venezuela

CEOs have agreed-upon 'playbook' to stiff-arm Trump: report

As the second year of President Donald Trump's second term is about to begin, corporate CEOs are gradually coalescing around a strategy to both keep the administration at bay while also staying off of the president's revenge list.

In a Friday article for the Financial Times, several corporate executives spoke on how they plan to interact with the Trump administration in 2026. One unnamed "chief executive of a Wall Street bank" told the Financial Times that their company expects a rocky year, and hinted that this fall's elections may provide some relief.

"This year is going to be a very turbulent one until the [November] midterms," the person said. "We are going to have the most activist year of his presidency and we are all ready for it."

"MAGA has gone Maoist. It is state capitalism," Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said. "It is not remotely conservative."

The corporate world is particularly uneasy about the Trump administration's recent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, as well as his increasingly threatening rhetoric about a potential invasion of Greenland. One source described as a "lobbyist with decades of experience advising chief executives dealing with U.S. administrations" anonymously confided to the Financial Times that "standing up to Trump is usually a losing strategy." However, CEOs have slowly discovered a way to placate the administration while still going along with their previous plans.

"Privately, several executives concede they have little appetite for kowtowing to Trump," the Financial Times reported. "But advisers say a pragmatic playbook has emerged: show up, make a promise grand enough to flatter the president, and then do as little as possible until his attention shifts elsewhere."

This strategy may have been deployed as recently as last week, when a group of oil executives met with Trump at the White House to discuss the administration's plans for extracting Venezuela's oil. One unnamed business lobbyist told Politico that many CEOs have an acronym to describe the strategy dubbed "EMPANADA," which stands for "Everyone Makes Promises And Never Actually Does Anything."

Click here to read the Financial Times' report in its entirety (subscription required).

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Leaked classified DOJ memo claims Trump immune to all laws in capturing Maduro

CNN reports that a new classified Justice Department legal opinion argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic or international law when he invaded Venezuela to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The memo argues that Trump has constitutional authority as commander-in-chief to circumvent domestic law, and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.

“The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion, which is between 20-30 pages, was provided to lawmakers on Tuesday,” sources told CNN. “It builds on a 1989 legal opinion authored by William Barr, who was at the time the head of the OLC and later served as attorney general in Trump’s first term.”

Barr’s old memo argued that a president had “inherent constitutional authority” to order the FBI to take people into custody in foreign countries, even if it violated international law. The new opinion argues that Trump can only be constrained by domestic laws such as the Constitution and the War Powers Act when he ordered Maduro captured without Congressional approval.

The opinion argues that Trump did not need to seek Congressional authorization because the invasion and capture “did not rise to the level of war in the constitutional sense and therefore did not require prior authorization by Congress.”

“President Trump is committed to enforcing United States law, and the successful rendition of Nicolas Maduro to the United States to answer for his lifetime of crimes was lawful,” a White House official told CNN when asked about the OLC memo. “This was an administration-wide effort to arrest the head of a major narco-trafficking foreign terrorist organization, who has long been a fugitive of American justice. The Department of Justice routinely executes federal arrest warrants abroad.”

CNN reports Democratic lawmakers counter that removing the head of state of a country by military force does constitute an act of war.

Harper's Magazine Contributing Editor Scott Horton compared the opinion to similar memo's giving U.S president's the power to conduct torture and other seeming affronts to the U.S. Constitution.

"The Son-of-Torture-Memo Memo: A new classified legal opinion produced by Trump's DOJ argues he was NOT constrained by domestic or international law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro," Horton posted on BlueSky.

See the CNN report at this link.

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MAGA defender says CEO who rejected Trump was 'speaking the truth'

After President Donald Trump invited oil company CEOs to the White House in a bid to get them to invest in Venezuelan oil extraction, the CEO of one of the biggest oil companies in the world publicly disparaged the South American country's oil reserves — angering the president in the process. Now, one of Trump's former advisors is defending the CEO's position.

During a Monday segment on her show "The Source," CNN host Kaitlan Collins noted that ExxonMobil CEO Darren Wayne Woods called Venezuela "un-investable" when talking about the prospect of drilling for and refining the South American country's oil reserves. Woods said the current "legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place" made it virtually impossible for his company to commit billions of dollars to Venezuela.

Collins also played remarks from Trump, who bristled when asked about Woods' take on Venezuela. She observed that Trump has since planned to exclude ExxonMobil from any Venezuelan oil-related projects in the future.

"I didn't like Exxon's response. You know, we have so many that want it. I'd probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn't like their response," he said. "They're they're playing too cute."

