Washington, D.C. – If you thought 2025 ended with a bang — with The FBI robbing anyone and everyone like your crusty auntie owed back taxes to the government — then 2026 hit like a shockwave.
On January 3rd, The United States launched an audacious military operation in Venezuela that ended with the capture of Venezuela’s sitting President, Nicolas Maduro — scooped up like plastic ramen on sale.
When word of Maduro’s capture broke, a few folks clapped, a few people in America disapproved, and the international community didn’t mince their words — condemning the act as reckless, illegal, and dangerous. Didn’t matter. The Trump Regime didn’t care.
The official story? The raid was part of the ever-expanding War On Drugs — specifically, to block fentanyl pipelines coming from Venezuela. That fell apart in less than 2 minutes. Fentanyl doesn’t come from Venezuela. It comes from China. Wrong country, wrong continent, wrong drug.
Then the story changed: “It’s about stopping the flow of cocaine,” they said. But the reality is most cocaine is produced in Colombia — and we doubt Don Jr. is ready to hand over his biggest supplier in Bogota.
Now they’re saying it’s about oil, gold, rare earths, money, and business. Which might be true. But if history’s any teacher, that’s never the whole reason.
So what’s this really about?
LEVERAGE
2025 wasn’t exactly the Trump regime’s finest year in foreign affairs. In fact, it was a diplomatic shellacking.
Russia walked all over The United States like it was a bathmat. Embarrassed the military. Laughed off every peace agreement. Had Trump out here looking like a dude writing “wyd” to a woman who ghosted him six months ago.
Not to be outdone, China flipped the table completely — slapping The United States with rare earth restrictions, halting agricultural imports, and canceling key contracts like they were unfriended on “Truth Social.”
But 2026 rolled in… and Trump finally made a move that left the entire world speechless.
After the collapse of the Bolivar, Venezuela was strapped for cash — broke, bitter, and two days from pawnin’ its last oil rig. Not wanting to crawl back to the oil barons The United States, Maduro struck a deal with America’s adversaries: Russia and China. He’d give them oil and gold — they’d give him money and protection.
For a while, it worked. Until it didn’t.
So what’s the play here? What does Maduro’s sudden ouster really mean?
Well… remember that war in Ukraine that all those MAGA lunatics couldn’t shut up about?
Ukraine gave Putin hell all throughout 2025 — striking deep into Russian oil fields, torching refineries, and turning pipelines into barbecues. The hits were so precise, whole provinces went dark. Gas pumps ran dry. And winter came early for a lot of people up north.
But somehow, despite all that, the MAGA base acted like Ukraine was losing. Like Putin was Moses parting the NATO Sea.
“They lied,” said Marvin Ellis, 47, an APAC policy analyst. “The MAGA crowd, Trump’s media machine — they ignored the footage, the intel, the actual battlefield reports. Just rolled out the red carpet for Putin and started parroting Russian press briefings like they were gospel. This is what happens when you elect a man who’s never worn military boots but sends your kids to war. He has no sense of reality of how the battlefield works.”
While they were busy kissin’ Putin ass, Russia went from being the third-largest oil exporter in the world… to the number-one importer. Let that sink in.
But this Venezuelan operation? It didn’t just kneecap Russia.
India — who'd been side-stepping sanctions since day one — also leaned heavy on Venezuelan oil once Putin’s fields started crumbling. Now? That Venezuelan oil sits in America’s hands.
Which means both India and China — for all their big talk — now gotta come knockin’ on Trump’s door if they want to keep the lights on.
Checkmate? Maybe. Desperation play? Definitely.