The Trump Administration’s Military Buildup Near Venezuela Makes War Seem Inevitable

As the Donald Trump administration engages in its seventh unconstitutional airstrike against Venezuela, we should be prepared for yet another military conflict started by our government for no legitimate reason. Though no evidence has been presented that any of the targets were trafficking narcotics, besides for us to trust the same intelligence community that has lied to us several times and is somehow telling the truth this time, Congress has also not declared war or given the president permission to engage in conflict (Article I Section 8 gives this power exclusively to Congress). Even the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which was set to limit the ability of the president from engaging in unlimited conflict (not give a blank check to engage anywhere and for any reason), only authorizes sixty days of actions (and thirty days of withdrawal) without a declaration of war (or other form of congressional approval), but President Trump has made it clear that this is just the beginning of his anti-terrorist operations in South America. He seemingly plans to violate both the Constitution and the War Powers Act and engage in as many military strikes as he desires (he is the king after all, and we mere peasants just have to put up with it).

Senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff, and Rand Paul have attempted to restrain the president’s power by forcing a vote on the matter, but unfortunately, since it is Republicans’ turn to trash the Constitution and allow for dictatorial powers to reign supreme in order to push their agendas, we have no such luck. As Rand Paul said, “The American people do not want to be dragged into endless war with Venezuela without public debate or a vote.” Yet, that is exactly what Republicans now want, including those who cried that President Joe Biden was engaging in war against Russia in Ukraine (each party takes turns embracing war and then opposing it depending on if they are in power or not, and there is never any consistency). But hey, that is just politics, right? We would not want to have any principles in our policies. Just blindly do what Donald Trump tells you, or for Democrats, agree with everything that Biden does. Never think independently.

Of course, just as during the Cold War, the United States engaged in coup attempts around the world to stop the spread of communism, and after the September 11^th attacks, we tried to hunt down those Islamic terrorists by drone striking seven (plus) countries and engaging in two active hot conflicts. We must now embrace the crusade against the new evil doers: the drug cartels. As the president said, “We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea. Now we’ll stop it by land.”

In the past, presidents have denied covert operations in foreign countries, and the documents proving it would come out much later, but in this case, we have an admittance that the United States is (or is about to start) utilizing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to topple the Nicolas Maduro regime. This is how dumbed down the American populace has become. They used to lie to us about it, but now, officials can say it in the open, and nobody will care. Yup, the Trump administration is engaging in regime change in Venezuela, and everyone will just go about their nine-to-five lives without a care in the world or any curiosity about why many countries around the world despise the American military and its imperialistic ways (after all, who makes it to the Super Bowl is, of course, way more important than our taxpayer dollars being used for nefarious purposes overseas).

And now, the Trump administration has built up an invasion force of 10,000 troops (including 4,500 Navy and Marines members) stationed in the Caribbean Sea to threaten the Maduro regime (many of these are based in Puerto Rico or in ships). It has also deployed three guided-missile destroyers, a submarine, a special operations ship, a guided missile cruiser, P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft, ten F-35 fighter jets, three MQ-9 reaper drones, MH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, MH-6 Little Bird attack helicopters, and an AC-130J Ghostrider (an aircraft meant to support ground troops, indicating that an invasion may soon be near). Between August 15 and October 15, over 200 military flights were conducted in the region by eighty-three aircraft (including intelligence-gathering craft), and President Trump ordered B-52 bomber airplanes to fly circles just off of Venezuela’s coast for a sustained period of hours (would you tolerate Russia or China flying jets off of the Carolina coast or near New York City or Boston?).

Is this not what the Biden administration claimed that Russia was doing to Ukraine right before that invasion (amassing troops along the border)? Yet, here we are, except that the tables are turned and the United States is the undisputed aggressor. If you cannot see the parallels from history, perhaps you need to do some research on how propaganda works and stop being so trusting of the government. Pushing narratives that the Islamic terrorists were going to come get us after the 9-11 event is exactly how the powers that be dragged us into war for over twenty years in the Middle East, and the same is seemingly going to happen here. Just wait for some news headline that drug cartels bombed some building in the United States or committed some other terrorist act so that the Trump administration can then justify sending in the troops that are currently at Venezuela’s doorstep (another false flag event is likely).

This military buildup and destruction of boats has nothing to do with drugs or criminals, as officials have claimed, and it is completely about getting rid of Maduro, and American intelligence has made efforts to link the Venezuelan government with the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), which may or may not even be a real organization and may just simply be the propaganda term to link a bunch of loose networks together to provide fake evidence of state-sponsored narco-terrorism. Since the United States has been attempting to secure Venezuelan oil rights since the George W. Bush administration (and under Trump’s first term, where there was a failed coup attempt, and even Biden left Trump’s recognition of Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader in place), it is no surprise that the moment has finally come where military action could occur.

