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American Chinook aircraft and Apache helicopter gunships escorted Missiles struck military bases across Caracas, with explosions turning the night sky orange in Caracas.
Hours later, Donald Trump announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife had been “captured” and flown out of the country.
There were high-fives in the Oval Office, no doubt — and more praise for Trump from his followers, like Defense/War Secretary Peter Hegseth, who works more on public pull-ups than operational security, let alone strategic thinking.
What no one in the White House saw was that this invasion, this clear political beheading, this violation of international law, was strategically insane. Beyond the White House and Magalan, the only cheers will come from the Kremlin and Beijing.
There will be terror in NATO. But what is certain is that the NATO leadership’s attitude toward Trump and Hegseth will continue.
To do otherwise would be to admit that Donald Trump first turned the United States from a friend to an unreliable ally, and now, at the dawn of 2026, the United States under Trump has become a threat.
He said he would attack mainland Venezuela, and he did.
His claim to overthrow a narco-terrorist state that exports large amounts of opium to the United States and kills hundreds of thousands of its citizens is nonsense. Opioids enter the U.S. from Mexico, not Venezuela.
As a premise for regime change and invasion, it is as false as the claim that Saddam Hussein is building nuclear weapons. The invasion of the country unleashed decades of suffering and murder, terror and chaos, giving birth to the so-called Islamic State. It has also torn at the fabric of Western democracies, as some have torn apart morals and their own laws to hunt down so-called terrorists.
Now, Trump is attacking neighboring countries without any international support. He imitated the behavior of his great hero and friend Vladimir Putin.
He has also, like Putin, politicized the military and intelligence services in an attempt to undermine the independence of the judiciary and advance the interests of a handful of oligarchs.
The Russian president invaded Ukraine in 2014. He falsely claimed that Russian speakers were oppressed in the country. The Kremlin wants to take over all of its neighbors, and Trump is supporting its efforts to carve up the 20% it has captured.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping once again threatened Taiwan in his New Year’s address, saying: “The reunification of the motherland is the trend of the times and is unstoppable.”
China also held large-scale military exercises off the coast of Taiwan. In the Trump era, the “trend of the times” is that power is always right.
He has repeatedly said Canada should be annexed. He did not rule out using force to seize Greenland’s mineral resources. He insisted that “sooner or later” it would become part of the United States.
These are NATO countries (Greenland is part of Denmark).
His bizarre threats to neighbors and allies might be dismissed as the ramblings of a crazy boy or the sarcastic asides of a diplomatic saboteur.
But they’re not kidding. Despite Trump’s many lies and rants, his threats and ambitions have been delivered. His fantasy of turning Gaza into a seaside resort on Lake Ghazi may yet come true.
His national security strategy says the four NATO countries will soon be overwhelmed by “non-European countries.” In addition to being a racist trope for “Great Replacement” conspiracy theorists (later Nazis), it’s also completely wrong.
But he now divided the world into three realms: the Western Hemisphere was under his control; Russia can own Europe; the rest is China.
It is now clear, as Yeats wrote in second coming“, “The center cannot be maintained; only anarchy remains in the world.”
Western leaders should be mindful of what happens when “the dark tide of blood is unleashed”—what happens when “the best lack all faith.”
Now is the time for Europe to stand up – but it will continue to stand by as the bloody tide rises around its ankles.