US Politics 2026

[1956]

As an ex American now living in Ireland I’m wondering what American residents are thinking about the attacks on Venezuela ?
Last night I was messaging with another expat who lives in France. We are both Greatful not to be living in the USA, however, we are Quite concerned about the Worldwide implications.

 

[PTree15]

I think it's just horrible. It's another example of you-know-who flouting the Constitution, Congress, the rule of law, etc. I think it also makes the world way less safe. I swear his goal is to destabilize the world and somehow make lots of money in picking up the pieces. He is disgusting. There aren't enough adjectives to convey how horrible and awful I think he is.

 

[KLS52]

My mind is spinning with all of the information I'm seeing about this. My initial reaction is it's reprehensible. Then I see posts on Facebook and I try to read the back-and-forth conversations between different people/strangers from each side. Some say other presidents have done the exact same thing and others say that the other situations were done with congressional approval and Trump invading Venezuela was not. I feel like I don't know enough about the history of our country to even make an informed opinion.

It's so hard seeing how many people support this action, who truly believe it's a good thing and saying that the people of Venezuela are happy about it and celebrating. I can't believe that anything Trump does is good and not self serving. I'm so scared for what's to come and more fearful over how many Americans still support and cheer everything he does.

 

[1956]

The fact that a Precedent has been created by these actions has Huge implications in my view

 

[Emma JC]

The fact that a Precedent has been created by these actions has Huge implications in my view

exactly... we are on the list, along with Mexico, Cuba, Greenland etc, so if you all could figure a way to get rid of him quickly... it would be appreciated - maybe someone needs to kidnap him to keep him from harming the USA/world further

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[1956]

exactly... we are on the list, along with Mexico, Cuba, Greenland etc, so if you all could figure a way to get rid of him quickly... it would be appreciated - maybe someone needs to kidnap him to keep him from harming the USA/world further

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

Yes - it would be nice to be rid of rump, but unfortunately then that would mean that JD would be President!

 

[PTree15]

exactly... we are on the list, along with Mexico, Cuba, Greenland etc, so if you all could figure a way to get rid of him quickly... it would be appreciated - maybe someone needs to kidnap him to keep him from harming the USA/world further

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

Somebody on FB posited that this action pretty much declares open season on anyone, including you-know-who.

 

[beancounter]

If they follow through with their threats at Greenland, I wonder if NATO will actually do anything.

 

[g0rph]

As an ex American now living in Ireland I’m wondering what American residents are thinking about the attacks on Venezuela ?
Last night I was messaging with another expat who lives in France. We are both Greatful not to be living in the USA, however, we are Quite concerned about the Worldwide implications.

I am utterly disgusted with Trump.
From clown, to self-appointed World-leader. All with an IQ that can fit on a couple of dice. And not the big ones used in Role playing games.

I am far more worried about Greenland though.
If he annexes that... Nato is done.
Although IMO, the rest of Nato should stick together and declare the USA an enemy combatant and send troops.
Maybe Annex Hawai while we're at it /s

Unlikely though
Either way, the idiot needs stopping.

 

[silva]

It certainly isn't anything the trump admin says.
When has the US caused regime change for the benefit of any country? Libya? Iraq? Panama?
he's calling Maduro a narco terrorist while pardoning the ex president of Honduras, Juan Hernandez. Hernandez had be convicted of moving over 400 tons of cocaine to the US (where Venezulas boats weren't even bound for US), taking millions of dollars in bribes from cartels, and weapon violations. Was that just to be petty because he was convicted under Biden? Or maybe because Honduras is next in line
This is about oil, not taking back oil that belonged to the US, but to steal it for our own cartels, with names like Exxon...and cutting off the critical supply to Cuba
and this is quite concerning-

Trump's Venezuela oil grab revives 'petrodollar' debate

There were likely many motives behind America's capture and arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, but one little-discussed factor could be the White House's concerns about the waning global prominence of the "petrodollar."

www.reuters.com

Fiona Hill has recounted her story, which has been verified, of a meeting between rump and putin making a deal- in 2019-US getting Venezula in exchange for leaving Ukraine to Russia

 

[Jamie in Chile]

A couple of you mentioned Facebook as a source to learn about this issue and others of you probably do the same. It's disturbing how many above average intelligent people are using it as a major source for news and information. Or insta or tik tok.

It's depressing that I get 10 insta/tik tok/facebook send to me for every 1 of anything else.

