This weekend the United States military invaded Venezuela and kidnapped their president and his wife. Kidnapping is not my characterization of the action - it’s Donald Trump’s.

The US government’s justification for this action has been varied and contradictory - they are all over the place. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this was merely “a law enforcement action” and not an invasion.

Law enforcement actions do not typically result in the deaths of 80+ people. We don’t currently have an accurate death toll. Cuba alone says 32 of their citizens were killed in the airstrikes, which were not confined to the governor’s mansion or even the capital city.

As US military helicopters approached Maduro’s home, the Venezuelan military did what any military on the planet would do in response to foreign aircraft threatening their head of state - they opened fire.

American military members responded with overwhelming firepower. No doubt, the casualties of those protecting the Venezuelan president must have been massive. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine called the US military slaughtering Venezuelans who were predicting their president from a foreign invasion “self defense.”

We sent our military to another country to kidnap their head of state and were so appalled they tried to defend themselves that we are calling our attack “self-defense.”

This is yet another brazenly illegal action by Donald Trump. As he has yet to face ANY consequences for a lifetime of lawbreaking, he sees no reason to stop now.

The Department of Justice secured an indictment of Maduro which laughably includes gun charges as amplifiers for potential sentencing.

Think about that - we have charged the head of state of another country with violating United States gun laws. While these are not simply possession charges, I hope I don’t need to point out that United States gun laws do not apply in countries which are not the United States.

But the Department of Justice’s fig leaf justification did not stand up to the onslaught of President Trump, incapable of repeating the lies which have justified prior wars.

The United States arrested Nicolás Maduro in order to take Venezuela’s oil.

During his 2016 campaign, Trump often criticized the United States for not taking Iraq’s natural resources, mostly oil, after invading them. The reason the United States didn’t take Iraq’s oil is simple - it’s a war crime. This is explicitly spelled out in the Geneva Convention - you may not legally take the natural resources of a country you invade.

Media outlets at the time mentioned this but did not raise the alarm with headlines blaring “DONALD TRUMP PLEDGES TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES.”

Nine years later, and here is the consequence of not listening to what he said he would do. With the United States as a net oil exporter and oil trading at a 5 year low, the United States has openly invaded another country in order to take their oil.

At the United Nations, ambassador Mike Waltz (Waltz was National Security advisor for just over three months and resigned after inviting a journalist into a Signal group chat where plans to bomb Yemen were discussed without a single person involved asking why a random person was in the chat) justified the attack to the world by openly saying that large oil reserves cannot be under control of United States adversaries.

At least Colin Powell lied about the justification for the Iraq War.

Legally, of course, Maduro’s kidnapping is about drugs, not oil. This is particularly odd given that Donald Trump this year has pardoned multiple drug traffickers, including the former president of Honduras, convicted for sending literal tons of cocaine into the US.

The idea that Maduro’s presidency is illegitimate hinges on the idea that María Corina Machado actually won the last election. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s likely true. The US has supported her claim so you would think the US would now favor her taking the presidency, but Trump said she wasn’t popular enough. (The Washington Post reported Trump was angry Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize he thought he deserved which is why she was snubbed.) Instead Venezuela’s leadership has passed to their vice president, who came to power in the same illegitimate election as Maduro. But don’t worry, we have made clear that the United States is in charge. Both Rubio and Trump have threatened retaliation if newly sworn in President Rodriguez does not do as the United States wants. Trump went further and issued similar threats of military strikes/kidnappings in Mexico, Cuba, Iran, Colombia, and Greenland. Yes, Greenland. AGAIN.

This is the worldview of Donald Trump, Steven Miller, and their supporters - that the United States has been chosen by God in order to rule at least the Western Hemisphere, if not the world.

I am not exaggerating.

The State Department posted an image saying Earth’s Western Hemisphere belongs to the United States.

Trump himself, pretending again a term he coined was invented by others, posted an image updating a 1905 political cartoon about the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine essentially says that the rest of the world may not be allowed to influence the Americas as that job falls solely to the United States.

The president posted an image of staff watching the kidnapping from the president’s private for profit business (which he never shut down) in Florida. They didn’t blur out the screens behind them. You may think that’s a security risk but fear not, they didn’t have radar or tactical maps pulled up on the displays. They were reading Twitter. You can see the search bar in one of the photos. They’re simply looking at a live feed of when people mention “Venezuela.” They were more concerned about what their idiot influencers were saying than the actual operation.

The president posted a video of the bombings in Caracas set to CCR’s Fortunate Son, completely oblivious to the fact the song is a strong condemnation of rich draft dodgers like Donald Trump.

The founders gave the power to declare war to Congress for a reason. What we have been seeing these last 25 years is what happens when a party in Congress is more concerned with party loyalty than institutional preservation. While they warned against political parties, the idea that Congress would simply cede the entirety of its authority to a president for partisan reasons was completely alien to them.

Yet that is what has happened.

A handful of those you would expect to offer pushback, Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, have pointed out the president does not have the authority to take actions like this. Not only was Congress not consulted, they weren’t even notified.

These are criminal actions. The Republican Party can stop this at ANY time. The Epstein files law last month was passed unanimously. Trump has broken every aspect of it. He thinks he can get away with that because he likely can.

At least, while the Republicans are in charge.

This is an election year. The clock is ticking. His power to break the law consequence free, wrecking the country’s standing in the world, is up against a time limit.

Whether anything happens before that limit is reached is up to the Republican Party.

But regardless of whether they decide to suddenly grow a backbone, it is my firm prediction that this is the last year of Donald Trump’s dictatorship.

I don’t know what will happen in 2026. I don’t know if any meaningful brakes stop him. But I know the end has a date, and a visible one.