When the riot ended, Congress returned to its business early Thursday morning and affirmed Joe Biden’s presidential win. Donald Trump’s January 6th insurrection could not change that. What changed was the nation’s sense of itself and the world’s image of the United States.
It got worse on Nov. 5, 2024. In an act of Swiftian self-satire, Americans drove a stake though the heart of the American century and reelected a twice-impeached, career criminal and convicted felon with ties to a notorious pedophile to a second term in the White House over the price of eggs.
Reports of insurrection came in a flood Wednesday. Scenes of chaos played out at the U.S. Capitol as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol complex instigated by the outgoing president himself.
Calling his election loss an “eggregious assault on democracy,” Donald Trump told a rally they should walk down the Mall and confront Congress. “And I’ll be there with you,” he said. But after getting the mob moving, true to form Trump retreated to the White House.
View from inside the Capitol as people gather on the West Front. The Capitol is currently on lockdown. pic.twitter.com/XKNKWNbHxZ
As a joint session of Congress attempted to conduct the business of formalizing the presidential win of President-elect Joe Biden, the mob in MAGA hats began chanting QAnon slogans. They then swept past police barricades, overwhelmed Capitol security, and entered the building through smashed windows and doors. The Secret Service whisked Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location and the members of Congress took shelter.
“We’re storming the Capitol. It’s a revolution,” Elizabeth from Knoxville, Tenn. told a White House reporter for Yahoo News. Police had maced her as she tried to enter the Capitol.
Pro-Trump extremists broke windows, ransacked offices, shouted “Trump, Trump” and “Whose house? Our house!” as they went. They included a Republican West Virginia state delegate who streamed the assault. Many carried Trump flags while a couple bore Confederate ones.
In a standoff with police, one woman was shot and killed, reportedly a QAnon cultist from San Diego. Three others died from “medical emergencies.” Police found a couple of improvised explosive devices somewhere outside the building.
No. It’s not over. Five years later, the world still looks on aghast. An imperial Trump 2.0 administration has not only defied U.S. law and U.S. courts, it has rejected U.S. constitutional limits and the post-WWII, rules-based order. Might makes right is back. Trump has attacked Venezuela, abducted its president, and invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify it. Now his team of madmen has designs on Cuba, Columbia, and looks to annex Greenland. The U.S. is no longer the arsenal of democracy or the steady leader of NATO. Russia and China look lustfully at Eastern Europe and Taiwan.
What in the wake of the Great Recession began as a conspiracy cult quickly evolved into a reactionary cult of personality. The Trumpian personality cult, backed by billionaire American oligarchs, morphed in 2025 into a xenophobic police state bent on ethnically cleansing the United States of nonwhite residents. One year into a second term, 19th century imperialism is Trump’s demented agenda.
I don’t believe I even wrote those last two paragraphs. This isn’t politics anymore. It’s a nightmare.
Democrats’ entire congressional caucus must march on the White House to demand a halt to Donald Trump’s turning the United States back into a 19th-century-style imperial power. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries standing behind lecterns and condemning Trump’s actions in Venezuela for cameras or for a gaggle of reporters conveys impotence, dessicated 20th-century thinking, and a failure to recognize that ours is an attention economy.
Get some or go home.
(I wrote that last night to both.)
Trump’s inner circle has designs for turning our democracy into a thugocracy and overturning the rules-based order of the last eighty years.
Stephen Miller goes on a rant defending Trump's imperialist aggression against Venezuela: "We’re a superpower… we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower."
A man whose mother dropped him on his head as a child is stroking Donald Trump’s imperial fantasies. I cannot look at him without seeing him wearing a cap with a totenkopf. The Sudetenland lies in a different hemisphere, so Trump annexing Greenland will have to do.
TAPPER: Can you rule out that the US is going to take Greenland by force?
STEPHEN MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO.
TAPPER: So you can't take military force off the table?
European leaders issue joint statement defending Denmark and Greenland
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain, and Denmark have just issued a joint statement on Greenland saying the Arctic territory belongs to Denmark.
“It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
The statement does not directly refer to the US but emphasises the importance of adhering to international law and UN Charter principles of respecting sovereign territory and borders.
TAPPER: Can you rule out that the US is going to take Greenland by force?
