President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have noted that following the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, the remaining government is being pressured to realign their positions and accept a change in direction. It is always tenuous when the leader of a hostile foreign government is removed.

The current approach by the Trump administration is to permit former Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to continue operating the mechanisms within the country to retain near-term stability. The CIA assessed Delcy Rodriquez was the interim ruler who could keep order.

Prior to the removal of Maduro, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, was asked by the Trump administration to provide a detailed summary of how she could form a functioning government, should she be assisted to power.

Machado’s response did not provide confidence that her strategy was comprehensive enough. Therefore, the Trump administration assessed the best interim approach would be to continue working with the remaining Maduro government officials, led by Delcy Rodriquez, while pressuring them to follow the instructions of the United States.

Various geopolitical powers, including many that attend Mar-a-Lago functions, want Maria Corina Machado installed quickly. President Trump and Secretary Rubio are being more measured in their approach. The powers that want Machado installed are now working on a media strategy. Sean Hannity is enlisted for the assist.

The issue is one of competency and chaos.  President Trump and Secretary Rubio do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past (Bush/Powell, Iraq or Obama/Clinton, Libya).  The Venezuela issue is entirely different from the Middle East, but the same type of chaos can reemerge if the transition from authoritarianism to representative democracy is not well managed.

The Sea Island attendees support a quick Machado installation.  Trump/Rubio prefer to proceed with more caution, especially because someone is going to be on the hook for financial support to Venezuela, because the domestic rewards from any expanded oil revenue are at least 5 to 10 years away.

Changing the regime in Venezuela may break China’s ‘belt and road’ grip, but China’s money is going to need to be replaced with independent domestic economic wealth for the Venezuelan people.  That process takes time.

Maria Corina Machado is supported by all the same networks who support Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  Despite the twinkles in the eyes of senators within the Foreign Relations Committee, we don’t want Venezuela to become North America’s largest Somali daycare operation.

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White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller appears on CNN to respond to Jake Tapper’s concerns about America being successful in the operation to capture Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Tapper’s furrowed brow deepens with each of Miller’s statements which outline the current status.  Mr. Miller explains how the acting Venezuelan government has acquiesced to the demands of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Tapper has difficulty accepting that a new strategic and targeted approach by the Trump administration could have such success.  WATCH:

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According to the latest news from the government of Cuba, two days of official mourning have been declared as they announce 32 members of the Cuban military and Intelligence services were killed in Venezuela while protecting Nicolas Maduro.  There were no American fatalities.

REUTERS – HAVANA, Jan 4 (Reuters) – The Cuban government said on Sunday that 32 of its citizens were killed during the U.S. raid on Venezuela to extract President Nicolas Maduro for prosecution in the United States.

Havana said there would be two days of mourning on January 5 and 6 in honor of those killed and said funeral arrangements would be announced.

The Cuban government statement gave few details but said all the dead were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies.

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Once again giving context to the immediate reaction from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum following the operation to exfiltrate Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, during the return flight to Washington DC President Trump spoke about how President Sheinbaum is “a little afraid” of the cartels in Mexico.

When asked about his previous offer to have the U.S. military intervene in the drug and human trafficking operations within Mexico, President Trump said, “I would say every single time I’ve talked to her I’ve offered to send troops.” Following up with, “she’s concerned, she’s a little afraid, the cartels are running Mexico. Whether you like it or not, the cartels are running Mexico.”  WATCH:

This is not just an ordinary off-the-cuff statement when you consider the ramifications. There is no closer geographic nation to the mainland United States other than Mexico, and President Trump is being brutally honest in his statement that Mexican President Sheinbaum is afraid of the cartels.  The cartels run the Mexican government.

Mexican residents living in the United States and sending money back to Mexico are a major economic driver of Mexico’s GDP.  Currently the best estimate of GDP is that personal remittances make up around 4% of their domestic economy.  The United States sent $62.5 billion dollars in remittances to Mexico in 2024, 96.6% of the total received by the country. 47% of remittances from the United States to Mexico are sent from California and Texas [source].