Despite the United States actually experiencing a decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths (110,037 in 2023 to 80,391 in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though take it for what it is worth from that agency), President Trump is actually still using drugs as the excuse for an emergency declaration that gives himself the power to declare war on the cartels and destroy boats in foreign waters without any kind of due process or checks and balances. As Rand Paul said, “When you kill someone, you should know, if you’re not at war, not in a declared war, you really need to know someone’s name at least. You have to accuse them of something. You have to present evidence. So, all of these people have been blown up without us knowing their name, without any evidence of a crime.”

Let us assume that the Trump administration is correct and these boats were trafficking drugs. The alleged terrorists were hundreds of miles (maybe even two thousand miles) away from the Florida coast on the other side of Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Aruba, and Curacao. Not only could the United States government not know with certainty the destination of the boats, or what the boats were doing, but even if it did, it should keep border patrol units, the Coast Guard, the Navy, and any law enforcement wing near American territorial waters so that it could arrest the drug smugglers when they arrived (the American military certainly has the capability to stop a few boats from docking). Bombing supposed cartel members on the other side of the hemisphere takes the conflict to the next level, and it is illegal under international law and the Constitution (again, only Congress can authorize these types of strikes). In reality, President Trump is saying that his military has jurisdiction in any country, anywhere on earth, and the sovereignty of Venezuela does not matter. The United States has no problem intimidating the Maduro regime in order to coerce it into taking action against the cartels, and after numerous attempts to force compliance, the president may soon have the “justification” to rally the American people around the overthrow of yet another country.

If you have processed all of this information and still think that President Trump is simply protecting Americans from drugs, listen to what Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump believes that Nicholas Maduro is an illegitimate president, leading an illegitimate regime that has been trapped in drugs.” Even Trump was blunt and stated, “he [Maduro] doesn’t want to f*** around with the United States.” The emphasis of the justification for the bombings and troop deployments is because Maduro is an illegitimate leader, and the drugs is the secondary justification. The administration has made that clear to anyone who is not a blind or brainwashed Trump supporter (who will agree with every action of the president no matter how much it goes against his or her principles). With the president now looking to conduct airstrikes and bombings inside of Venezuela’s territory (on land), we are looking at a potentially prolonged war where the Trump administration will attempt to get its way.

And what about the political implications of these airstrikes, which have thus far killed thirty-two people? During one of the attacks, two Trinidadian men were killed (both of which were fisherman and not drug smugglers, leaving doubts that the boats that were blown up had anything to do with drugs), and what is surprising is that Trinidad and Tobago, which is an island nation that lies less than ten miles from Venezuela, has been supportive of President Trump’s efforts to take out the boats and even allowed for joint operations, but with recent events, who knows if that will hold. Additionally, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has also accused Trump of murdering a fisherman from his country in these strikes (again, raising doubts that the boat were full of drug smugglers), and Trump’s response to Petro’s criticism was to cut off foreign aid to Colombia, add economic sanctions (in the form of tariffs), and call that country’s president “an illegal drug leader” (though I am not upset about cutting off $400 million of taxpayer funds to another country, it is being done for political retribution and not on the principle of keeping money in the United States, and it now appears that President Trump will bail out Argentina with $20 billion, so there is certainly no net benefit to Americans). Now that the United States and Colombia, which formerly cooperated together in preventing drug trafficking, have had relations strained, it might raise the question of whether the latter country will join forces with Venezuela. Brazil has also been opposed to Trump’s actions in Venezuela, so tensions are heating up in South America.

At a time that we see the United States government march toward war or covert operations in Venezuela, opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (was this a coincidence or a planned move toward an agenda?), and in a speech following the announcement, she thanked Donald Trump (who just negotiated a flimsy peace agreement between Israel and Hamas). At the very least, this is putting fuel on the fire for the propaganda that Maduro is a brutal dictator who needs to be toppled (not that Maduro is a good leader or has not violated human rights, but he is one among many authoritarian leaders, most of which will not be touched because there are no natural resources that need to be controlled), and Machado’s work has been dedicated to the overthrow of the Venezuelan government (I do not mean to undermine her work or portray that she is in some way unworthy of the prize, but the timing of the award seems suspect, which may not be of any fault of hers). The Trump administration is building the case that the Maduro regime must be removed, even if it does not explicitly say that, and Americans need to choose whether they want to be manipulated into another war or would prefer the path to peace.

Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.