STEPHEN MILLER: Greenland should be part of the US. By what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? The US is the power of NATO.
TAPPER: So you can’t take military force off the table?
MILLER: Nobody is gonna fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland.
Miller is now Trump’s top consigliere on foreign policy and national security. It would be a mistake to dismiss him. I don’t think anyone in the U.S Government is going to stop them.
Stephen Miller: "What the president said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela … by definition we are in charge because we have the US military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions … for them to do commerce, they need our… pic.twitter.com/PiFn21txhY
Stephen Miller: “What the president said is true. The United States of America is running Venezuela … by definition we are in charge because we have the US military stationed outside the country. We set the terms and conditions … for them to do commerce, they need our permission.”
He makes Hitler look like a diplomat by comparison:
MILLER: The US is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We're a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It's absurd that we would allow a nation in our backyard to become the supplier of… pic.twitter.com/wXK2UxnqUj
MILLER: The US is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere. We’re a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It’s absurd that we would allow a nation in our backyard to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries but not to us.
TAPPER: Sovereign countries shouldn’t be able to do what they want to do?
We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump said about the possibility of a vote in the next month. “No, it’s going to take a period of time. We have — we have to nurse the country back to health.”
Moreover, he said, the U.S. may subsidize an effort by oil companies to rebuild the country’s energy infrastructure — a project he said could take less than 18 months.
Now we’re going to have to subsidize the oil companies? Awesome.
I guess we shouldn’t have ever though otherwise. he’s such an ignoramus that of course the oil companies have said, “gosh we really can’t afford it, but we’ll be happy to take a fully functioning oil industry and profit from it. That’s Trump! You’re the best!”
How about this. Are we at war with Venezuela?
“No, we’re not,” Trump said. “We’re at war with people that sell drugs. We’re at war with people that empty their prisons into our country and empty their drug addicts and empty their mental institutions into our country.”
Who are those people? Surely not the government he’s left in place.
In the roughly 20-minute interview, Trump identified a group of U.S. officials — including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and Vice President JD Vance — who will help oversee America’s involvement in Venezuela.
“It’s a group of all. They have all expertise, different expertise,” he said.
But he had a one-word answer for who is ultimately in charge: “Me.”
God help Venezuela. God help us all.
This is so much worse than even I thought it was going to be. These people are seriously brain damaged.
.@POTUS: "It's about PEACE on Earth. We gotta have peace. It's our hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was very important when it was done, and other Presidents — a lot of them — they lost sight of it. I didn't. I didn't lose sight." pic.twitter.com/CzDyUdqvzO
I wish a reporter would ask Trump to explain the history of the Monroe Doctrine to the American people. I’m fairly sure he hadn’t heard of it until a couple of weeks ago and would say something like, “it means I can do whatever I want.” (And then he’d drift off to something about windmills and the ballroom and the stolen election.)
And sadly, he’s not actually wrong. The Monroe Doctrine is bullshit. It was promulgated in 1827 as a response to European powers trying to claim more land in the Western hemisphere and has subsequently been used to excuse American interventionism in Latin America and elsewhere. It’s a relic of the 19th century and has no place in the current world order.
I thought this pithy analysis was pretty good:
Its invocation in the twenty-first century reflects not strategic wisdom but rather the intellectual bankruptcy of a foreign policy establishment unable to imagine alternatives to interventionism. The doctrine’s promise to keep European powers out of the Western Hemisphere has morphed into a presumptuous claim that Washington should manage all regional affairs—a mission impossible that serves neither American interests nor regional stability.
We’ve been messing around in Latin America since the 1800s. It’s almost always been a huge problem for the people who live there and bought the U.S. nothing but trouble. I find it hard to be believe that this clown car of a presidency will be the one to finally make it all work out for everyone. All Trump cares about is money, power and vengeance and the rest of them either want to punish half the people or all of the people in the region. That doesn’t offer much hope for a good outcome.
Here’s how the Trump administration sees it:
This is OUR Hemisphere, and President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened. pic.twitter.com/SXvI868d4Z
Trump said he was ready to let Bobby Jr “go wild” on science and health and he’s doing it:
Federal health officials on Monday announced dramatic revisions to the slate of vaccines recommended for American children, reducing the number of diseases prevented by routine shots to 11 from 17. Jim O’Neill, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has updated the agency’s immunization schedule to reflect the changes, effective immediately, officials said at a news briefing.
