5 Years After January 6th, Trump Says He's Running Venezuela & Needs Greenland

(Credit: Alex Kent)

Five years have passed since President Trump incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn an election he lost.

We have learned nothing from that day.

The Republican Party scarcely batted an eye. That might have not been so bad had a near majority of the voting public willingly placed him back into the White House so he could tear down the East Wing. Now less than a year after returning to the Oval Office, Trump tells us he is running Venezuela and now needs Greenland.

The White House, Venezuela and Greenland are nothing more than Trump's personal possessions irrespective of any wishes to the contrary by the American, Venezuelan and Danish peoples. Of course, because we Americans have twice permitted him the Oval Office, he believes he is entitled to anything and everything. In which case, what makes anyone think he would stop with Venezuela and Greenland. In which case, it is only a matter of time before Trump once again deems Canada to be the 51st state. 

Ousting Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela might have defensible had it provided Edmundo Gonzalez, the rightful winner of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to assume power. But Trump claimed that he and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado didn't have the "support" or "respect" to govern.

Oh, they had the support and respect of the Venezuelan people. 

What they didn't have is the support and respect of Donald Trump. 

Despite Machado's efforts to placate Trump she is getting the Elise Stefanik treatment.

As for Greenland, it is all about weakening NATO and strengthening Russia. Trump wants to take a page out of Vito Corleone's book and make Denmark an offer it can't refuse. And if they do refuse, Stephen Miller has made it clear that Trump is prepared to take Greenland by military means and all but dared NATO to try to stop him. Danish PM Mette Frederiksen says an attempt by Trump to seize Greenland by force would mean the end of NATO. Nothing would please Trump and his superior Vladimir Putin more. 

Donald Trump's grip on American politics should have ended five years ago this evening. On that evening, Senator Lindsey Graham said, "All I can say is 'count me out'. Enough is enough." Five years later, if Senator Rand Paul is to be believed, Graham was the driving force behind Trump's efforts to oust Maduro. So much for enough is enough. Not only has Trump's grip on American been strengthened, that grip is now suffocating the democratic aspirations of people around the world.

Liz Cheney tried to warn us when she said that Trump "can clearly never be anywhere near the Oval Office again."

For this we have only ourselves to blame. If this is the sort of damage Trump can wrought less than a year into his second term, I shudder to think what will happen over the next 3 years. 

Worse still, we might see fit to give him a third bite at the apple, 22nd Amendment or no 22nd Amendment.

All of which will mean that we have still learned nothing. Perhaps we never will.