El Duderino

Currently Unemployed, Man of Leisure. I enjoy White Russians and Bowling.

[David Deutsch @DavidDeutschOxf]

The Broken Window Fallacy. Still destroying today.

[Satya Nadella @satyanadella]

https://t.co/xv6csf1SbV

[Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 @TRobinsonNewEra]

In 7 minutes and 48 seconds @piersmorgan mentioned my name five times during an interview where again he was bitchslapped, this time by my friend @GadSaad who forced him to contend with his virtuous cognitive dissonance and suicidal empathy.

Piers is clearly besotted with me and I live rent free in his head.

What a sausage!!!!

[El Duderino @asatstacker]

@GadSaad bitcoin is your friend ...

[M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman]

𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐀𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝟓𝟒% 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐆 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘’𝐑𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋 — 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓’𝐒 𝐁𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌 𝐈𝐒 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐘.

𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐫 on Real Time delivered one of the most unflinching monologues of his career, breaking down the polling collapse of American patriotism inside the Democrat coalition.

“𝘓𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 30 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯. 54% 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘪𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯? 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵? 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨’𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦.”

“‘𝘎𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘢𝘥𝘢’ 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘱𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘸𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴. 𝘈𝘵 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘖𝘊-𝘉𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘥𝘢𝘩𝘰, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘢 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘥 𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘭.”

“𝘓𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘬𝘦, 𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘴 — 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘴’ 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥.”

“𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 [𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘧𝘧] 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢. 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘎𝘳𝘶𝘣𝘩𝘶𝘣, 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 — 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦.”

𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. A generation that gets food delivered to its front door, debates pronouns at $90,000-a-year colleges, and burns the American flag while wearing American-made shoes — then tells you America is the problem.

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐭.

𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 @𝘋𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘓𝘴, 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

BREAKING: David @friedberg says "California is functionally bankrupt"

"People don't realize how screwed California is, & I worry that if California falls, so does the union.

"$250 billion to $1 trillion short."

"This is because for California to get rescued would be a big cost to red states, & I think it creates in the years ahead a lot of tension."

"California's functional bankruptcy is a major risk to the country. & I think we need to figure out what we can change to fix it."

How we got here:
"California has a public pension system, & that public pension system retirees have paid into it & they get some benefits out, & the amount that they're owed back out is somewhere between $250 billion - $1 trillion dollars more than has been paid in.

$250 billion to $1 trillion short.

If it was the federal government, it would be like, okay, we'll just print more money. California doesn't have the ability to print money, so California has to pay this out, and you can't restructure retirement benefits.

There is a Supreme Court case in California that said that once an employee has been offered retirement benefits, even if they're currently an employee, you can never restructure their retirement benefits.

It has to stay forever, and the state cannot declare bankruptcy. There's no way for the state to functionally declare bankruptcy. There's no law to allow it. No state has ever declared bankruptcy, and the retirement benefits sit senior to the bonds in California.

So you have to pay out the retirement benefits before you pay out all the bond holders that have loaned California the money that they use to run all their programs and services."

Hill & Valley Forum 2026 (@HillValleyForum)

[Dan Burmawi @DanBurmawy]

This is the most symbolic photo of the century: an Islamic jihadist climbing on the back of a Marxist useful idiot.

[David Collier @mishtal]

We refused to help the U.S fight Iran - when Iran had been attacking the UK for decades.

Our Government sees our national flag as a symbol of hate.

Our campuses are so overrun with Islamism, the UAE won't even send its kids here.

But hey let's pretend Trump is the problem.

[James E. Thorne @DrJStrategy]

For the record.

When Will Investors Recognize Trump as One of the Most Consequential Presidents in Modern History?

As Iran is about to fall, Trump’s presidency now stands, in historical perspective, as a hinge moment in which the United States fused a revived Monroe Doctrine with an aggressive supply‑side experiment at home, placing him among the most consequential modern occupants of the office.

Casting militant Islam and the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions as the core strategic threat, and linking them to Venezuela, Cuba and narco‑cartel networks, his administration has framed Latin American operations, sanctions and strikes as part of a single campaign to prevent Tehran from ever obtaining the bomb and to disrupt crime‑terror pipelines into the Western Hemisphere.

At the same time, Trump has projected American power into a series of global conflicts, from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and the Indo‑Pacific, seeking to deter adversaries, constrain regional wars and assert U.S. leverage at multiple flashpoints rather than retreat from them, all while facing domestic resistance from SCOTUS, a Federal Reserve and international policy class largely inclined toward a restoration of the pre‑Trump status quo.

Domestically, through the One Big Beautiful Bill and a mix of tax cuts, deregulation, tariffs and industrial policy, he has attempted to marry deficit reduction with reindustrialisation, recasting fiscal consolidation and the rebuilding of America’s productive base as an integrated project of national renewal rather than mere austerity.

