Jan 7, 2026 2 min read

The president who claimed that his would be an administration of “America First”: that the United States would eschew stupid wars and being the police officer of the world, has apparently renounced those positions through invading Venezuela and deposing its strongman president, Nicholas Maduro, and his wife, who were forcibly removed from the country, now to face Donald Trump’s vengeance through a Department of Justice that he has stacked with his sycophants.

We have now used our military might to take over a country which posed no threat to us, violating international law, and this has been done on one man’s initiative without the acquiescence, or even the notification to Congress. Furthermore, the claim that this mission was carried out because Maduro is a “narco-terrorist” is ludicrous, given Mr. Trump’s commutation of a 45-year prison sentence dispensed to a convicted narcotics distributor, the former president of Honduras.

Apparently no lesson was learned from the Central Intelligence Agency’s long, sordid, and failed history of interference in other countries’ affairs, deposing and assassinating foreign leaders, or from our calamitous occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The ill will against our country that was generated through those acts will now be rejuvenated.

The president also talks of taking action inside Iran, warning that nation’s leaders not to harm peaceful protesters. This stands in stark contrast to Trump asking aides in his first administration about shooting protesters in the legs, and his tear-gassing of peaceful protesters in the District of Columbia so that the way would be cleared for him to walk across the street from the White House to a church, where he held a Bible upside down.

This is a great moment for Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. The United States can no longer chide and lecture them when they seek to expand their territory by using military force to take over weaker countries as Russia is seeking to do in Ukraine.

I hope that the rest of the world recognizes that the actions of our president do not reflect the wishes of our people, many of whom are appalled by what has befallen our country.

Oren Spiegler

Peters Township