Snapshot: A Deeply Appalling Press Conference

It's worse than I thought. Trump plans to "run" Venezuela and does not pretend he cares about anything beyond taking the oil.

“A spectacular assault,” Trump said of the illegal attack on a sovereign nation from his club in Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle via Getty Images)

I thought it necessary to share a few brief thoughts after suffering through the press conference of Donald Trump along with his lawless sycophants Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio. This is a follow-up to my Saturday Prompt this morning largely focused on the regime’s illegal attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of Venezuela’s dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores.

Trump could not have been prouder of the deadly attack on this foreign nation, calling it “a spectacular assault…like people have not seen since World War II.” That was just the beginning of this lawless thug’s pleasures.

Multiple times he pledged that “we are going to run the country now”—then, without the slightest bit of irony or self-awareness, added that “it has to be judicious, because that’s what we’re all about.” Trump refused to say how long this would go on until there is a “safe transition” or offer details on how this would happen.

He also made clear—for anyone who might have imagined he had any real interest in the issue of the illegal drug trade or democracy—that he’s already planning on U.S. oil companies taking over Venezuela’s oil business. “We’ll be selling oil in large amounts to other countries,” Trump told a reporter, gleefully adding, this “would make a lot of money.”

This was no flippant remark. He had more detail about this, describing his readiness to pursue a larger military operation to ensure no one stands in the way.

"We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country, and we are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so," he said.

And how do other major powers view Trump’s reckless disregard for international law? China’s foreign ministry described it as a “blatant use of force” against a sovereign state and Russia’s foreign ministry called it an “unacceptable assault” on Venezuela’s sovereignty.

It should be no surprise that countries across Latin America are alarmed by Trump’s flagrant violations, including economically troubled Cuba that relies on Venezuelan oil. And the way that the criminal Trump was talking, there’s reason to wonder how soon he may expand these hostile invasions. In a Fox News interview earlier today, Trump complained about Mexican drug cartels and said that “something is gonna have to be done with Mexico.”

Let me be blunt: This is what happens when over 77 million Americans vote for such a lawless, reckless man, some 89 million choose to stay home, and John Roberts’ Supreme Court supermajority hands him near-total immunity. Every time one of these operations happen with limited pushback—despite requiring Congressional authorization—only convinces him to keep going.

“This is a president of action,” the obedient Secretary of State Rubio said, adding, “Don’t play games with this president…because it’s not going to turn out well.” Just last month Rubio lied in a Senate briefing that the pressure on Maduro was not about regime change.

One of the most chilling aspects of this sickening show was the closing comment of Pete Hegseth, the belligerent head of the regime’s aptly named War Department: “Welcome to 2026, and under President Trump, America is back.”

It only took three days for these toxic goons to ruin the new year. Yes, there is no bottom.

But we should take it as a call to arms—that Trump’s America is not our America, that on the 250th anniversary year of our nation’s founding we will not remain quiet or stay still as these thugs escalate their attack on the rule of law and our unbreakable commitment to democracy.

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