Peace Prize Incoming

I didn’t watch Trump’s press conference nor his interview with Fox, but he apparently said that “something’s going to have to be done about Mexico” as he listed off all of the imperial conquests he wants in the coming months. As someone sitting in Mexico as I write this, that’s disconcerting, to say the least.

When one of my nephews was a little kid, he, like most little boys, was enamored with his ability to pee on things and exclaimed “I’m going to pee on the world!” This is basically what Trump is doing — he’s high on the shock and awe from Friday night and he thinks he can do it again. As I wrote yesterday, it’s one thing to do a snatch and grab, it’s another to occupy and rule a country. Trump’s statement that we’re going to “run Venezuela” is, as usual, completely out-of-touch with the facts. Yesterday, Maduro’s VP, Delcy Rodriguez, has declared Maduró the legitimate leader of Venezuela and demanded his return. I don’t see how Trump uses our military to rule that country, or install a new leader, without significant bloodshed and a years-long, awful occupation.

We can speculate all we want about the next moves by the administration, but one bare fact remains: I have no idea what Trump is going to do, and neither does he.