Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

This is surreal. So much talk from Trump about oil, and has said the US will be selling Venezuelan oil as US oil to other countries.

Trump just said "we're going to end up talking about Cuba".

Trump was just downplayed Marina Machado being the next leader, saying "it would be very tough for her being the leader if she doesn't have the support…doesn't have the respect there".

It seems Maduro's VP Delcy Rodriguez is now in charge. Reports she is now in Russia.

Trump says 'we are going to be taking a tremendous amount of wealth out of the ground of Venezuela and giving it to the people of Venezuela…and people outside…including the United States'. Hints at some sort of restitution for US companies. Might be a reference to property of US oil companies that Chavez and Maduro nationalised.

More "steal Venezuela`s oil" than run the country.

Trump has even admitted that is what this was all about from the outset.

Any U.S. citizens who voted this robber baron as their president should hang their heads in shame

Hitler claimed he was annexing Czechoslovakia to "restore stability" - but the real reason was that it was a land grab, and a seizing of their economic assets, including their large arms industry complex.

So many unanswered questions?

How are they going to run it? There's no troops on the ground, no new government ready to step in. So how do the US plan on running things?

In the vacuum of leadership it'll be the lads on the ground with guns that will take control. That could be the army, or drug cartels, or any form of local armed group. Venezuela is fairly big, and a lot of it is remote, isolated jungle. Cartels could easily carve out areas of control, as a figurehead in power in Caracas with little army support sits there.

I hope they do and I hope they make life a living nightmare for any "US oil company" that comes in. Trump deserves a very real lesson here in geopolitical meddling. At this rate, when he eventually gets ousted and finally nailed like the scumbag he is, I hope they have a public hanging for him in his new ballroom.

USA 2026 - The international embodiment of the Mafia

Every country now needs to announce they're pulling out of the world cup

He was very squirmy when a member of the press asked Trump about pardoning the former president of Honduras, Hernández, who had been sentenced in U.S. federal court to 45 years in prison for helping move tons of cocaine to the United States.

Not very FIFA peace prizey is it?

Push me over with a feather.

Oil, it’s all oil.

Look, it's relatively easy to plan an operation to take out a leader you don't like, especially with resources US has. Last nights operation from a purely military and planning aspect was brilliant. Minimal time, damage, no losses and 12 hours later there's the photo op of a former dictator in custody.

But its the what's next that's hard. I think everyone assumed Machado was ready to be figuratively parachuted in to lead, with maybe some US troops as immediate protection while she got established and big shows of power by US air forces. She definitely was putting out messages along that line.

Now suddenly Trump is saying No. Not her, the democratically elected leader that Maduro had usurped, even though she's been sucking up to Trumpmfor months....instead its..? Trump seems to think US can just tell Venezuela what to do for a while while he figures it out, but with no real point of contact or leader on ground to.coordinate with? Is he just going to post on Truth Social rough instructions for the Venezuelan population?

All to avoid the Epstein files.