David Urban – who was an advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign — agreed with Woods. He told Collins that the company was likely wary of investing significant money and time into Venezuela given the volatile nature of Trump's recent ouster ofVenezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

"I think Exxon's CEO is speaking the truth," Urban said. "... If you're putting billions of dollars into an economy and a legal system that has no recourse, it's like investing money in China. You may never get it back out again. And so I think the CEO is speaking the truth."

"The laws will change. They'll have new regime come in. I'm sure things will change. The legal construct will change, become much more friendly for foreign investment, and things will be be able to be put there," he continued. "But as it stands today, I'm not so sure that other people are going to be running after him to invest money ... You'll see all the big folks kind of sitting it out, waiting to see how the laws change there."

Watch the segment below:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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Conservative warns Trump replacing Constitution with 'law of the jungle'

President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration are now openly communicating that the only law they respect is that "might is right." One conservative is warning that Americans should take their words very seriously.

In a Monday article for anti-Trump conservative website The Bulwark, editor Jonathan V. Last pointed to a recent post by far-right social media influencer Matt Walsh justifying the recent capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Walsh referred to Maduro as a "s——little tinpot third world dictator" whose ouster was necessary because he was "harming our country" and "interfering with our national interests."

"'International law' is fake and gay. The only international law is that big and powerful countries get to do what they want," Walsh wrote on X. "It has been that way since the dawn of civilization. It will always be that way. And we are the most powerful country on the planet. It's about time that we start acting like it."

Last also observed that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made a similar argument in an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper. When Tapper asked him about Trump not ruling out using the U.S. military to seize Greenland from Denmark, Miller defended the president by arguing that powerful countries should be able to assert their authority by force if necessary.

"We live in a world, in the real world ... that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power," Miller said. "These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time."

The Bulwark editor doubted if this worldview stopped at international law, and posited that the Trump administration likely viewed domestic laws as able to bent and broken to accommodate the wishes of the powerful. He opined that Trump is "seeking a return to an old international order which antedates the modern, rules-based era" in which global hegemons carve up the world into "spheres of influence where the strong do what they can while the weak suffer what they must."

"Tell me: Do you think it is impossible that Trump and his revanchists also seek to return America to an old order in which control of the military is control of the government?" He wrote. "He wants Russia and China’s foreign policy. Why would he not also want their domestic policies?"

"[T]he law says that federal agents cannot brutalize the citizenry. But the practical reality is that the federal agents outnumber and outgun local law enforcement. So they cannot be arrested for brutalizing the citizenry," he added. "The law of the jungle is already here."

Click here to read Last's full article for The Bulwark.

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Trump is 'world's most powerful thief' and rules by 'robbery': analysis

Intelligencer features writer Zack Cheney-Rice said the international community is increasingly viewing President Donald Trump as the world’s "most powerful thief," and they’re responding accordingly.

“It’s true that, in spite of the shocking developments of the past few weeks, there’s a creeping sense that we are witnessing a tale as old as time,” Cheney-Rice said of Trump’s announcement that he was using the U.S. military to steal Venezuela’s oil, and is even now trying to sell it off to leery oil CEOs for processing.

French president Emmanuel Macron recently accused the U.S. of turning away from the “international rules that it used to promote” and abandoning allies.

“Every day, people are wondering if Greenland will be invaded, or whether Canada will face the threat of becoming the 51st state,” Macron said. And when Trump suggested Mexico could be his next target, that nation’s leader Claudia Sheinbaum noticed and declared: “Intervention has never brought democracy, never generated well-being, nor lasting stability.”

“But there’s something going here on that supersedes any assertion of brute force or regional influence put forth when the U.S. was finding its footing as a global player. This isn’t the 19th century anymore; America is the world’s leading economic and military power,” Cheney-Rice said. “That its government is as disdainful of international sovereignty as it is of its own increasingly heavily policed residents makes it the world’s most powerful thief.”

This, said Cheney-Rice, has “become the defining feature of the current phase of American preeminence: robbery.”

“It is happening overseas, as Trump seeks to remake Venezuela into a U.S. vassal state, and at home, where he is stripping state governors of their authority and residents of their basic civil liberties and, as of January 7, their lives,” said Cheney-Rice. “Asked by the New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Trump replied, ‘My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’”

And as White House advisor Stephen Miller told anchor Jake Tapper: “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning.”

And then there’s the scorn that Trump’s allies continue to heap on Minneapolis mom and ICE shooting victim Renee Good, which Cheney-Rice said can be seen “as an expression of the timeless authoritarian character of American policing.”

