Trump’s Regime began 2026 by attacking Venezuela and forcibly removing President Nicolas Maduro to bring him to the United States to stand trial.
Three big concerns rise in my thinking regarding this travesty.
- Trump manipulated news and events to create a crisis with Venezuela by attacking boats without evidence. He killed people without due process to provide political cover for attacking another nation.
- Calling the use of the military ‘law enforcement’ to attack another nation and abduct their president without consulting Congress are actions which are manifestly illegal.
- That Trump did this to bring someone to trial for drug trafficking after pardoning someone convicted of doing the same, Juan Orlando Hernández — the former Honduran president — .
Many other concerns arise in the wake of Trump’s military action, but I’m limiting my reflections for now. What he’s done angers me. Republicans apparently support this, without evidence, dismaying me and my belief in our checks and balances system.
The GOP likes to label themselves as the ‘law-and-order’, so they support Trump’s supposed arrest of this dictator. Yet, recent history paints the GOP as anything but law and order. One prominent example is the events of January 6, 2021.
Trump and other Republicans have called referred to January 6 protestors as peaceful or patriots. During that protest, government buildings were damaged, the peaceful protestors attacked Capitol Police officers, and the protestors threatened lawmakers and disrupted the process to certify the election results, all to keep Trump in office after he’d lost the 2020 elections.
So I have a jaundiced view of the GOP’s interpretation of law or order. Trump’s attack on Venezuela further undermines the GOP’s law and order stance. Trump is attempting to justify his attack on another nation as citing stories from Colorado about gang activity. Other than those gangs being Venezuelans, his claims aren’t germane. They’re political spin to give cover for what he did. He’s trying to conflate scary ideas about gang violence with international drug trafficking. The two matters are not legally related.
Right wing blogs are also working hard to give Trump cover. First they denigrate ‘the left’s’ reactions, predicting that people who aren’t right-wing or conservatives will begin declaring the Venezuelan ‘dictator’ is a saint. It’s amusing that they declare President Maduro to be a dictator.
The rising hypocrisy appalls me. People declaring Maduro to be a dictator that needed to be remove cite that he’s blocked, weakened, or bypassed legislation. Under Maduro’s rule, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice has persecuted and imprisoned political opposition. People argue, this damages a key pillar of democracy — judicial independence.
Critics further claim, Maduro harassed and threatened the press and freedom of expression. Crackdowns with security forces were ordered against protestors. Maduro’s police force often detained demonstrators.
Finally, the checks and balances provided by the government’s structure has been diluted as power has been consolidated in the executive branch.
Let’s contrast those actions with Trump’s 2025 actions. Trump threatened to revoke networks’ licenses because they were broadcasting news unfavorable to Trump. With pressure from Trump, comedian Jimmy Kimmel was suspended from his role as a late-night host because Kimmel’s comments offended Trump.
Trump sued or threatened to sue media outlets, including the BBC; New York Times; CBS, Paramount, and Sixty Minutes; the Washington Post; ABC News; and CNN. There’s been no mirror condemnation by those critics of President Maduro over Trump’s actions.
Trump deployed ICE and National Guard units against protestors in Los Angeles, Portland (OR), Chicago, and Washington D.C., among others. Protestors have been detained.
Trump also had immigrants arrested and departed by his declaration they’re illegal without judicial overview. Some early cases involving these cases found his administration caught lying to the courts and ignoring court orders. Please explain to me how this doesn’t weaken the judicial oversight needed for a strong democracy.
Finally, Trump pushed executive actions to bypass congressional or judicial oversight (e.g., unilateral actions around ICE, immigration, media lawsuits). He ordered the DOJ and federal agencies to launch investigations into James Comey and Letitia James that were clearly political. Those cases were dismissed.
If you think about the right-wing’s complaints about Maduro, it’s hard to understand why they like and support Trump.
Michael Seidel, writer 