As we mark the fifth anniversary of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald Trump is again showing us he has no patience for democracy if it impedes his pursuit of power and profit – at home or abroad.

Five years ago, Trump whipped his supporters into a violent frenzy, hoping they would help him overturn in Congress the free and fair 2020 presidential election that he had lost to Joe Biden.

Now, Trump, in his second term as president, is using the full force of America's military and government to transfigure Venezuela's repressive regime into a client state that serves him what he wants – access and control of oil there.

This was never about drugs. And Trump is no champion of democracy. This was always about who is most likely to open the spigot of Venezuelan oil for American corporations and then do whatever else Trump demands.

Nicolás Maduro stood in a New York federal courthouse on Jan. 5 and insisted he is still president of Venezuela while pleading not guilty to the drug trafficking charges that Trump used to justify

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