“You don’t get our oil. Says fucking who? We will come in and we will…. We will kill all of you. Our military will come in and wipe out your regime and we’ll take your oil.” Nick Fuentes, America First

“You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in the real world that is governed by strength it is governed by power….We are in charge…. we set the terms and conditions… For them to be able to run their economy, they need our permission… This is foundational: The United States is using its military unapologetically to assert our interests in our hemisphere. We’re a superpower, and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a super power.” Stephen Miller, Trump policy advisor.

“What comes next? I don’t know.” Republican Representative and Trump sycophant Jim Jordan.

These three comments about sum up the state of affairs in the White House and in Trump’s cult, the Republican Party. We have actual Nazi types in and around the administration who have no idea what will be their next step. The only thing to be added is the fact that the CEO of the administration is a vicious sociopath with the emotional maturity of an eight year old. That is what has brought us to Trump’s special military operation, which won’t stop in Venezuela – not overseas and not at home.

“Los Chapitos” – El Chapo’s sons. Under a deal cut by Trump, they will be running the distribution of drugs through Chicago.

Drugs
Occasionally, Trump and his toadies will waffle on about “Maduro the narco-terrorist” but that is just for legal/Constitutional cover. There are only six people in the whole country who will even pretend to take that seriously: The six Trump Supreme Court (in)Justices when the case reaches them. Some now are pointing out the hypocrisy of Trump claiming to oppose the import of illegal drugs after he pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted of helping smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

The talk about ending the illegal drug trade is a fraud because the Trump administration has worked out a plea bargain with the sons of “El Chapo”, who was the head of the Sinaloa cartel (more accurately a “mini state”). Under that deal, “Los Chapitos”, who are his sons and a few other relatives, were released into the witness protection program in Chicago, which is the hub for importing and distributing drugs throughout the country. Through that deal, the Trump administration chose the winners for control of the Sinaloa mini-state, thereby regulating and controlling the flow of illegal drugs. Anybody who doesn’t think that Trump won’t be raking off his share of the profits is living in a dream world.

The talk of ending the illegal drug trade is also delusional because where there is demand there will be supply. And in the U.S. culture, which is based on consumerism, alienation, and immediate gratification of the most base desires, demand for stimulation – any stimulation – will inevitably include demand for chemical stimulation, including alcohol and both legal and illegal drugs.

Oil
On his January 5 flight back from his home at Mar-a-Lago to the Airbnb in Washington DC where he stays from time to time (the White House), Trump couldn’t stop talking about oil and Venezuela. In fact, he said that he’d consulted with oil executives before and after the raid on Venezuela. Not congress, the oil executives! Sycophant Lindsay Graham tried to change the subject by mentioning drugs, but like a six year-old child whose eyes have fixed on a shiny new toy, Trump was not to be distracted.

However, it’s not about oil in the immediate sense.

Oil experts agree that it will be impossible to get much oil flowing anytime soon. That’s partly because the Chavez/Maduro administration has allowed the physical infrastructure to decay and it will take years to tear down and/or rebuild the rigs. (The decay is not simply due to US sanctions as Venezuelan anti-Chavez/Maduro socialist Simón Rodríguez shows. Oil companies will also require legal guarantees in Venezuela so that they know their investments will be safe. All of this will take years.
It is only about oil in this sense: Trump has thrown his lot in with the oil, gas and coal industries in trying to stop the development of renewable energy supplies (mainly solar and wind right now). Towards that end he wants to help them lock up presently known oil deposits for future production. We should think about what that says about the mentality of the president.

“Super imperialism”
What Stephen Miller expressed about “our continent” has a precedent first proposed over 100 years ago which has been developed since then: In 1910 supposed Marxist theoretician Rudolf Hilferding proposed a theory that the world would be peacefully divided up by a few main “super imperialist” powers. Then WW I broke out and the world found out how peaceful that division of the world would be. More recently, the Russian ideological equivalent of Stephen Miller, Aleksandr Dugin, has proposed a similar concept – Eurasianism. Workers, including socialists, should familiarize themselves with Dugin because his ideas are just as “foundational” as are those of

left: Yockey; right Dugin, both fascists. Trump & Miller propose the corollary to their view.

Stephen Miller. Eurasianism was first conceived by fascist Francis Parker Yockey in the interwar period. Yockey proposed that all of Europe was one whole under the control of Germany. Dugin resurrected the idea to mean that Russia would be the central power. Trump and Miller have accepted that view and taken the next logical step: If Europe belongs to Russia, then the Atlantic – from Greenland to Canada on down to Argentina – belongs to the United States. The inescapable corollary is that the Western Pacific belongs to China.

This division of the world will be decided just as peacefully as it was in 1914 and then again in 1939, except it will be far worse this time. Ukrainian Youtube commentator Denys Davidov makes a serious point: If no non-nuclear country can rely on any other country to protect itself from invasion, then all countries must get “nukes”. This was the argument made for the USSR getting nukes, an argument even Oppenheimer was sympathetic to. Already a series of countries are moving towards securing “nukes” under the guise of developing nuclear energy.

