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In an interview with Politico on December 8, Donald Trump touched on a variety of subjects, including, but not limited to, his thoughts on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The interview – which was conducted after Politico named Donald Trump ‘the most influential person shaping Europe,' making him the first American to receive the title. During the interview, Trump spoke the only way he knows how, candidly, about Ukraine, Russia, Trump's new national security strategy, rigged elections, and of course, Nicolás Maduro and Venezuela.
‘His days are numbered'
When Politico interviewer Dasha Burns first asked Trump about Maduro, she brought up his comments from earlier this year, Trump responded by saying “I don't comment on that. I wouldn't say that one way or the other. I can say this, that, uh, he sent us millions of people, many from prisons, many drug dealers, drug lords… He sent them into our country, where we have a … where we had a very stupid president.” Obviously the ‘very stupid president' Trump was referring to was Joe Biden, as Trump continued to say that, “Biden's a low-IQ person, especially nowadays. I mean, he was low-IQ 30 years ago, but he's especially low-IQ now. And, uh, what he did to our country is not good.”
After Trump's grandstanding, Burns cut to the chase, asking, “How far would you go to take Maduro out of office?” Trump deflected the question initially, but couldn't help himself when Burns followed with “But you want to see him out?” Trump glanced up at the camera and responded, “his days are numbered.” Trump initially said that Maduro's days were numbered during an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes in November. In that same interview, Trump dismissed the idea of a full-scale war with Venezuela when asked about an American deployment of troops in Venezuela.
On December 8, Trump didn't rule out war with Venezuela, stating “I don't want to rule it in or out”, and, “I don't talk about it.” He then said “Why would I talk to you, an extremely unfriendly publication, if you want to call it POLITICO, that got $8 million from Obama to keep it afloat, why would I do that?” Trump made it clear he had only taken the interview for his ego, “I'm [only] doing this because you picked me as the man for Europe.” Trump was most likely referencing the Politico Pro subscriptions that his administration cancelled earlier this year as part of the Department of Government Efficiency's effort to trim government spending. According to Politico, it “received no government grants or subsidies”.
After making it clear that he would not be talking about military strategy with Burns, Trump went on to say what he wanted for Venezuela: “Well, one goal is I want the people of Venezuela to be treated well. I want the people of Venezuela, many of whom live in the United States, to be respected. I mean, they were tremendous to me.” Trump claimed that he received the vast majority of the Venezuelan-American vote: “They voted for me 94 percent or something. I mean, it's incredible,” and then bragged about a property he owns in Florida: “I own a big, uh, project, Doral. It's a great place, Doral Country Club.” Doral, Florida, has the highest percentage of Venezuelan immigrants in the country. We can only assume that a large portion of Doral's staff are Venezuelan immigrants, unless they've befallen the same fate as Alejandro Juarez, the lifelong Trump employee, who was accidentally deported by DHS.
Immigration trip up
Donald Trump's positive comments on Venezuelans got Burns interested, especially after Trump said “they're unbelievable people. The area is such a successful area. Everybody is successful. It's amazing… They're incredible people,” going against just about every statement he's made about immigration over the last decade. Burns questioned, “Are those the kind of immigrants that you do want to see in America?” To which Trump began to panic, trying to decide which side of his voter base to appease. “Uh, well, they … well, they certainly contrib … yeah, I want to see people … yeah, I want to see people that contribute.” Trump then tried deflecting away from his positive views on Venezuelans, stating, “I don't want to see Somalia.. No I was right about it. You know, I started complaining about Somalia long before the scandal. Uh, the … the horrible … the horrible things they're doing to Minnesota, it's incredible…”
“I don't want to see Somalia. I don't want to see a woman that, you know, marries her brother to get in and then becomes a congressman and does nothing but complain.”
Trump was referencing Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, the first woman of color to represent Minnesota, and one of the first two Muslim-American women elected to Congress. Omar came to the US when she was 12, and became a citizen at 17. She married Ahmed Abdisalan Hirsi in 2002, had two children, and later separated. In 2009, she married British citizen Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, after separating from Elmi in 2011; she reunited with Hirsi in 2012, and they remarried in 2018. There is no evidence to back the accusation that she ‘married her brother,' making the comment legally slanderous.
Trump on unlawful airstrikes
Trump was also asked about the airstrikes on what his administration claims are cartel vessels, but experts and the Venezuelan government have cast doubt on; at least three of the vessels destroyed by the US were not Venezuelan. Trump was then asked whether Secretary of War Pete Hegseth should be made to testify under oath, to which he responded, “I don't care. I say do it if you want, Pete, He's doing a great job.” Trump then claimed that every time his administration destroys a vessel, “we save 25,000 people every time we knock out a boat.” And that “Nobody wants to drive boats to America loaded up with drugs anymore.”
This is when the interview took a turn. At this point, Trump was getting fairly worked up, and he decided to turn back to a question Burns asked earlier about a ground invasion. “And we're gonna hit 'em on land very soon, too.” Said Trump in a comment that went uninvestigated by Burns. Trump then returned to his talking points, claiming Venezuela sends “really, really bad people into our country,” and that, “They emptied their prisons into our country, and these prisoners are seriously tough. They entered … uh, all of their prisons have been emptied into the United States of America. Murderers, 11,888 murderers …”
Four months of naval air strikes
The US began initiating airstrikes on Venezuelan ships in the Caribbean Sea in September, under the guise of fighting narco-terrorism. Donald Trump, backed by Hegseth, outlined his mission to battle ‘maritime drug trafficking' in Latin America after the first strike. That first strike came on September 2, when an American military vessel sank a 39-foot speedboat filled with “a considerable amount of cargo.” This initial strike was one of the more legitimate, with the vessel hailing from a known trafficking centre, and multiple sources supporting the US's accusations of it being a criminal vessel. 11 people were killed in the first strike, according to Trump, all of them members of the gang Tren de Aragua.
Over the next six weeks, Trump carried out another four strikes, killing 16. There were drugs recovered in only one of the strikes. Venezuela has claimed that at least one of the boats attacked was a fishing vessel. Additionally, at least two of the victims have been confirmed as Colombian citizens without any attachment to the country of Venezuela, nor its organized crime groups. “These cartels are the Al Qaeda of the Western Hemisphere, using violence, murder and terrorism to impose their will, threaten our national security and poison our people,” Hegseth wrote.