“State violence at home is justified at all costs, as are Trump’s decisions about which foreign nations to menace, and how,” said Cheney-Rice. “It’s not clear what the end result will be, but the effect is the firm establishment of a governing principle rooted in Trump’s declaration on Fox News soon after the raid: ‘Nobody can stop us.’”

Read the Intelligencer report at this link.

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Conservative slams Trump for making Nobel Peace Prize winner 'grovel'

President Donald Trump is making 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado "grovel" to him, according to one prominent conservative.

In a Friday segment on her show "The Source,"Friday segment on her show "The Source," CNN host Kaitlan Collins played video of President Donald Trump answering a question from Collins about Machado's upcoming visit to the White House. When Collins asked if Trump would allow Machado to run Venezuela if she handed over her Nobel Peace Prize, the president didn't rule it out.

"I have to speak to her. I mean, I'm going to have to speak to her," Trump said. "She might be involved in some aspect of it. I will have to speak to her. I think it's very nice that she wants to come in. And that's what I understand."

Trump went on to claim that he had ended "eight wars" (which is heavily disputed) and deserved the Peace Prize more than Machado, who was awarded the prize as the leader of the Venezuelan opposition to now-ousted President Nicolás Maduro. He also repeated praise from Pakistani military leader Asim Munir that he saved "10 million lives."

However, Jonah Goldberg — who is editor-in-chief of conservative news site This Dispatch — called Trump's remarks "pretty embarrassing." He further criticized the Trump administration making the "cynical move" to install Delcy Rodriguez as acting president despite her being Maduro's top deputy, rather than supporting Machado.

"It's not regime change, it's just replacement of the boss," he said. "And so you can make a cynical realpolitik case for that."

"There was no need for the for Trump to humiliate Machado and talk about how she's weak and she can't do it," he continued. "And now she's he's making her grovel and offer her Nobel Prize. That is entirely gratuitous and unnecessary and undermines what's left of any moral authority we have to talk about democracy around the world."

Watch the segment below:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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Trump's aggression is 'stretching the military thin': conservative

Former RAND Corporation senior political scientist Jennifer Kavanagh warns in an op-ed for the American Conservative that President Donald Trump is endangering the U.S. homeland by splashing a thin military all over the globe.

When Trump made good on this commitment to raid and arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and then “run” the nation and its oil industry, Kavanagh said he increased the U.S. military presence without pulling it back from other wasteful assignments.

The military presence in Latin America now includes at least “10,000 personnel, dozens of fighter aircraft, and more than 10 percent of the U.S. Navy,” said Kavanagh, a senior fellow and military analysis director at Defense Priorities. But she pointed out that Trump still has at least 80,000 forces in Europe, costing “tens of billions per year.”

Plus, the U.S. military has increased its presence and involvement in the Middle East since Trump returned to the White House, complete with aircraft, warships and the defense of Israel and multiple campaigns in Iran.

Meanwhile, Kavanagh said the United States hasn’t pulled anything out of Asia.

“Despite widespread speculation that Trump seeks a grand bargain over Taiwan, his administration has not given any sign that it plans to back away from its efforts to deter China from seizing the island by force,” Kavanagh said, adding that Trump represents “yet another manifestation of the same old American pattern: the addition of new military commitments without shedding old ones.”

Add to this Trump’s threats of military action against Colombia, Cuba and Mexico and Kavanaugh says Trump is “stretching the military thin” in a manner that should worry people.

“The United States should be more careful and judicious with its use of military force close to home than it is elsewhere. After all, if a military intervention goes wrong (as so many U.S. efforts have) it will be much harder for Washington to seal the U.S. homeland off from the consequences,” Kavanaugh said. “If Venezuela ends up being the next Libya, for example, regional instability will rise, drug flows and violence will increase, and opportunities for Chinese involvement could grow. These outcomes will undermine Trump’s broader domestic and foreign policy agendas while also doing direct harm to U.S. interests.”

Read Kavanagh's American Conservative report at this link.

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Former Trump press secretary warns he'll pay a 'political price' for Venezuela

Top Republicans are warning that President Donald Trump must achieve a tough balancing act heading into the midterms, according to a Friday report from Politico, to support the administration's military incursion into Venezuela while addressing voters' major concerns about affordability.

The outlet spoke to various top GOP sources who acknowledged that the White House faces a "midterms messaging challenge" in the wake of capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and claiming to seize control of the country's oil production. Voters, including many in Trump's GOP base, have named the cost of living as their biggest issue, and many of the same voters also supported Trump in 2024, out of a belief that he would end overseas military interventions.