Venezuela
As far as Venezuela itself, the Wall St. Journal editorial board calls on Trump “Don’t settle for Maduro 2.0”. They propose the US should convene elections to get Machado into office. Stephen Miller disagrees. He explains that the military will not accept her. But the new president, Delcy Rodríguez, faces problems of her own. The WSJ explains that she is performing a “delicate balancing act” alternately striking defiant and conciliatory notes towards the U.S. They report she said, “We prioritize moving toward balanced and respectful international relations between the United States and Venezuela, premised on sovereign equality and noninterference.” Her problem is that the Venezuelan military high command will not willingly give up their control over what remains of the oil industry, with all the loot that goes with it.

Some reports are that Trump is so vain that he didn’t put Maria Machado into power because he’s jealous that she accepted “his” peace prize. It’s entirely possible!

In any case, the Washington Post reports that people close to Trump say that he was angry at Machado for having accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. “If she had turned it down and said, “I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one informant said.

Trump, Miller et al are threatening to send “boots on the ground” into Venezuela, and they may yet do so, maybe initially just around the oil infrastructure. What will be the reaction in Venezuela?

One possibility is that the military tops will fight it and draw in the local armed “colectivos”. The US military will respond with the same brutality as has been used by Irael in Gaza or Russia in Ukraine. That is especially true since both Trump and his Secretary of War (appropriately named) Pete Hegseth have denounced any limitations on the “rules of engagement” that previous administrations have called for. It is impossible to know what would be the reaction throughout Latin America and beyond, but it could be mass riots and the sacking of US embassies.

For the present, however, according to Mary Mena (CNN, 1/4/2026), the mood is one of “worry and concern and many people feel that it is unfair for the United States who have done what they did.” According to somebody I know in Mexico City, there is a similar mood, with many feeling “well, maybe this will get rid of the drug cartels”. And so far here in the US, there have been protests but not a mass movement.

Russia and China
In 2024, China had $8.5 billion in foreign direct investment into Latin America. Russia also has a base of operations in the region. Neither will willingly surrender their investments and influence in Latin America. But overall, both Xi and Putin are thrilled – Putin because he has the perfect answer to the critics of his imperialist invasion of Ukraine, and Xi for the same reason regarding his coming invasion of Taiwan. And as for Chinese imperialism, if the trade-off is control of Venezuelan oil for control over Taiwan’s manufacture of computer chips, that’s a deal they’ll take in a hearbeat.

Future invasions
Serial killers often resist the urge for years, but when they kill once then the resistance breaks down and their serial murders are underway. So it is with Trump and company. Within a day or two of his special military operation in Venezuela, a member of his administration was threatening to take over Greenland, and Miller himself told CNN’s Jake Tapper “nobody’s gonna fight the United States military over Greenland.” A U.S. takeover of Greenland, which is controlled by fellow-NATO member Denmark, would shatter NATO. This would give a green light to Putin to attack NATO countries, possibly starting with Estonia. Other similar actions are in the cards.

Under George Bush the neoconservatives got to apply their theory that the U.S. didn’t need allies because nobody could stand up to U.S. military might in Iraq. It led to disaster for both Iraqis and for the US. Miller et al represent the neocons 2.0, with one revision: In Iraq, the US dismantled the entire military and civil service under its “de-Baathification” program. (The Baath was Hussein’s political party.) Miller et al plan to rule through the current regime. How that will work is anybody’s guess.

Cubans and Venezuelans in the United States
The NY Times reports that last spring Trump initiated discussions over taking action against Maduro with Marco Rubio and then Stephen Miller. That was around the time that Trump’s poll ratings were declining over the economy and also the Epstein scandal. As for Rubio and Miller, they have overlapping but slightly different concerns. Rubio wanted to shore up his base among Florida’s Venezuelan and Cuban (and Cuban-American) refugees. Miller had the idea that if the US went to war with Venezuela he could use the Alien Enemies Act to round up and deport all Venezuelan refugees. Leaving the Venezuelan regime intact won’t satisfy the Venezuelan refugees, but Trump and Rubio don’t really care because most of the Venezuelans aren’t citizens so they can’t vote. As for the Cuban-Americans, as long as Venezuela’s ties with Cuba are severed they will be somewhat satisfied, but they won’t be fully satisfied until Trump and company invade Cuba. In addition to his plans for Greenland, Trump has indicated that Cuba is in his sights.

Domestic politics
Foreign and domestic policy are but expressions of each other. If a US citizen commits a crime against the citizen of another country within the US, this government would never allow the government of that country to go into the US and snatch that US citizen. Not in a million years. This shows the enormous arrogance of US capitalism. And then, on top of that, to list as one of the crimes that Maduro possessed machine guns… in his own country! 