Can't we do better than that. It's full of misinformation. Are you getting your information from there as a conscious choice, or a habit?

Suggest cable news, New York times subscription, or almost any news sites. Podcasts, like the recent Economist one

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2026/01/05/nicolas-caged-americas-daring-venezuela-raid 24 minutes, but I think about 15 was on Venezuela
probably no paywall on this particular link, but much of their content is paywalled

Even Vegan Forum or another random website, say the off-topic section of Speak EV for instance, is going to be better than FB because of the way the algorithm promotes hateful and divisive content.

If you're reading posts on facebook by your Mom or best friend, that is a bit different, but even then Facebook will promote their clickbaity posts and down rate their more educational and accurate ones that you might not see.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/venezuela-the-us.194853/?post_id=3864152#post-3864152

EDIT: Oh wow didn't realize we are at over 20 pages on that thread, maybe skip that one if you don't have hours to spare, sorry

I genuinely believe that social media is what's damaging democracy more than anything else, so this is also relevant to why crazy stuff like this is going on

 

[Jamie in Chile]

It was an impressive operation from a military standpoint, but in my view not ethically justifiable because the opinions of the people of Venezuela and the US were not sufficiently taken into account.

In a way it's a message to dictators everywhere that there are consequences, but on the other hand it's an increase in the power of Trump and a win for bad actors. We have been drifting back from a more modern, ethical world to a spheres of influence world. Taiwan should be worried.

I think there are three main reasons he did it, of which reason 1 they have basically admitted repeatedly and reasons 2 and 3 are more speculative i.e. I don't have any evidence.

1 Oil
2 To distract away from other matters like the cost of living and Epstein (seems to be working by the way)
3 Trump is a big baby and a bully who just likes wielding his power to satisfy his pathetic ego and this was an easy target

 

[Jamie in Chile]

This is a great 7 -minute video that explains why US need not just oil, but the specific type of oil Venezuela has

Concise, explained clearly with graphs, presented well, and not too complicated

 

[KLS52]

I have a NY Times subscription. I use fb to alert me to certain happenings but then I dig deeper on my own.

The times comes directly to my inbox with the major headlines of the day.

 

[silva]

ICE murdered a woman in MN, and most likely will get away with it, as they have all others
When's Americas coup?

 

[silva]

I follow Heather Cox RIchardson, Belle of the Ranch, Rachel Maddow,

 

[KLS52]

I follow HCR too. I get her in my inbox as well.

 

[PTree15]

A couple of you mentioned Facebook as a source to learn about this issue and others of you probably do the same. It's disturbing how many above average intelligent people are using it as a major source for news and information. Or insta or tik tok.

It's depressing that I get 10 insta/tik tok/facebook send to me for every 1 of anything else.

Can't we do better than that. It's full of misinformation. Are you getting your information from there as a conscious choice, or a habit?

Suggest cable news, New York times subscription, or almost any news sites. Podcasts, like the recent Economist one

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2026/01/05/nicolas-caged-americas-daring-venezuela-raid 24 minutes, but I think about 15 was on Venezuela
probably no paywall on this particular link, but much of their content is paywalled

Even Vegan Forum or another random website, say the off-topic section of Speak EV for instance, is going to be better than FB because of the way the algorithm promotes hateful and divisive content.

If you're reading posts on facebook by your Mom or best friend, that is a bit different, but even then Facebook will promote their clickbaity posts and down rate their more educational and accurate ones that you might not see.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/venezuela-the-us.194853/?post_id=3864152#post-3864152

EDIT: Oh wow didn't realize we are at over 20 pages on that thread, maybe skip that one if you don't have hours to spare, sorry

I genuinely believe that social media is what's damaging democracy more than anything else, so this is also relevant to why crazy stuff like this is going on

My example of Facebook was just to point out the comments, rather than any news. I have never considered it an actual news source. But I have friends who post a lot of political stuff and I sometimes like to see what people are saying on those posts, mostly people I know.

 

[PTree15]

I follow Heather Cox RIchardson, Belle of the Ranch, Rachel Maddow,

HCR is a gem. I follow Jeff Tiedrich, too, because his use of foul language is hilarious, and sometimes I need to laugh at the absurdity.

 

[1956]

ICE murdered a woman in MN, and most likely will get away with it, as they have all others
When's Americas coup?

It’s so disappointing and disgusting to hear the “justifications” for her Murder by rump and his allies…
My hope is that this Atrocity will be a Motivation for Dems to come out in force to stop this administration in the midterms.