Trump’s Venezuela Takeover Won’t Stop Overdoses in the U.S. |
In mid-August 2025, reports surfaced that a U.S. naval task force was being assembled in the Caribbean. Its rumored purpose was to counter a previously unrecognized Venezuelan “narco-terrorist” threat to the US. Within a few months, it included the largest U.S. aircraft carrier, 10 other warships, 70 aircraft, a nuclear submarine carrying cruise missiles, and 15,000 members of the armed forces.
By December, what the White House called the “greatest armada” in the history of the Western Hemisphere had blown up 35 small Venezuelan boats, many traditionally used for fishing. They produced no evidence of drug cargos. President Trump claimed that at least 25,000 American lives had been saved by each strike, or the cumulative equivalent of about eight years of U.S. overdoses.
Then on Jan. 3, 2026, “Operation Absolute Resolve” succeeded in capturing the President of Venezuela and his wife so they could be added to the inmate population of an overcrowded Brooklyn jail and face drug trafficking charges. After announcing that the U.S. would take over Venezuelan oil operations and “run” the country, President Trump issued stern warnings to other nations across the globe, including Denmark and Greenland, that similar operations could be launched against them, presumably as........