The announcement is a seismic shift in federal vaccine policy, and perhaps the most significant change yet in public health practice by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, who has long sought to reduce the number of shots American children receive.
The states, not the federal government, have the authority to mandate vaccinations. But recommendations from the C.D.C. greatly influence state regulations. Mr. Kennedy and his appointees have made other changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, but those have had smaller impact.
The new schedule circumvents the detailed and methodical evidence-based process that has underpinned vaccine recommendations in the nation for decades. Until now, a federal panel of independent advisers typically reviewed scientific data for each new vaccine, and when and how it should be administered to children.
Public health experts expressed outrage at the sweeping revisions, saying federal officials did not present evidence to support the changes or incorporate input from vaccine experts. “The abrupt change to the entire U.S. childhood vaccine schedule is alarming, unnecessary and will endanger the health of children in the United States,” said Dr. Helen Chu, a physician and immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and a former member of the federal vaccine advisory committee.
Dr. Chu also took issue with the health officials’ claim that the move would increase trust in vaccines and boost immunization rates. It will do the opposite, she warned. “Already, parents are worried about what they are hearing in the news about safety of vaccines, and this will increase confusion and decrease vaccine uptake,” Dr. Chu said.
This makes me want to cry. There’s no reason to do this. It’s the result of snake oil wellness weirdos and right wing conspiracy theorists taking over our government. Until now we had an excellent record of stopping childhood illnesses that used to sicken and kill many children in this country. For all of our ills as a society this was something we actually did right.
I don’t think anything symbolizes how far down the rabbit hole we’ve fallen. Putting Bobby and his freak show in charge of the nation’s health agencies would be like making Laura Loomer a Pentagon correspondent.
Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.
My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head– all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder. Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve.
Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way. It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that. If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it.
I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.
Here’s Pete Hegseth in 2016 saying there should be consequences for people who commit war crimes—that members of the military shouldn’t follow illegal orders from the President: “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence… pic.twitter.com/znDGDC7MvQ
Everyone understands that this is as much payback for demoting that MAGA freak Ronnie Jackson for his drunken behavior and sexual harassment when he was serving as the White House doctor as it is against quelling dissent, right? They restored his rank the minute Trump got back in office.
Kelly is in John McCain’s former seat, another storied military hero from Arizona, the home of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. MAGA’s treatment of both McCain and Kelly perfectly illustrates just how phony their flag waving patriotism really is. But since half the country is suffering from a debilitating case of arrested development I guess this whole thing in a big “LOL” to them.
The Washington Post reports that their poll shows a split, 40 approve, 42 disapprove, with the usual partisan divide.
This is interesting:
Looking forward, The Post poll finds more Americans oppose than support the U.S. taking control of Venezuela and choosing a new government for the country, with a significant 30 percent saying they are unsure. Trump has said the United States will “run the country” for an unspecified period.
Normally there would be more Republicans in favor but they’ve been trained in phony MAGA speak about “forever wars” so they don’t yet know what to say.
An overwhelming majority of Americans say the Venezuelan people should decide the leadership of the country, while only 6 percent say the U.S. should do so.
There’s bipartisan agreement on this question, with upward of 9 in 10 Republicans, Democrats and independents saying Venezuelans should choose their leaders.
Trump will just mouth some BS to appease the Republicans but I don’t know if his oily nation building will go over with anyone else. These splendid little wars are going to be costly, possibly in blood as well as treasure and I’m not sure how much he can fake that.
It’s too early to know exactly how this is really going over. People have been on holiday and are just getting back to work. We’ll have to check back in a couple of weeks. But I suspect this isn’t going to boost his popularity. This war is unnecessary and confounding to most Americans who see the country as being mired in domestic problems. But we’ll have to see.
I can’t say I’m surprised to see the Republican support despite all the pretenses about isolationism. They love war. It’s one of the reasons they’re Republicans.
Update: For any of the 90% who think the Venezuelan people should decide their future, don’t get your hopes for that happening any time soon. Trump has his own priorities:
Reporter: Are you going to demand that Delcy Rodriguez allow opposition figures to return or free any political prisoners?