As for Trump himself, after he lost the 2020 election, he floated the idea of declaring martial law and seizing the voting machines. His attorney general at the time, Bill Barr, put the kibosh on that. Pam Bondi will do no such thing. The incentive will be especially great since Mamdani has become NYC mayor. Trump will have been watching Mamdani’s extremely effective inaugural speech and will have been both jealous and concerned. It was barely more than 24 hours after that speech that Trump pulled the trigger on the strike on Venezuela. (The claim that they were waiting for a weather window is a lie since any such action prefers to be hidden by bad weather.) However, according to the NY Times and others, what really set Trump off was Maduro dancing on TV. Trump was angry that Maduro would thumb his nose at him.
Then there is Stephen Miller. Reading his words only gives part of a sense of who he is. You really have to listen to him. One gets the feeling of being at a Nazi rally in Germany in the 1930s, he’s that insane. It seems certain that he’s read Mein Kampf and has absorbed and believes in every word. This is the person who according to the Washington Post “has been given an elevated role” in running Venezuela. Just as Rubio has taken on several responsibilities, so will Miller.

MAGA is splitting over this, with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and a few others opposing this step towards a new “forever war”. Also, Tulsi Gabbard has been pushed to the sideline and we don’t know how long she is for this administration. None of that will deter Trump. On the contrary, it will spur him forward both abroad and at home as he must assert “full scale dominance” (as they said in Iraq).

In other words, it would have been oaky if Trump had gone to congress first.

Given this situation, the Democrats’ “resistance” is pathetic at best. Chuck Schumer sent out the message that he and his fellow Democrats are “very, very, just totally, totally troubled, worried.” That will really cause Trump and Miller to tremble in their boots!

In fact, Bernie Sanders is hardly any better. He sent out an email calling for his supporters to remain “smart, disciplined and focused”. He reassured people that “the struggle we’re in will not be easy, but keep the faith. We will win.” In other words, steady as she goes, stay the course in the tremendous storms ahead.

The socialist left is represented by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), to which Mamdani belongs. On the one hand, DSA supports the Maduro government and also gives cover to Putin’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine and calls for the conditions under which the invasion will fully succeed. On the other, they issued a statement calling for “peace, multilateralism, and respect for national sovereignty and self determination,” to which Miller has already said “you can talk about those international niceties all you want, but what matters is power.”

Mamdani himself is probably caught up in getting his administration on line, but inevitably he will have to take a clear stand. As opposed to DSA, Mamdani does not live in the socialist echo chamber. He has to keep in mind the views of Cubans and Venezuelans – as well a millions of others – in New York. As a result he has (somewhat reluctantly) criticized both the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes. However, he is somewhat limited by the fact that he has not attacked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which is no different in principle from Trump’s special military action in Venezuela. Hopefully, he will rectify that silence in the near future as well as decisively criticize Trump’s action and help build a movement against both.

General political conclusions
Even a year ago, much of this might have sounded alarmist. It still might to some. They should wake up from their slumber and take a sober look at the actual facts.

Trump was elected in the first place due to the crisis in the U.S. working class. That crisis has been developing over 80 years or longer. An important leader in creating that crisis has been the US union bureaucracy. Along with their capitalist big brother, ever since WW II they devoted themselves to crushing the best traditions of the US working class and the labor movement. Those traditions include working class solidarity, open defiance of the courts, a struggle for working class independence through an independent working class party, and socialism. In its place the union bureaucracy has substituted “think only of yourself” selfishness, cowardly compliance, and collaboration with the bosses at work and in politics and complete subservience to capitalism in deed and word. The result has been a broad alienation from the unions within the rank and file as well as some members taking the bureaucracy’s word to its logical conclusion and voting for Trump. For more more on the crisis in the US working class, see: Labor Day 2025 and the threat of martial law

That crisis of the working class is not limited to the United States. Above, we reported on what we have heard about the mood in Venezuela and Mexico. We should also consider the implications of recent elections in Latin America.

Right wing candidates have been getting elected in Latin America from Argentina (Milei) to Chile (José Antonio Kast) to Paraguay (Santiago Peña). That is why the Wall St. Journal editorial board confidently calls for elections in Venezuela. This shows the failure of the left reformists that had represented a rising tide throughout the continent previously.

One hundred years ago, Leon Trotsky summarized the history of capitalism in the former colonial world with his theory of permanent (or uninterrupted) revolution. That summary/theory applies perfectly to Venezuela as this article shows. Socialism is internationalism if it is anything. The socialist movement cannot provide anything real as long as it continues to ignore these lessons and, even worse, supports corrupt dictators like Maduro. The alternative to opposing US imperialism is not supporting dictorships wherever they may be and whether they are aligned with the US or Russia or China; it is international working class solidarity.

The United States has seen a rebirth of socialst ideas, with over 60% of those under 30 liking socialism. Meanwhile, the broader working class will be forced to reassess some of their ideas and action (and also inaction). The stormy period ahead will provide fertile soil for combining and applying in action true international working class solidarity with working class political independence and socialism not just for holiday speechifying but in the real, everyday struggle. 

Slightly over 100 years ago, Trotsky wrote: “History says to the working class, ‘You must know that unless you cast down the bourgeoisie, you will perish beneath the ruins of civilization. Try, solve this task!’”

Further reading:
Aleksandr Dugin: Alchemist of “Traditionalism”, mystecism and fascism 

Venezuela, the theory of permanent revolution and the role of the working class   

Simon Rodriguez: “Why did Chavismo fail?”

Simon Rodriguez on the Sao Paolo Forum

Labor Day 2025 and the threat of martial law

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