The two issues are viewed by many as non-complimentary, potentially worsening the sentiment that Trump does not genuinely care about reducing costs. Concerns also persist that the invasion of Venezuela could balloon into a messier, long-term conflict that engulfs the narrative around Trump's presidency, as the War on Terror did for then-President George W. Bush.

“There’s a big difference between the nation building and regime change of the neocons and what the president is doing,” Alex Bruesewitz, a leading conservative political consultant, told Politico. "We just need to stay very clear on our message on how our foreign policy impacts us domestically."

Trump and his allies have attempted to spin the Venezuela operation as a positive for U.S. voters, claiming that it will help bring down oil prices. Energy industry experts have countered that the U.S. companies might be hesitant to lend the government a hand in this endeavor, particularly because they are not actually interested in lower prices. The overall cost of the operation and the long-term effort to rebuild Venezuela's oil infrastructure will also reportedly cost billions of American tax dollars over many years.

Many of the sources Politico spoke to concluded that the cost or benefit of the Venezuela operation for Trump will ultimately come down to how smoothly it proceeds.

“They’re selling this Venezuela thing correctly right now,” Sean Spicer, Trump’s former White House press secretary, said. “But if they are seen as not focusing on pocketbook issues and things don’t go well [in Venezuela], you’ll pay a political price.”

“There is a lot that is different about Iraq and Venezuela starting with the fact that 77 senators voted to authorize the engagement. But I think it’s quite likely that Venezuela will completely dominate and consume Trump’s second term,” Mark McKinnon, a former Bush communications aide, added. “Whatever the outcome ends up being — success or disaster — it’s going to be very complicated, and it’s going to take a very long time. And Trump’s second term will likely be judged and defined by whatever happens.”

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'He is a child': Trump blasted for suggesting Nobel laureate should hand over Peace Prize

President Donald Trump is now softly reiterating his call for 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado to give him the award when she visits the United States next week.

During a Thursday interview with Trump in the White House, Fox News host Sean Hannity pointed out that Machado — the Venezuelan opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year despite Trump's relentless campaign for the award — has said publicly that she wants to "give it to him and share it with him." Hannity also pointed out that Machado dedicated the Peace Prize to Trump after she won it.

"Do you have any plans to meet with her, and would you accept the Nobel Prize she wants to hand to you?" Hannity asked.

"Well, I understand she's coming in next week. And I look forward to saying hello to her, and I heard that she wants to do that. That would be a great honor. I did put out eight wars."

Trump's claim to have ended eight wars is heavily disputed. The BBC reported in October that many of the conflicts Trump claimed to have ended "lasted just days" and were "the result of long-standing tensions" with shaky peace deals. Trump himself acknowledged in his interview with Hannity that his claim to have negotiated an end to hostilities between India and Pakistan is questionable given that the two nations have started feuding again.

The president's remarks about Machado giving him her Peace Prize were met with a wave of ridicule on social media. Progressive influencer Harry Sisson called his comments "beyond humiliating for the United States."

"Trump won’t support Machado in Venezuela unless she gives him the Nobel Peace prize she won," Sisson tweeted. "HE IS A CHILD."

"So he’s going to get his Nobel Prize in exchange for letting her run the country? Or will he just grab it and let Maduro’s people stay?" Podcaster Jim Stewartson wrote on X. "I can’t believe these are actual questions in the real world."

"What are we even doing here," wrote attorney and podcaster Aaron Parnas.

"Wow, this interview is unbelievably cringe," quipped Rutgers University professor Paul Hirschfield. "I can’t believe it’s real."

Watch the video of Trump's comments below:

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Oil company CEOs mock Trump behind his back as he begs them for help in Venezuela

Politico reports giant energy companies are worried about President Donald Trump pressuring them to invest resources in Venezuela and are quietly planning to ignore him.

Trump is reportedly now pressing American oil giants to spend “billions of dollars reopening Venezuela,” after he sent troops to arrest Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. However, Politico reported Thursday that the companies with the most resources and experience to drill in the South American nation are on the fence about the project, according to six anonymous oil company executives and industry lobbyists.

According to Politico, Trump is planning a White House meeting Friday that may include executives from companies with experience in Venezuela, including U.S.-based Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. But executives tell Politico that the assembly could turn into an arm-twisting session.

“Some of the CEOs fear that Trump will use the meeting — and invite television cameras — to pressure them to make public commitments sooner than they would like,” Politico reports.

