Donald Trump has clearly been targeting Venezuela with strikes against alleged drug boats by our military.
According to estimates, with the USS Gerald R. Ford recently sent to that theater, roughly 15% of our naval capabilities are in the area.
Trump already admitted that he had greenlit a CIA operation on Venezuelan soil, but it now appears as though his true purpose has been revealed.
When Trump admitted that he approved CIA operations in Venezuela, it caught everyone off guard. My first question was, why would he ever reveal that information and possibly put operatives at risk?
Trump then stated, “We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control.”
It was not long after that statement from Trump that Venezuela then said it had captured mercenaries who were working for the CIA.
Venezuela claimed the mercenaries were planted to create a “false flag” operation to give Trump the justification he was looking for to launch a land attack against the country. To be honest, this was more or less expected after Trump announced the CIA operation.
As the days progressed, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida was asked about Trump’s strikes and his stance on President Maduro in Venezuela.
Scott stated, "If I was Maduro, I'd head to Russia or China right now.”
While he did not give up any direct information, he stated that “something’s gonna happen,” whether it takes the form of an attempt to overthrow the government from within or an attack from outside forces.
The implication seemed fairly clear that this administration was likely planning something designed to overthrow Maduro, someone it does not recognize as the leader of the country.
Trump seems ready to move on Maduro based on all the information above, and he has not shied away from his plans on this front.
During his 60 Minutes interview this past weekend, Trump stated, “They’ve been treating us very badly, not only on drugs. They’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of people into our country that we didn’t want -- people from prisons.”
Trump continued, “They emptied their prisons into our country. They also, if you take a look, they emptied their mental institutions and their insane asylums into the United States of America.”
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado would be the likely successor to Maduro if the current regime were removed, and she is convinced that the moment Maduro is gone, “hundreds of thousands” of Venezuelans will come pouring back into the country. My guess is that if Trump does make a move on Maduro, a deal has already been struck with Machado to take back all of the migrants that crossed into this country illegally from Venezuela. That could be Trump’s reasoning for trying to oust Maduro, if he does follow through with this threat.