“Look at the size of this. It’s massive,” said Trump.
Okay, I missed it. Somewhere Donald Trump, the former professional wrestling owner, crossed over from theatrical bluster and fake punches to the real thing. The thuggish ICE raids and federal troops in the streets of Los Angeles last year should have been a strong clue. Now Trump the Somnolent has attacked Venezuela, deposed and captured its awful leader, and claims the U.S. is running the country.
“Under what legal authority?” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked SecState Marco Rubio. Rubio filibustered and would not answer.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Trump said the US is going to 'run Venezuela.' Under what legal authority?
RUBIO: We want a better future for the people of Venezuela
STEPHANOPOULOS: I'll ask again — what is the legal authority?
Don’t forget Trump’s interest in Greenland seen in this tidbit from The Atlantic:
Trump told [Michael] Scherer that Greenland had not been on his mind when he’d been ousting Maduro—but he then proceeded to offer real-time foreign-policy musings on that very topic, in one of his characteristic verbal weaves. “You know, I wasn’t referring to Greenland at that time, but we do need Greenland, absolutely,” Trump said. “And we need it for defense. You know, it’s surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships. We need Greenland.” (Katie Miller, the wife of the top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, posted an image on social media on Saturday of Greenland covered by an American flag, with the caption: “SOON.” And Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, urged Washington yesterday to end its threats, which she said make “absolutely no sense.”)
⚡️🇩🇰🇺🇸JUST IN: Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, said in a statement responding to Trump regarding Greenland:
"I have to say this very directly to the United States: It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland.
The U.S. annexing Greenland makes “absolutely no sense” except to a man who’s obsessed with size and doesn’t understand the Mercator projection. Trump wants to make the U.S. a hemispheric hegemon. Trump has gone to Jack D. Ripper land and Republicans controlling Congress lack the balls stop him and his gang of vandals.
The U.S. already has “wide access to Greenland” for military purposes via NATO, Frederiksen noted. The New York Times adds:
A number of Denmark’s European neighbors, as well as the European Union, repeated their longstanding support for the country’s territorial integrity.
“We would recall that Greenland is an ally to the U.S. and is also covered by the NATO alliance, and that is a big, big difference” from the situation in Venezuela, Paula Pinho, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said at a news conference on Monday.
Greenland is not nearly as large as it looks on a flat map.
But Trump “has always been drunk on fantasies of power. His entire rhetorical repertoire consists of frantic boasts and foolish words,” observes The Bulwark. His boasts that U.S. oil companies will rush into Venezuela and reap huge profits smacks of Cloud Cuckoo Land:
“We’re going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country,” Trump said during a press conference Saturday.
Trump lacked the WWE pyrotechnics, but the over-the-top bluster is the same.
The companies will pay for investments in Venezuela themselves, Trump claimed. They’ll be reimbursed. Wait, who, us? snarks The Bulwark.
Trump: "We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure…that will be paid by the oil companies directly. They will be reimbursed for what they're doing…"
Trump states that "we're going to make Venezuela great again." I am not being facetious here either
“I don’t see anything that gives me the sense that this is a ripe opportunity,” Landon Derentz, an energy analyst at the Atlantic Council tells Politico.
Over my career, I was involved in major chemical plant engineer/design/construct work (though not oil refining). The lead times for assessment, design, procurement, contracting and construction will far exceed Trump’s term.
No U.S. oil executive will be committing billions to replacing decrepit refining infrastructure overseas based on Trumpish bullshitting. He was going to end the Ukraine war overnight, too, as you recall.
Trump will be long dead before any investment pays off. I’d stall until that happens and then see what comes next. There are so many IFs in the Politico piece, I can’t see an upside to rushing in to validate Trump’s boasting. The oil titans are not that stupid.
But Trump is. It is up to us to stop him, The Bulwark urges:
Trump is our president. He’s acting in our name. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to undo all the dangerous mistakes he’s already made. And we won’t be able to stop him from continuing to indulge in frantic boasts. But an awful lot depends on whether we can limit the damage that he seeks to bring about over the next three years, and whether we can at least hold out hope of a responsible road ahead.
The danger that “Trump’s vanity and grandiosity will lead him to try to seize Greenland is real.” The Danes think so too.