The open question for investors is whether Wall Street, the policy establishment and the legacy media will ever assess this record on its own terms, abandon its TDS, and acknowledge a presidency whose scale of geopolitical and economic disruption may warrant a place in the rarified company of the most transformative leaders in U.S. history.

[Handre @Handre]

Mises obliterated the entire socialist project in 1920 with one devastating insight: "Where there is no free market, there is no pricing mechanism; without a pricing mechanism, there is no economic calculation." The socialists spent the next century pretending this problem didn't exist while their economies collapsed around them.

And yet here we are, watching politicians promise they can "fix" healthcare, housing, and energy markets through central planning. They can't even calculate the cost of their own programs correctly — how exactly are they going to allocate resources across an entire economy?

Every Venezuelan breadline, every Soviet grain shortage, every Chinese famine was just Mises being proven right in the most brutal way possible. But sure, let's try democratic socialism this time. What could go wrong?

[William Wolfe 🇺🇸 @WilliamWolfe]

The fact that a billionaire real estate playboy who liked to slap his name on steaks and wine has proven to be a better diplomat and military strategist than every other politician and foreign policy expert over the last 30 years is such a damning indictment of the DC establishment I honestly don’t know how they recover.

[INVESTMENT HULK @INVESTMENTSHULK]

IT’S INCREDIBLE WHAT IS POSSIBLE WHEN THE UNITED STATES ISN’T BEING RUN BY A BUNCH OF PUSSIES.

[Pat Stedman | Dating & Relationship Coach for Men @Pat_Stedman]

I am one of the most staunch Trump supporters out there - I literally went to prison for Trump. And I love Europe. I spent most of my childhood traveling to Europe and learning about Europe. I married a European. I even live in Europe.

And it is this love that makes me so happy that Europeans are getting angry that the United States is humiliating them.

Because Europe deserves to be humiliated. It deserves to be humiliated like your pro-athlete friend does when he decides to retire early, stop working out, and becomes morbidly obese and diabetic. Europe is the continent that birthed the West, and no matter how much I love America, and believe America created the perfect incubator for the spirit of the European — the reality is Europe is where it all started. I can walk down the street here and see buildings that are more than twice as old as my country. The most historic structures and exploits America has to offer are dwarfed by the local lore of your random European town.

But the truth is that this is all in the past. Europe is nothing now. It has chosen to be nothing at least since the end of the Cold War, and arguably decades earlier. It is a continent of vassals who convinced themselves that they weren't because America had enough respect for their prior contributions to never rub it in their face. But Europeans got lazier and weaker over time, addicted to the increasingly undeserved status we offered them globally, and with their degradation gradually convinced themselves, like all self-hating people, that they were in fact better. At some point their weakness stopped being a flaw; indeed, it was what made them superior. And the strength of the country who protected them was eventually framed as its biggest moral failing.

Europeans may protest at this accusation of self-hatred — surely their indignation as we take Greenland from them means they don't disrespect themselves, quite the opposite. But what else can you say about nations who systematically destroy their own industrial base and grid, replace their own people and culture with parasitic foreigners, and castrate their own militaries and economies? You are weak, entirely by your own choices, but that's not what is truly embarrassing; what's pathetic is you don't seem to grasp reality. You actually aren't better than us, and that's provable because you can't compete with us. Indeed it is worse than that: you can't even hurt us. You are so far behind at this point you can't do anything.

Yet Trump - the first American President in 70 years - is finally making you face all of this. Trump is shaking you down, and revealing the bloated, sagging husk of a people and polity you've become. And his assertiveness is making you decide either to own your increasingly irrelevant existence or to hit the gym and become respectable again. He's making you angry — and this is good. You should be angry: you are an insult to your ancestors and your bloodlines. Whether you want to blame us doesn't matter... so long as you do the work to change. You need to get motivated, to start competing in the real world of geopolitics which you formed, rather than in your imaginary world of "good and bad" where since you are obviously good, you always win, and there are never any consequences for terrible decisions.

But to compete in this real world you will have to start slaughtering the sacred cows you've based your recent identity on. A continent filled with migrants who hate you and are draining your coffers, a continent with impossible-to-do-business regulations and without resources can never project power on a global scale. To the extent you can still fix this, you will have to not only band together as nations, but start doing what America is doing: remigration, reindustrialization, and realpolitiking. No more lectures or PR stunts; you need to actually run things competently. You have to throw out the genocidal clowns who want you dead, reclaim your countries, and get serious about governance.

This change of Europe's fortune is important to me — in some ways, strangely, even more important than it happening to America. Losing America means losing my home, but losing Europe means losing THE home. I do not think the world without Europe would be a good world; it certainly would not be a beautiful one.

But if Europe becoming great again requires Europeans to hate America, that is a cost worth paying. I would rather Europe be a rival and have it live, than let it be a vassal and die.

