, Peter Thiel, has openly denounced democracy and has advocated for autocracy.

Trump does not care about democracy at all in the US. What makes you think he cares about any other democracy?

Oil

The real reason is oil. It has been the sole reason for every major US military operation since at least the 70s, and that hasn’t changed. Many of us who remember the Gulf War, Kuwait, Iraq, and so many more have seen this cycle of terror propaganda to enable US petrochemical colonialism before and are, quite frankly, just tired of it. It shows US innovation is well and truly dead, and they are making everyone else pay for it.

But, in true Trump fashion, he lacks all finesse and has ballsed even this up.

For one, under Trump’s orders, the US military seized a Venezuelan oil ship headed for Cuba a few weeks ago on the false claim that it was trafficking drugs. When it was found to have no drugs on it at all, the US military still took the oil. That kind of gave the whole game away. Everyone knew this was not about drugs.

So, Trump has doubled down on the rhetoric that Venezuela has “stolen” oil from the US “through force.” Yet, none of the charges against Maduro are for forcefully taking oil that the US had rights to. Such charges would fail in even a kangaroo court, not just because there is no evidence to support this claim, but because that isn’t even possible.

Venezuela did nationalise its oil industry in the 70s, and paid around $1 billion in 1970s money to US oil companies in concessions to do so. In other words, the Venezuelan government bought US oil companies out so the country can own their own resources and prosper from them. The previous President, Chavez, did tighten national control of oil away from the remaining US oil companies in 2007, and technically, the Venezuelan government still owes them a few billion dollars. But that is a contract dispute with private companies to deliver oil, not national rights to the oil as Trump claims. Simply put, Venezuela can’t have stolen US oil, because it was never the US’s to begin with. It is no wonder Maduro hasn’t been charged with this, as the case would be laughed out of court even by the most twisted pro-Trump judge out there.

And again, this contract dispute is very minor, hence why no previous US government, including Trump’s previous one, has taken action against it for nearly 20 years. In other words, it does not warrant massive military action at all.

Trump is now saying the US will “run” Venezuela now that they have abducted their elected leader, and will give the Venezuelan oil industry to US companies. One company that seems likely to take over is Halliburton, the same oil company that was given immense control over the oil industries in Iraq and Kuwait through strong-armed contracts. What is that saying, history rhymes, it doesn’t repeat?

Either way, abducting an elected leader on false pretences is against international law. Running a country once you have illegally usurped power is also illegal under international law. And, privatising a democratic sovereign state’s nationalised resources after usurping power is most definitely against international law.

This is all illegal, colonial and fascist. Hitler did almost the same thing, but not quite as openly stupid or illegal, to Romania to secure more oil for their war effort.

Presidential Imunity?

If Maduro is somehow found guilty, it means the US has the power to not only find foreign sovereign leaders guilty of crimes with zero evidence to support them, but to forcibly abduct and arrest them. Which is odd, as thanks to the Supreme Court bowing to Trump and deciding to grant presidents immunity from prosecution for criminal acts committed while in office, the US has no ability to charge the sitting US President for crimes they committed, no matter how watertight the reams of evidence are.

Maduro’s abduction not only highlights Trump’s hypocrisy but also how broken the US legal system is and just how dangerously authoritarian and colonial Trump really is.

It Doesn’t Make Sense. Or Does It?

It doesn’t matter how you look at this, Maduro’s abduction makes no sense. The drug charges are false; even if they are true, the reaction to them is not justified in the slightest. They are also deeply hypocritical of Trump. Likewise, this can’t be about democracy, because there is no solid evidence that Maduro manipulated his election, while there is solid evidence that Trump has tried to manipulate US elections. The oil claims are totally nonsense, and the contested contracts Venezuela has with US oil companies do not justify the action at all, as they haven’t for nearly 20 years.

There is zero legal or logical justification for what Trump has done here. As such, there is only really one explanation for what is going on. Under Trump, the US is a colonial rogue state. It is illegally toppling governments and solidifying itself as an authoritarian leader over them, whilst stealing resources. Do not get me wrong, the US has done this kind of stuff before. Trump is just doing it with far more of a despotic flair. This is not something new, but a horrific evolution of US imperialism. When you look at it through that lens, this all makes sense. This is just the next step in the US’s ravenous demand for growth at all costs; it is the inevitable next step of unrestrained capitalism, where capital buys a violent dictator to enrich the 1% by robbing from the 99%, no matter what nation they call home. That is why so many see this illogical, illegal mess and think it all makes sense, because if you believe US capitalism makes sense, you have to believe this does too.

Well, there is another explanation. The same day that Maduro was abducted, the Department of Justice was legally required to explain the reason behind all the redactions in the recently released Epstein files, but didn’t. So this is either the horrific endgame of US capitalism, or a creepy old man desperately trying to hide his past sexual crimes by starting an illegal war. Or both. Two things can be true.

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Sources: Al Jazeera, NY Times, NPR, BBC, ACLU, Reuters, BBC, US Gov, Addiction Centre, NY Times, Globovision, Politico