As many in Washington were easing into the new year, there was a flurry of activity last week in the prosecution of Brian Cole Jr. — the man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters the night before Jan. 6, 2021. The Justice Department obtained an indictment from a grand jury and, following a court hearing, persuaded a judge to keep Cole detained pending trial.
Last week, the Justice Department went out of its way during the court hearing to avoid using any phrases that might immediately connect Cole’s alleged crimes to Jan. 6, but prosecutors’ efforts were so obvious, that they had the effect of drawing more attention to it. The government’s pre-hearing brief also appears to have been designed to skirt this issue and put the most Trump-friendly spin on Cole’s motive for his alleged crimes — though ultimately not very convincingly.
I won’t be surprised to see Trump just go with this. Cole said that he was upset about the “stolen” election. That makes him someone who believed Trump and that’s all that matters.
Scarborough on what Trump told him during a phone call yesterday: "Joe, the the difference between Iraq and this is that Bush didn't keep the oil. We're going to keep the oil. To underline his point, Trump said his comments were no long on background." pic.twitter.com/Vfm4mrlSFL
He’ll be dead before the oil is truly flowing in Venezuela again. And despite his belief that America owns everything, the oil actually belongs to the Venezuelan people. Unless he truly plans to occupy the country (and all the others he is threatening with annexation) everything he says is nonsense.
But he may have no choice. It’s possible that this is just Rubio’s wet dream to “free” Cuba and the whole thing will fall by the wayside once that’s done and they will re-direct him to the next shiny object. I guess at this point that’s the best option.
But I think we do have to take seriously the idea that there is a movement a foot in the Republican Party that’s eagerly following the Stephen Miller line that says America is a superpower and we take what we want, just like the imperial powers of the 18th and 19th centuries. They see a fight for resources and technology — oil, “rare earth minerals”, AI etc., and the need for a huge military buildup to back up their ambitions.
They are rapidly throwing the old order into the garbage — the idea of a laws based international order, guaranteed by institutions and formal diplomatic and military alliances is rapidly becoming a relic of the past. You can see people accepting the idea that there is no need for even a pretense that might doesn’t make right anymore.
Maybe it was inevitable that 80 years after WWII the lessons of the 20th century and the nuclear age would become ancient history. I’m not sure I would have expected that the United States would be the country to empower a senile, ignorant, demagogue to lead the way but maybe I should have.
President Trump took decisive action to pardon January 6 defendants who were unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples. They were not protected by the leaders who failed them. They were punished to cover incompetence.
On his first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued sweeping blanket pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600 patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol—many mere trespassers or peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists by a weaponized Biden DOJ. He fully pardoned most, commuted sentences, and ordered immediate release of those still imprisoned, ending years of harsh solitary confinement, denied due process, and family separation for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Thousands of Americans paid the price for political failures they did not create.
Since January 6, 2021, Nancy Pelosi spent over 3 years and nearly $20 million in taxpayer funds on her partisan Select Committee, producing a scripted TV spectacle to fabricate an “insurrection” narrative and pin all blame on President Trump.
Video and audio recordings, including unaired HBO footage from her own daughter, show Nancy Pelosi repeatedly acknowledging responsibility for the catastrophic security failures—admitting “We have totally failed” and “I take full responsibility” for not having the National Guard pre-deployed, despite intelligence warnings and President Trump’s offers of troops that were ignored under her leadership as Speaker.
The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government. In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters, all while Pelosi’s own security lapses invited the chaos they later exploited to seize and consolidate power. This gaslighting narrative allowed them to persecute innocent Americans, silence opposition, and distract from their own role in undermining democracy.
What follows is a full interactive timeline that completely distorts what happened that day and what we all saw with our own eyes. I urge you to click over and take a look at it. It’s frankly shocking.
Here’s just a small piece:
I’ll just leave this here.
The American people electing Trump after he staged a coup attempt 5 years ago was a nail in the coffin of our democracy. You can rationalize it all you want – But inflation! But wokeness! – but ultimately it was a societal suicide attempt and probably the dumbest collective voting decision ever made
I will never, ever understand how Americans let this happen. And blaming the Democrats for not being good enough is fatuous nonsense. After what that orange cretin did, the people should have been ready to vote for anything other than him.
None of this should have come as a surprise. The series of boat strikes and murders on the high seas that have taken place in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September were a pretty clear sign that Donald Trump was planning to seize control of Venezuela, a sovereign nation, and depose its strongman president Nicolás Maduro. But after the success of the U.S. military’s Operation Absolute Resolve, which was launched in the wee hours of Saturday morning without congressional — legal — authorization and saw the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and claims by Trump that the U.S. would run the country, the American president swiftly turned his attentions elsewhere.
Trump, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, made it clear that Cuba, which has a very close bond with Venezuela, is next on the agenda. The country, Trump said, is “ready to fall” and might not require U.S. intervention. But it’s certainly possible an assisted splendid little regime change could happen there as well.
Mexico is also a target. On Saturday, Trump said, “Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico.” Administration officials told Zeteo that Trump is serious about sending in special forces. He followed up his threats in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday by claiming the country is run by drug cartels and saying Mexico should “get their act together.” Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s president, was unfazed. “This is just President Trump’s manner of speaking,” she said at a news conference.
“Colombia is very sick too — run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said of Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Asked if a military operation against the country would happen, Trump responded “it sounds good to me.”
Then there is the president’s perennial favorite: Greenland. The semiautonomous Danish territory is “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.” His comments sent off an international firestorm, with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederikson ordering the president to “stop the threats.” The U.S., she said, has “no right to annex” Greenland, and such a move would almost certainly throw NATO into crisis, of which Denmark is a member.
These threats come even as Trump hasn’t sorted out who is running Venezuela. But it’s clear that, despite running three presidential campaigns on a no-war pledge, the president’s “America First” agenda has nothing to do with anti-interventionism.
These threats come even as Trump hasn’t sorted out who is running Venezuela. But it’s clear that, despite running three presidential campaigns on a no-war pledge, the president’s “America First” agenda has nothing to do with anti-interventionism. (Actually, it never did.) In fact, even before the Venezuela operation, Trump has been on something of a spree. In the days before the Venezuelan operation, he had bombed Nigeria and Somalia, and threatened more military action in Iran. In December, he launched strikes on Syria, Iraq and Yemen. This comes amid his boasts of ending a varying number of wars. (His latest tally, which he provided at Saturday’s press availability, was “eight and a quarter.”)
Trump has insisted that American oil companies would shortly be swooping in to invest billions of dollars in the Venezuelan oil fields, which had been nationalized back in the 1970s and more recently were the subject of litigation when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, cancelled some of the contracts held by international companies. POLITICO reported that Trump has more or less threatened the companies that they will receive no compensation unless they agree to his plans, but they are reluctant to invest in a place in which the security and future are so uncertain.
This appeared to be the only “plan” Trump had in mind to “run the place.” One might have thought the administration would have had the transition mapped out. But unlike opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Corinna Machado, who has produced a full agenda for a post-Maduro government, which includes oil sector reform, economic recovery, criminal justice, the role of the military and engagement with the international community, there is nothing but Trump blathering about oil.
Instead, Trump and Rubio have apparently decided to allow Maduro’s regime to stay in place and do as the U.S. orders — or else. Trump told the Atlantic that if Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is now serving as president, “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.
You don’t have to be clairvoyant to read between those lines. He says he is prepared to order a “second wave” at a moment’s notice if need be.
Whether Rodríguez can deliver is another question. Trump said that “she’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.” The administration has brushed off her comments that Venezuela will never be a colony again as necessary to pacify her base of “Chávismo” followers of the socialist, populist, political movement started by Chávez. But even if one assumes she is willing, there are big questions about whether that’s even possible.
There are other players in the regime who may not prove as amenable. Maduro was an adept manager of the different power centers in and around the government, including the military, led by defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez and the powerful interior minister Diosdado Cabello. The military is deeply entwined in the government, with generals in charge of various functions throughout society. And as a comprehensive CNN report made clear, “there are paramilitary groups that, according to the UN, participated in the cycle of opposition repression during the most intense social unrest of recent years, also play a central role.” They are heavily armed and serve as an extra judicial police force.
The first Trump administration ran war games on regime change in Venezuela that found a distinct possibility that the country could easily fall into chaos, and it’s not hard to imagine a dozen scenarios that would bring that about. Since the administration appears to have put such experts as Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller in charge, the odds are quite high that this could escalate quickly.
Trump and his team are all high on their own supply after this operation, and they appear to be already looking toward their next conquest. Who knows if they’ll be minding the store at all?
Determined to preserve the nation’s history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.
“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
What small people these Republicans are. I think many of them know how petty this is. In a way that makes them even worse than the true MAGA sociopaths. They’re just worthless empty shells.
Trump will meet privately with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center, which the president has rebranded to carry his own name, for a policy forum. Democrats will hold a hearing with witnesses to the violence and later gather on the Capitol steps to mark the memory of what happened.
And the former leader of the militant Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, is staging a midday march retracing the rioters’ steps from the White House to the Capitol to honor Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt and others who died in the Jan. 6 siege and its aftermath.
The Democrats are convening a hearing:
The Democratic leadership is reconvening the now defunct Jan. 6 committee to hear from police, elected officials and Americans about what they experienced that day…
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, who has been tapped by House Speaker Mike Johnson to lead a new committee to probe other theories about what happened on Jan. 6, rejected Tuesday’s session as a “partisan exercise” designed to hurt Trump and his allies.
“Other theories about what happened on January 6th?” Good luck with that.
On Jan. 6, 2021, 140 police officers were injured defending the U.S. Capitol from a violent mob of Trump supporters. Five years later, many still live with the physical and psychological damage from that day. NPR Investigations correspondent Tom Dreisbach sat down with two officers who defended the Capitol — Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges — to watch their police body camera footage from Jan. 6.
Both were subjected to some of the most brutal violence of the day, inside a tunnel where police were outnumbered by rioters armed with flagpoles, stun guns, crutches, stolen police shields and chemical sprays.
Fanone, Hodges and other officers say that Trump’s mass pardon of Jan. 6 rioters has exacerbated the trauma of that day. Both Fanone and Hodges have received death threats, and been called “crisis actors.” But the footage from their body-cams shows the reality of what they experienced. B
oth videos come from NPR’s Jan. 6 archive, part of a long-term effort to preserve the historical record — a public database tracking every arrest, charge, verdict, and sentence related to the attack. In Dec. 2025, the archive expanded to include police bodycam, surveillance video and other courtroom evidence, making this material available for anyone to examine firsthand.
It’s hard to watch but it’s important to do it if you can. They cannot erase what they did.
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.