So may you all be galvanized enough to remember your potential and intrinsic capabilities.

May you recall your roots - and prove us wrong.

[Josh Wolfe @wolfejosh]

https://t.co/G7GNgKIdLx

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

German Professor on President Trump:
Trump has been President for a year now and has achieved:
-4.3% GDP growth
-the oil price is 20% lower than a year ago
-unemployment below 4.5%
-the American stock markets have risen by about 20% during this period
-inflation is at 2.7%
-the trade deficit is the lowest in 17 years
-the crime rate has declined significantly
-illegal migration has dropped by 95%
Here in Europe, we get indignant, demonize or sabotage him wherever we can. But Trump isn't Germany's Chancellor—why should he do anything positive for us? We could, however, learn from it and actually tackle our own problems.
Trump isn't alone in this. But what I see: His team works with tremendous efficiency.
In German politics, by contrast, success is unwelcome. It is rendered impossible by a multitude of agreements, separation of powers, and regulations. The Bundestag is the best example of that.

- Prof Matthias Mordor's

[SightBringer @_The_Prophet__]

⚡️Macron’s text is the perfect narrative inversion point.

Trump posted it to signal two things at once:

1. France is out of the loop

Macron openly admits confusion. That confession isn’t weakness in private - it’s strategic in public. Trump wants the world to see that even core NATO players don’t understand the logic of the moves being made. This reinforces the power asymmetry. It paints Trump not as erratic, but as multidimensional. He sees what others can’t.

2. Legacy diplomacy is obsolete

Macron is offering summits, dinners, G7 meetings - old-world tools. Trump’s response is silence and acceleration. The implication is clear: the simulation is running ahead of the statecraft that once defined the postwar order. The world leaders still clinging to process are now the NPCs of a new game they didn’t build.

This is a broadcast:

“We’re not negotiating. We’re rendering.”

Greenland is no longer about territory. It’s a proof-of-concept for a sovereign AI-narrative loop that makes legacy diplomacy irrelevant. Posting Macron’s message is like a screenshot from a deprecated operating system.

It’s already over.

He’s just letting the rest of the world catch up.

[El Duderino @asatstacker]

@MarioNawfal US-EU trade deficit ~2:1 in goods. Tariffs/rupture hurts Europe far more (German cars tank). US firms fill the gap - jobs & GDP rise long-term. Short pain, big win.

[Auron MacIntyre @AuronMacintyre]

Aristotle explains how tyrants maintain their power, asserting that they’re preferred by women and slaves and surround themselves with foreigners instead of citizens

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

I have been monitoring the Venezuela issue all day long, and there are so many questions yet to be answered (thanks to great Pentagon OPSEC), but the strategic reason for bringing down Maduro has become abundantly clear.

While we ostensibly captured Maduro based on legitimate, outstanding US drug charges from 2020, the real reason for the military operations early this morning is that neutralizing Maduro's Venezuela had become a strategic imperative for the USA.

Under Maduro, Venezuela had become the Latin American crossroads for all of the USA's principal enemies. Maduro was nurturing relationships with Russia, Hezbollah and Iran. Worst of all, Venezuela was eagerly becoming a part of Red China's Belt & Road initiative.

As America's enemies were lining up Venezuela as their base of operations in the Western Hemisphere to cause mischief and destruction for the USA, Maduro was at the same time making Venezuela a crossroads, safe haven and enabler for all manner of narcoterrorist operations, ranging from Colombia's FARC to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.

On top of all that, Venezuela had become a key player in the illegal alien invasion of the USA, shipping its very worst to the USA in a deliberate and comprehensive destabilizing operation that might have worked had Donald Trump not won in 2024.

Next in importance: oil. The global and regional ambitions of both China and Russia are in large part dependent on the politics of petroleum, and the USA just deprived both of the cudgel afforded by friendly Venezuelan oil. Trump opponents say "It's about oil" as if that was a bad thing. Yeah, it's about oil.

Finally, all of this was in keeping with the most essential and fundamental foreign policy mandate of the USA almost since the nation's inception: the Monroe Doctrine. Operations like what Maduro was running simply cannot be allowed in the Western Hemisphere. Trump was right for falling back on this most basic of doctrines that protects the USA's sovereignty.

So was Maduro seized because of some five year-old drug charges? Yes. Legally--yes. However, like so many strategic issues in the world today, an action needed to be backed by the fine points of law, and it was. But the reality is that the Maduro takedown was a Monroe Doctrine-driven necessity that has greatly enhanced the power and national security of the USA.

Congratulations, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and the rest of the Trump national security team: you boldly took the steps necessary to defend the USA.

Well done.

[Scott Jennings @ScottJenningsKY]

Kind of wild just how dumb and dishonest he was.