Veterans of America CEO Paul Rieckhoff likened President Donald Trump's recent seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker as an official announcement that he can take other nations' property with impunity
“You and I have talked for months about this,” Reickoff told MS NOW anchor Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday. “I think the biggest story in the world is that Donald Trump can do anything he wants with the most powerful military the world has ever seen, and nothing is stopping him. That includes now seizing oil tankers. It includes potentially killing survivors. It includes potential black sites. I mean, he is all gas and no brakes right now. And when I spoke to you a couple weeks ago, I said the pieces were in place for a strike on Venezuela. It was just a matter of when. This is a significant escalation today.”
Trump announced the unexpected seizure on Wednesday, telling reporters: “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela — a large tanker, very large, the largest one ever seized actually.”
Trump, speaking during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, did not share reasons for the seizure. The president also declined to provide information on who owned the tanker or its destination when asked by reporters, but Reickhoff warned the rest of the international community does not smile on acts that can be interpreted as national enrichment through blunt force.
“I mean, oil prices are up. The country, the world, is going to wonder if this is why he wants Venezuela, for the oil,” Rieckhoff said. “And our troops are staged all over the region. They’re in Puerto Rico, we had F-18s 20 miles from the Gulf. So, it looks like this is happening … an escalation of military action against Venezuela.”
This includes troops on the ground in Venezuela, Reickhoff added, as well as limited airstrikes, and amphibious assault.
“And I think it's really important to underscore that Congress does not support this and hasn't authorized it,” Reickhoff said. “Most of the country doesn't support this and isn't behind it. And he's still going full speed. So, I think the country needs to ask everybody to put the brakes on here, because there is nothing more important than a potential regime change war just in time for Christmas.”
Watch the segment below: