In conducting a military operation in Venezuela that amounts to "straight up plunder," a new analysis from the Bulwark accused Donald Trump of reducing the US to "the kind of country it used to oppose."
In an extensive breakdown of the situation, conservative commentator Mona Charen took issue with those who have praised Trump's capture of President Nicolás Maduro, singling out a piece from the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which claimed "Mr. Trump is pursuing the Bush freedom agenda." She also highlighted comments from Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who during a Fox News appearance said he wished to "remind everybody that America is a force of good order and democracy" and claimed that "we are the good guys" in light of the Venezuela attack.
"That’s delusional, and I say that as someone who believed in humanitarian interventions abroad," Charen wrote, before going through a lengthy list of past US interventions she viewed as good and justified. "To imagine that Trump is doing anything remotely like those interventions in Venezuela is risible."
Countering the claims from the WSJ and Fetterman about the noble aims and results of the Venezuela raid, Charen noted that in Trump's press conference about the strike, he "mentioned the country’s oil more than twenty times and democracy not at all." To put a finer point on the matter, when asked about the possibility of a new election in Venezuela, Trump was dismissive, claiming that the US would "have to fix the country first."
"That press conference was not about democracy or human rights or even capitalism," Charen wrote. "It was about straight up plunder undergirded by threats. The country’s oil, Trump announced, would be pumped by American oil companies for American oil companies — not even for American taxpayers. The welfare of Venezuelans is, at best, an afterthought, if that. Trump’s eyes sparkle at the prospect of looting another country’s natural resources."
Charen did concede that Venezuela, "once the wealthiest nation in South America, and among the wealthiest in the world, was in her estimation worthy of US intervention in response to the economic turmoil caused by Maduro's leadership. Instead of doing what has been done in the past on seeking "plausible leaders from among the democratic opposition," Trump has instead allowed Maduro's Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, to take power as acting president. Meanwhile, Trump dismissed the popular opposition leader, Corina Machado, as not being respectful enough for the role. In sticking with the remnants of Maduro's regime, Trump has merely "chosen to designate a strongman (woman, in this case) whom he can push around."
"The United States under Trump is an outlaw nation, threatening excellent neighbors like Canada with economic devastation, blasting people in fast boats to pieces, withdrawing from international agreements, bullying friends and foes alike, and now kidnapping foreign leaders (however evil)," Charen concluded. "We are becoming the kind of nation against which America used to defend others."