The remittances essentially subsidize the average Mexican family, while the illegal cartel income is estimated around $12 billion annually [source].   The total Mexican GDP is around $1.7 trillion [source], Canada is roughly $2.4 trillion, the United States is around $30 trillion.

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Well, this is what happens when the far left takes power, even on a municipal level.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed Cea Weaver as the Director of the City Office to Protect Tenants. Presumably, a position intended to stand behind the rights of housing tenants against the property owner. However, Ms. Weaver has some remarkable views on private property and home ownership.

In this video clip below you will notice Ms. Weaver outline how homeowners will need to modify their view on their property ownership to reflect a new municipal perspective that considers all individually owned property to be part of a new collective property viewpoint as controlled by city government.

NYC Mayor Mamdani’s Tenant Director, Cea Weaver:

“We’ll transition from treating property as an individual good to a collective good. Whites especially will be impacted.” pic.twitter.com/RZSdCs8oEa

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 5, 2026

“For centuries we really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good, in transitioning into treating it as a collective good and towards the model of shared equity … it will mean that families, especially White families … are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”

It is likely that Mayor Mamdani and Director Weaver are going to run into some stiff legal opposition as they try to reimagine a world where individuals are not allowed to own property.

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Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman, Tom Cotton, appears on CBS with Margaret Brennan to discuss reaction to the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the current status of Venezuela and the longer-term ramifications.  Video and Transcript Below:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton. Good to have you here. Senator.

SEN. TOM COTTON: Thanks, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have oversight of the intelligence community which was deeply involved in this operation to go into Venezuela militarily and extract Nicholas Maduro and his wife. Does the US still assess that the regime in Venezuela is made up of Narco terrorists with ties to Iran, Russia, China and Cuba?

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears on CBS Face the Nation to counter the insufferable narrative of Margaret Brennan on the topic of Venezuela. WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin today with Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who joins us this morning from Miami. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: Good morning. Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Trump said that the United States will run the country and that Venezuela will be largely run by, he pointed to you and some of the other cabinet members when he spoke to the public yesterday. He said, The U.S. retains all military options, including boots on the ground until U.S. demands have been fully met. How do you plan to run the country?

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Many on the political left, and even a few on the political right, are having fits about President Trump authorizing the operation to capture Venezuela president and narcotrafficker Nicolas Maduro without any congressional notification.

Several House members attempted to frame the issue as Trump acting as a dictator. A few called attention to the lack of the Gang of Eight being notified, and even some Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee were concerned with the military deployment without advance notice.

If a covert intelligence operation was deployed, the President would sign a “finding memo” generally notifying the Gang of Eight, but that doesn’t apply in this instance.

President Trump remarked a concern with leaks was an element, saying that Congress has “a tendency to leak,” which he said could have produced “a very different result.”  However, Secretary Marco Rubio was purposefully clear in his statement about the operation.

“This is not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night,” Rubio said later at a Mar-a-Lago news conference.  “Remember, at the end of day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American justice, and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job. Now there are broader policy implications here, but it’s just not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission,” he said.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton affirmed after discussion with Rubio, “Congress doesn’t need to be notified ever time the executive branch is making an arrest. And that’s exactly what happened this morning in Venezuela, and now Maduro is going to come to the United States, and he’s going to face justice.”

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Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his arrested wife, Cilia Flores, landed at Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, New York late Saturday afternoon.

The couple have been charged with narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses. [INDICTMENT HERE] Maduro and Flores are likely to be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, to be housed after being processed by the DEA.

DEA officers escorted Maduro for his customary perp walk through the airport as video and photographs were taken.

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(VIA AP) – […] The middle-of-the-night seizure of Maduro and his wife, who were transported on a U.S. warship and arrived in New York on Saturday evening to face narcoterrorism conspiracy charges, is beyond even the most high-profile historical examples of aggressive American actions toward autocratic governments in Panama, Iraq, and beyond, legal experts said. It came after a surprise U.S. incursion into the Venezuelan capital, rocked with overnight explosions.

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Speaking to Fox News this morning, President Trump answers questions about the Delta Force operation that captured Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro is currently aboard the USS Iwo Jima.  WATCH:

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