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The Editorial Board
@editorialboard.bsky.social
John Stoehr is the editor of the Editorial Board. he/him. Subscribe: http://editorialboard.com.
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you cannot blockade a country and bomb its capital cities and capture its leader without being at war with it, is the thing
Are we at war with Venezuela?!?

I don't know. You don't know either.

It sure would be nice to have a legitimate Pentagon press corps right about now.
January 3, 2026 at 10:23 AM
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Paul Wolfowitz 2003: "The oil revenue of that country could bring between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the course of the next two or three years We're dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
January 3, 2026 at 5:47 PM
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At least they’re saying the quiet part out loud
January 3, 2026 at 5:43 PM
It is insane to say he's going to run another country while the people in his own country are getting mad about pretty much everything. Forget about hypocrisy. This is insane.
Q: Who will run Venezuela?

TRUMP: Well it's largely going to be for a period of time the people standing right behind me. We're gonna be running it.
January 3, 2026 at 5:33 PM
What Trump is doing to Venezuela is what he did to America. Details differ, but goals, ideology, rhetoric -- all the same.
January 3, 2026 at 5:27 PM
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this is just insane. I don’t have any other words for it
Trump: "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken 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."
January 3, 2026 at 5:12 PM
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Trump very openly saying the US will be governing Venezuela with the support of US oil companies
January 3, 2026 at 5:02 PM
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News: Gang of Eight in Congress were only notified about Trump's Venezuela operation after it began, source familiar tells me. That means the heads of the Intelligence Committees in Senate and House were *not* consulted. Just crazy.
January 3, 2026 at 3:06 PM
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Ok, so Canada can indict Trump for bribery, bomb Washington DC, and send the Mounties to round him up. It's that how this works?

This is effectively might makes right by Vance. The US does not have sovereign authority over foreign leaders.
Vance pushes back and says this was not illegal, arguing "Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don't get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas."
January 3, 2026 at 4:46 PM
Honestly, if I were a Canadian lawmaker, I'd be demanding a huge military build up on the southern border. If Trump can snatch Maduro, then say the US is gonna "run" his country, he can do that for any leader of any country. He's ALREADY making the same noise about Mexico. Why not Canada, too?
January 3, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Now that Trump says the US will "run" Venezuela, this thread is even more important than it already was.
Some thoughts on what Trump has done in Venezuela and what it might mean for US national security. Caveat: not a Latin America scholar so this is focused on US policy. Clearly huge consequences for Venezuela that others can address.

First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it.

1/
January 3, 2026 at 5:04 PM
No one voted to colonize anything.
January 3, 2026 at 5:03 PM
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And no fentanyl mentioned… You know, the drug Americans have been murdering civilians over in the Caribbean…

The indictment only mentions cocaine…You know, the drug smuggled into America by former Honduran President, Hernández, who was pardoned by the pedo-criminal after actually smuggling cocaine
AG Pam Bondi says Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in SDNY.

Maduro was previously indicted in 2020 on federal charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.

Unclear what Flores is charged with.

Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Maduro 2020 indictment
www.documentcloud.org
January 3, 2026 at 3:21 PM
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Here is J.D. Vance's rationale for seizing Maduro. He says Trump "was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States." Very interesting, since the indictment says nothing whatever about oil, stolen or otherwise. /1
January 3, 2026 at 4:40 PM
It's really not hard to condemn this, even if you hate Maduro.

www.courant.com/2026/01/03/c...
Connecticut leaders condemn the surprise capture of Venezuela’s leader Maduro
Several Connecticut politicians are weighing in and condemning the U.S. special operation.
www.courant.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:40 PM
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It is illegal under United States law for foreign leaders to have machine guns.

🤡🤡🤡
January 3, 2026 at 3:32 PM
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It must be alarming to every head of state to learn that possessing machine guns in their own countries is reportedly now one of the grounds for the US to invade kidnap and imprison them.
January 3, 2026 at 3:22 PM
He's lying because he doesn't have the guts to tell America that he handed his balls to Trump.
Tom Cotton: "Congress isn't notified when the FBI is going to arrest a drug trafficker or cyber criminal here in the US, nor should Congress be notified when the executive branch is executing arrests on indicted persons. And that's really what you can make the analogy to here."
January 3, 2026 at 4:16 PM
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NEW: The anonymous "researcher" in Nick Shirley's viral "fraud" video--treated as a concerned citizen on Fox News and elsewhere--is actually a Minnesota state lobbyist and political activist who worked with a GOP House staffer to provide Shirley info/

theintercept.com/2026/01/03/m...
Unnamed Source in Viral Minnesota Somali Fraud Video Is Right-Wing Lobbyist Who Called Muslims “Demons”
David Hoch, who goes by his first name in Nick Shirley’s video allegedly exposing Somali fraud, referred to “demon Muslims” on social media.
theintercept.com
January 3, 2026 at 12:19 PM
He attacked Venezuela because you don't love him enough.

www.editorialboard.com/trump-drunk-...
Trump, drunk on power, tries forcing America to love him
Why he's saber-rattling over Venezuela.
www.editorialboard.com
January 3, 2026 at 4:14 PM
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Some thoughts on what Trump has done in Venezuela and what it might mean for US national security. Caveat: not a Latin America scholar so this is focused on US policy. Clearly huge consequences for Venezuela that others can address.

First, despite the buildup, I didn't think Trump would do it.

1/
January 3, 2026 at 2:37 PM
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Damn Times Ed board w the “I” word.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...
January 3, 2026 at 4:00 PM
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I had the pleasure of being in conversation with John Stoehr @editorialboard.bsky.social about the future of MAGA. Here's the first in a two part series, with short takes and cultural finds!

clairepotter.substack.com/p/this-is-th...
January 3, 2026 at 3:27 PM