Reprinted from John’s Substack:
On 8 January 2025, I was on “Judging Freedom” talking with the Judge mainly about Venezuela and how it fits into Trumpian foreign policy. I made the argument that this is not a case of regime change — as all the US did was remove the president and replace him with the vice-president — and it is also not a case of us trying to turn Venezuela into a democracy. This last point explains why the neoconservatives are unhappy with what Trump is trying to do in Venezuela. Trump thinks he can use America’s awesome economic leverage to maintain a stable government in Caracas that will cooperate with us as we exploit Venezuela’s oil resources to our advantage. No boots on the ground here. This is a case of old-fashioned imperialism — the sort that went away because it does not work in the age of nationalism. Trump and his advisors, especially Marco Rubio, think they have found a new way to make imperialism work. I would bet they fail. Hopefully they will walk away when the endeavor starts to fail and not double down.
