Venezuela Invasion Proves There's No Limit to Trump's Abuses... Unless We Impose One

We now know the lengths to which President Donald Trump will go to draw attention away from the Epstein files. All done up while we slept, in the wee hours of (for many of us) a cold Saturday morning, the attack on Caracas was timed to mess with news cycles and to give the administration room to hone its lies, all the while giving insiders a way to adjust their stock portfolios before the inevitable “worry crash” on Monday.

Though utterly unprovoked, the invasion is being sold as a necessity: a drastic measure taken on our behalf, for an “emergency” that never was. In the course of patting himself on the back for a job well done, Donald Trump indicated that, up next, “something will have to be done about Mexico.”

If the question that some of us are now asking is: “Is there no last straw when it comes to the abuses of this administration?” The answer we need to drill into our heads is: “No. There’s never a last straw. Not until you make it one.” We are now facing that moment. America under Trump is a rogue nation. The evidence has been there for some time, but now it comes with a slap in the face, with ignorant bullies, invested with power, daring the world to say otherwise.

The lies defending the invasion will be brazen. We already know what they will be, and how they won’t add up. The invasion of Venezuela cannot be about fentanyl because Venezuela is neither a source nor transit country for fentanyl. It cannot be about America needing oil because America produces more crude oil than any country, ever. Nor can it be about replacing an autocrat with a democratic leader because, thanks to a sycophantic Congress and radicalized Supreme Court, we ourselves now live in an autocratic state.

As with a disease that demands urgent treatment, saving America’s democratic soul cannot be put off.

In ever-growing numbers, Americans are sickened by all of this. Patience has run dry. We no longer want to be assured by saner heads that the midterm elections are just 11 months away, especially when we know that those who attempted to “Stop the Steal” five years ago have been busy “Starting the Steal” ever since. What concerned Americans want is not some ever-diminishing chance at maybe turning things around in November. We want impeachment, and we want it this week. As with a disease that demands urgent treatment, saving America’s democratic soul cannot be put off.

Impeachment cannot happen without a coalition that crosses party lines. That’s the tough part. The very idea of putting together such a coalition would have been ludicrous several months back, but here the good news is that congressional support for Trump has begun to weaken. Perhaps it just needs a push to give way. Helped along by the Epstein scandal, the invasion of Venezuela, with Mexico “up next,” might just be that push.

So here it is, my suggested first steps for saving American democracy. A personal wish list, and an enormous ask, admittedly. But one that many millions of Americans will gladly sign onto. What it needs is a collective push from many directions, democracy in action. I will put the to-do items in bullet points so that Donald Trump, our drowsy, nonreading president, can take it in.

1. Step One: Remove Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as Speaker of the House. Given how profoundly he is disliked, even by members of his own party, this is a doable first step, one that will send a decisive message and produce bigger and larger cracks in the edifice of MAGA support.
2. Step Two: Vote to impeach Pam Bondi for her failure to release the Epstein files, as the law requires. This, too, has a good chance of garnering bipartisan enthusiasm. Once released in full, the files themselves will further erode support for Trump. Even the “soft release” of the few files that we’ve been given to see has made clear that, despite his incessant lies to the contrary, Trump was exceptionally tight with Epstein, and that he has much to fear in what’s being held back. In addition, these revelations will help expose the invasion of Venezuela for what it actually was: a distraction, and yet another lie.
3. Step Three: Impeach Donald Trump and undertake to hold him accountable in every possible way (legally, financially, personally) for the damage he has caused. There can be no soft landing for lawbreakers in high places.

As this wish list makes clear, Donald Trump is not our only problem, perhaps not even the main one. Ridding ourselves of him, while necessary, can only achieve so much, because he is mere putty in the hands of nefarious manipulators (Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, Vladimir Putin, etc.), and the symptom of a much bigger and more baleful disease.