Gary Horton | 2026: Well, That Didn’t Take Long |
It didn’t take long for the new year to get interesting.
Donald Trump wasted no time asserting himself as the strong man of the world, allies and competitors be damned. And for better or worse, he’s dragging the rest of us along for the ride.
Still, I actually have two sincere compliments for Trump regarding his military takedown of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.
First, he picked a target few will mourn. Maduro was a despotic ruler, widely despised both internationally and by many Venezuelans themselves. Removing a dictator like that comes with political cover. It’s hard to defend a strongman who’s already hollowed out his own country.
Second, and more surprising, Trump was honest.
He said out loud what American presidents haven’t in recent memory. Once the fuzzy talk of drug boats and security threats was no longer required, he told us plainly why this happened: oil. Venezuela has the largest known oil reserves on Earth, and the United States intends to reclaim control of them.
No George W. Bush yellowcake uranium. No mobile weapons labs. No weapons of mass destruction. Just this: You have something we want, and we’re taking it because we can.
As cynical as that is, the candor is almost refreshing.
We’ve spent decades being sold wars wrapped in moral........