Trump exacts petty revenge on Nobel Prize winner

Top Stories for January 5:

Trump sidelined Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for “ultimate sin” of accepting Nobel Peace Prize
Nothing could be more on-brand and quintessentially Trumpian than the report coming from The Washington Post about how Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was apparently iced out of Trump’s post-abduction governing plans for the nation of 30 million because she committed the unforgivable sin of accepting the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize instead of demanding it be given to him. During a press conference following the mission, Donald threw Machado under the bus, stating, “It’d be very tough for her to be the leader” because “she doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.” The comments reportedly stunned members of Venezuela’s opposition, who had expected Washington to rally behind Machado, according to The Post. For anyone to be stunned by Donald Trump’s spiteful, self-serving behavior at this point is newsworthy in and of itself, for the president’s petulance is truly unmatched. And while this side plot ultimately isn’t even close to the most consequential revelation of the weekend, it should serve as stark reminder to anyone on the world stage willing to play ball with Donald; he will never not put his own ego and self-interest first.

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VIDEO OF THE DAY: Marco Rubio can’t answer simple, straightforward question on what comes next in Venezuela
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked Sec. of State Marco Rubio a very open-and-shut question: by what legal authority is the United States going to “run” Venezuela, as Trump has claimed? The pathetic, nonsensical word salad Rubio offered in response — which somehow included “Hezbollah” — makes it very clear that there is none.

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Pete Hegseth is committing murder with the full force of the US military. He needs to face the music
Win Without War: U.S. forces have killed more than 100 people in dozens of strikes targeting boats across the Caribbean and Pacific. Absent authorization from Congress, the Trump administration’s bombing campaign is illegal even if these WERE drug traffickers as they allege. The truth is that we don’t know who was on those boats because the Trump administration refuses to open up their extrajudicial execution campaign to oversight. We do know, though, that Pete Hegseth was recently implicated in a second strike that killed two helpless survivors as they clung to a wreck, which is murder no matter how you slice it. We deserve to know the truth about these strikes, and Hegseth needs to be held accountable for these disturbing allegations. Add your name to tell to tell your Congressmember to call Pete Hegseth to testify under oath before Congress!

Trump reveals he gave US oil companies a heads up before Maduro raid
Uh, what the actual fuck? The president of the United States just literally admitted to sharing top secret military plans with American oil company CEOs to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro before the mission actually took place. Imagine the deafening calls for tribunals and public executions by Republicans if a Democratic administration openly copped to pulling a stunt like this. Truly, incomprehensibly crazy shit from Mr. But Her Emails.

Bellicose Trump threatens MULTIPLE countries after Maduro’s capture
Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, and — why not — Iran: take heed! America’s wannabe dictator is obviously feeling frisky following this past weekend’s audacious abduction of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro and appears hellbent on continuing his imperial march across the planet, no matter the cost. Less than 48 hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump openly admitted that US military action against Colombia “[sounded] good to [him],” ominously warned Cuba was “ready to fall,” and repeated his desire to simply take Greenland for national security purposes. The MAGA cult leader told reporters, “The European Union needs us to have it, and they know that,” which, for the record, is very much not the case. Donald wasn’t finished barking, not by a long shot. He repeated his earlier threats to take military action against Iran if the government crackdown on demonstrators protesting the state of the economy turned violent — which, by all accounts, has already occurred. And finally, Donald issued a fresh warning to Mexico over drug trafficking, saying the country “has to get their act together” or else. Whew! It’s almost as if there’s a festering scandal dogging the embattled president on the domestic front and his regime is desperately looking for cover wherever it can find it. Almost. Oh, hey. Speaking of…

Department of Justice violates Epstein files law by failing to inform Congress of reasons behind redactions
In perhaps the least shocking news of the day, Congress has yet to receive a lawfully required explanation from the United States Department of Justice regarding its excessive and aggressive redactions in the Epstein files turned over thus far. With millions more documents still to come, Trump’s toadies at the DOJ simply blew past the January 3 deadline to deliver an explanation on what they are hiding and why. As Aaron Parnas notes for Meidas News, “Congressional oversight does not expire with inconvenience, nor does transparency depend on political timing. The Epstein Files Transparency Act was passed precisely to prevent delay, obfuscation, and quiet noncompliance.” Trump can dither and distract all he wants, but Jeffrey Epstein ain’t going away.

Top Republicans backpedal from Trump claim that US will run Venezuela as questions swirl about what comes next
A number of prominent Republicans swiftly backpedaled from Donald Trump’s bizarre assertion that the US will simply “run” Venezuela after this past weekend’s abduction of Nicolás Maduro, but their collective inability to explain what actually comes next betrays a truly disturbing reality: the Trump regime is officially off its imperial rocker and is simply making shit up as it goes. Maduro’s vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is now considered the interim president, has the backing of the Venezuelan military and does not appear to be on the same page as the Trump administration, despite Donald’s assurances otherwise. The MAGA cult leader told reporters Rodriguez had pledged to do whatever the US needed, adding that “she doesn’t really have a choice.” For anyone who tuned in to Venezuelan state television not long afterwards the message from Rodriguez was markedly different. The interim president was sharply critical of the US actions and insisted that Venezuela “will never again be anyone’s colony.” GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a staunch MAGA ally and the chairman of the House Judiciary committee, really gave away the game during an appearance on CNN yesterday. When asked directly what Trump meant when he claimed the United States would take charge in Venezuela, Jordan openly admitted, “We do not know exactly what that means.” When asked what is next for the South American nation of 30 million, he simply said: “We’ll see.” Uh, anyone else getting queasy “you break it, you buy it” vibes around here?

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Danish prime minister issues fiery statement after Trump threatens to take Greenland
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wasted no time issuing a pointed warning to Donald Trump about his renewed threats to simply take Greenland, following the Trump regime’s operation in Venezuela over the weekend. “I have to say this very directly to the United States: It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland,” Frederiksen wrote in a statement on a Danish government website on Sunday. “The United States has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Commonwealth.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One following the Venezuelan raid, Trump doubled down on his intent to continue his imperial conquests and took obnoxious pot shots at Denmark, barking, “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, that I can tell you. To boost up security in Greenland. They added one more dog sled.” Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen have repeatedly denounced the prospect of a US takeover of the island, and a January 2025 poll similarly found that 85% of Greenland’s residents opposed it.

Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and other US oil company stocks surge up to 10% in pre-market trade
Huh, would you look at that? Surely just a coincidence that Venezuela happens to sit on the largest known oil reserves on the planet, right?

Nicolás Maduro to appear in New York court on drugs and weapons charges
The deposed Venezuelan president is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court on Monday afternoon on drugs and weapons charges after his extraordinary, illegal capture by US special forces this weekend. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized in a shocking pre-dawn raid at a compound on Saturday during an American assault on Caracas. At least 40 people, including civilians and Venezuelan military members, reportedly died in the attack — war crimes by any reasonable measure, it should be noted. In New York, charging papers against Maduro allege that he headed a “corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.” The arrests came after months of US pressure against Maduro, which included dozens of attacks on alleged “narco boats” that claimed the lives of at least 110 people — also war crimes, for those keeping score at home.