Executives want to know who will guarantee their companies’ security and property in a country still run by the same corrupt politicians who stole millions of dollars’ worth of their oil exploration and drilling equipment two decades ago. In addition to who will pay company bills and in what currency, Politico reports there remains the question of how much information the White House is sharing with acting President Delcy Rodriguez’s interim government. Industry insiders are still unsure whether the White House has even told Venezuelan officials that the it has given some companies licenses to sell 50 million barrels of oil that Trump claims the nation was “turning over” to U.S invading forces.

In addition to questions of safety, companies are wondering why they should invest in hard-to-process heavy Venezuelan crude oil given the nation’s busted infrastructure and uncertain political environment, only to dump more oil on a global market and hurt their bottom line with the resulting cheaper oil prices.

With so many reasons not to invest, Politico reports oil executives may simply string Trump along with big promises while delivering nothing.

“Companies may follow the playbook of promising the White House they are interested in investing in Venezuela just to stay on Trump’s good side but ultimately not following through,” one business lobbyist told Politico. This tactic — called “Everyone Makes Promises And Never Actually Does Anything” — is so common for dealing with the distracted president that it’s got its own acronym.

“My impression is it’s EMPANADA all over again,” an anonymous executive told Politico.

Read the Politico report at this link.

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'Don't you want to know?' CNN host grills GOP rep over Trump's lack of plan for Venezuela

An interview between CNN host Brianna Keilar and Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) grew contentious when Van Orden was asked to defend President Donald Trump's lack of clear details about his long-term plans for Venezuela.

Keilar began the Thursday segment by playing a clip of Van Orden criticizing then-President Joe Biden's lack of "metrics" for U.S. support of Ukraine in its war with Russia. She then pressed the Wisconsin Republican on whether he feels the same way about the Trump administration's handling of affairs in Venezuela after the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.

"Elections are are not a priority for this administration," Keilar said. "This is the Maduro regime, minus Maduro in charge here. Do you think that you have those metrics that are so important to you for risking American blood and treasure in Venezuela?"

"Well, that's exactly why I do not want to have uniform members of the United States military conducting ground combat operations in Venezuela," he said. "... So I stand by everything I just said. We just have to understand that this is a much more nuanced thing than people think about. And that's why I can't give you a timeline, because I don't know how intricate the entire problem set is going to be."

Keilar reminded Van Orden — who is a retired Navy SEAL – that the Trump administration is relying on U.S. Special Forces to do the bulk of the legwork in Venezuela in the wake of Maduro's ouster. She then asked whether it was "imprudent to dismiss the possibility that U.S. military could be operating and getting injured, as they just did in Venezuela."

"As a special operations guy, I don't view a raid as an invasion" Van Orden countered. "... It is not a sustained combat operation. You get in, you get your business done, you leave. And that's exactly what took place in Venezuela. And I'm unaware of any plans of putting uniformed military personnel to conduct sustained combat operations in Venezuela. I'm absolutely unaware of any of that taking place. And again, like I said, I don't support it."

"Okay, but there weren't plans for boots on the ground in ukraine, and you were very consistently demanding timeline and metrics for that," Keilar said.

"The answer to that is yes," said Van Orden.

"Okay. So then don't you want to know metrics and timeline you're talking about here?" The CNN host asked. "The U.S. being in charge of Venezuela as the president is describing it, for a long time, that he is not even committing to what that length would be. But you don't have metrics. You don't have a timeline. Why don't you want those things?"

"Well, actually, you and I are violently agreeing, so I do want those things," the Wisconsin Republican said. "I want a timeline, I want metrics, I want to know what the cost is going to be to the American taxpayers, if any, if we can offset that cost by selling Venezuelan oil. We're saying exactly the same thing in a different manner."

"How do you want to get that from the administration? How are you demanding that?" Keilar said.

"Well, we need to work with the Department of State, primarily the Department of War, if they're going to be conducting any type of security operations," Van Orden said, using the Trump administration's chosen term for the Department of Defense.

"But we need to look at this holistically, and we need to not rush into things. So we cannot rush into failure," he added. "... So we're not going to do that anymore. And how you don't get involved in these protracted, sustained ground combat operations is you just don't. And you have a plan. You have a metric. You figure out when you're going to leave before you get in."

"Is it clear to you that the the White House has a plan for how to get out of this?" Keilar asked Van Orden. "When the president just said he doesn't have a plan for when this is over?"

"It is absolutely Clear to me that Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth know exactly what the heck they're doing," the congressman said.

Watch the segment below:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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