America First—or Empire First? Trump’s Venezuelan Rubicon
- WireNews
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
by Ram ben Ze’ev
Full Disclosure
I write this as a long-time supporter of President Donald J. Trump. I voted for him in 2016, again in 2020, and once more in 2024. My support has always been grounded in his rejection of endless wars, globalist interventionism, and the idea that America should act as the world’s policeman. Precisely because of that support, what follows matters. If the future leadership of the Republican Party—whether JD Vance or any other successor—endorses or continues the behaviour described below, I will not vote in 2028. Loyalty to a man must never supersede loyalty to law, principle, or truth.
President Donald J. Trump has crossed a line that no modern, civilised state should ever approach, let alone breach. Under his second administration, the United States ordered and executed military action that resulted in the killing of dozens of people and the forcible abduction of the elected president of a sovereign nation, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro. This is no longer a matter of allegation or inference. Maduro and his wife were subsequently paraded before the media at a U.S. airport, confirming that the operation was deliberate, premeditated, and state-sanctioned. This was not diplomacy, nor law enforcement, nor defence. It was an act of lawlessness presented as strength, and it marks a dangerous abandonment of every principle the United States once claimed to uphold.
For months, this has been carefully staged. The renaming of the Department of Defense into a so-called “Department of War” was not cosmetic; it was declarative. In international waters, the U.S. military has released footage purporting to show lethal strikes against alleged drug traffickers. Whether those videos are authentic or theatrically manufactured for domestic consumption is almost beside the point. Either way, the act itself—summary execution on the high seas without arrest, charge, or trial—is indefensible. If the United States can track vessels with such precision, it can track them to port or shore, make arrests on U.S. soil, and prosecute under U.S. law. Due process is not an inconvenience; it is the law.
Then there is the piracy—there is no other honest word for it. U.S. forces have boarded and seized Venezuelan oil tankers in international waters, confiscating vessels and cargo alike. This is not sanctions enforcement; it is theft by force. What right does Washington have to dictate to Venezuela to whom it sells its resources? That the oil might be sold to China or Iran— with Beijing acting as a commercial intermediary—does not grant the United States a licence to plunder.
The timing is revealing. The opposition figure María Corina Machado Parisca was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize shortly before these events, publicly dedicating it to President Trump and now being openly discussed as a successor to Maduro. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s vast oil reserves—larger even than those of Saudi Arabia—hover unspoken yet unmistakable over every decision. This does not look like peace. It looks like regime change with a public-relations halo.
President Trump was elected on an America First platform. Nothing about extrajudicial killings in international waters, kidnapping foreign heads of state, or seizing sovereign assets advances that agenda. Allegations of drug trafficking remain allegations until proven in court. Murder without trial is not enforcement; it is tyranny.
If the true strategic objective is to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions—a goal I support—then have the courage to confront Iran directly. Do not launder that objective through the destruction of another nation’s sovereignty. Do not pretend that killing unnamed men at sea or abducting a president in Caracas makes Americans safer. It does the opposite: it shreds the very legal and moral framework that once distinguished republic from empire.
The Democrats warned that Trump was a tyrant. In Venezuela, on the high seas, and in the wreckage of due process, he is proving them right.
>>>> BUY ME A COFFEE <<<<
###
Bill White (Ram ben Ze'ev) is CEO of WireNews Limited, Mayside Partners Limited, MEADHANAN Agency, Kestrel Assets Limited, SpudsToGo Limited and Executive Director of Hebrew Synagogue