Weekend Report: What’s happening?

Trump bombs Venezuela, ‘captures’ Maduro. Bondi claims Maduro and wife will be tried for crimes, face trial in New York. Action without Congressional approval, as U.S. forces could be on the ground.

We all woke up with the stunning news that Donald Trump, a man in mental and physical decline, launched strikes on Venezuela, in and around Caracas. Trump also announced on social media that Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife had been captured. Maduro, though not his wife, Flores, had been indicted under Trump’s first administration in 2020 for drug smuggling. So this is being presented as a law enforcement issue. But make no mistake: The U.S. attacked a country unprovoked, without Congressional approval, after Trump had announced he wants “oil and land” just a few weeks ago.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a stunning announcement, said that Maduro and his wife Flores would stand trial in New York on drug smuggling conspiracy charges. Maduro, indicted in 2020—under the previous Trump administration—was charged in the Southern District of New York with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices. For his wife to be charged, there would have to have been a new indictment, but that remains unclear. We’ve seen no evidence of Maduro, as claimed by Trump engaged with gangs in drug smuggling, while Trump just pardoned the former Honduran president who was working with drug smugglers.

What happens next remains unclear, and this is all very early. As you read this, Trump will likely have spoken, set to speak at 11 ET. But some military experts point out that the U.S. had been trying to provoke regime change for months with a military buildup and airstrikes that killed dozens in boats alleged to be drug smugglers—but offering no proof. When that failed, Trump went for air strikes and abducting Maduro. But the Venezuelan government is still intact, and it may take American military on the ground to further weaken it.