Nicolas Maduro handcuffed, appearing to limp and surrounded by drug enforcement agents taken down in the eyes of the Trump administration from president to perpetrator. Still, there was a New Year nod to the waiting camera night. [00:00:18] Crowds waited outside the notorious New York jail, where he now faces charges of running a violent cocaine trafficking empire, a claim he's always rejected as a front for regime change. The Trump administration carried out airstrikes on Venezuela [00:00:34] before capturing its now former president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife. As you heard in that video, Maduro was brought back to the United States to face trumped up drug trafficking charges, even though Venezuela is not a major player in the international drug trade. [00:00:50] But the most important question now is what happens next? And why is it likely to be a gigantic disaster? It turns out one of the worst members of the Trump administration may be put in charge of running the entire country of Venezuela. [00:01:06] Before I tell you who drank your $0.02. Yeah, I'm going to explain to you folks after Jordan gives you all the facts why this can't possibly work out. There's only one scenario under which this is not an epic disaster. I'll tell you that scenario as well. [00:01:23] But we have a ton of evidence for you guys on why this is going to be epic in in how terrible it turns out. So I want you guys to make sure that, you know, the downsides of this, as some on the right are celebrating like we just accomplished a mission. [00:01:43] It reminds me of that mission accomplished moment that Bush had on his aircraft carrier. So we'll get into all that, Joe Jordan, first, give us the facts now. Maduro is currently jailed in New York and earlier today pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges. [00:01:59] But aside from his kidnaping, little has changed in the political makeup of the government of Venezuela. Its current acting leader, Maduro's vice President Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in shortly after Maduro was seized by the US. And you might be wondering, [00:02:15] what about that Maria machado woman who the US was supposed to install as a puppet leader? - Well, Trump threw her under the bus. - Mr. President. The US aware of the location of Opposition Leader Machado. - And have you been in contact with her? - No, we haven't really. [00:02:32] I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect. Now, Trump is right about one thing. Maria machado is hated by people in Venezuela. [00:02:47] In October 2025, poll from the pollster Hinterlassen showed that 91% of those consulted have an unfavorable opinion about the opposition leader, Maria machado. The poll also placed Machado as the most unpopular, with a rejection [00:03:02] rate significantly higher than the rest of the country's political leaders. But that's not actually why Trump shafted her, according to two sources who spoke to The Washington Post. The real reason is that she's bitter is that he's bitter. Rather, she won the Nobel Peace Prize. [00:03:20] Although Machado ultimately said she was dedicating the award to Trump, her acceptance of the prize was an ultimate sin, said one of the people. If she had turned it down and said, I can't accept this because it's Donald Trump's, she'd be the president of Venezuela today, this person said. [00:03:35] Now, despite Maduro's vice president getting sworn in, Trump announced that the United States will now run the country, even though our government can't run itself. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. [00:03:53] So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in. And we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, [00:04:08] proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about. Yeah. If there's one thing that Donald Trump is known for, it's a judicious and safe transfer of power. [00:04:23] But it's unclear ultimately what he means there. It seems that the Trump administration didn't plan for what would happen after Maduro was ousted. But according to the Washington Post, the white House is weighing giving. Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy white House chief of staff and homeland security adviser, [00:04:40] a more elevated role in overseeing post Maduro operations in Venezuela, according to one person with knowledge of the conversations. Of course, Miller is best known as an anti-immigrant zealot who's led the mass deportation charge, but he's also took a central role [00:04:56] in the effort to remove Maduro, according to the post, how he or any US official will actually run the country of 30 million people hasn't been laid out yet. Rodriguez, the newly sworn in president, is remaining defiant. She called for Maduro's release and made it clear she opposes US intervention. [00:05:16] Something that the Venezuelan people and this country have very clear is that we will never again be slaves, is that we will never again be a colony of any empire of whatever kind. Now, in response to Rodriguez, Trump reasserted that the United States [00:05:31] is in charge of Venezuela and plans to coerce current leadership in Caracas, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that we're dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don't ask me who's in charge, because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial. [00:05:47] What does that mean? A reporter asked. It means we're in charge, the president said. When asked what he needed from Rodriguez, Trump said, we need total access. We need access to the oil and to other things in the country that allow us to rebuild their country. [00:06:04] We're not the only ones who are skeptical skeptical about Trump's plan for managing a post. Maduro, Venezuela Elliott Abrams, Trump's own former special envoy to Venezuela, called Trump out on CNN for his implausible plan to run an entire country. [00:06:21] How is the United States actually going to run Venezuela? I doubt there's much been planning been done for this, partly because it was necessary to retain operational security. I don't think many people in the government knew this was going to happen. [00:06:38] The United States cannot run Venezuela. It would be extremely difficult. You know, it's it's a very big country. It's twice the size of California. 25 million people, roughly. It's too complex for us to run. [00:06:55] We haven't even scratch the surface of the oil side of things. We'll get to that in a moment. But I want to bring you in here. 2026 just started, and like a lot of us, I've got some big personal goals here at TT. We believe in changing the world for the better, but to do that, I'm going to need the right team of people to make it happen. [00:07:12] Let's be real, sometimes it can be hard to find the right people who are that good at what they do. It's like, if you're hiring for your business, how do you find the best people for all the different roles on your team? Well, it turns out it's actually kind of easy because of ZipRecruiter. And right now you can try it for free@ziprecruiter.com. [00:07:30] That's a great offer. They're matching technology works fast, so you find top talent without wasting any time. You can instantly see how many qualified candidates are in your area and reach them directly. That's why ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site at ZipRecruiter. [00:07:45] Help you find the best people for all of your roles. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. See for yourself. Just go to this exclusive web address right now to try ZipRecruiter. Ziprecruiter.com. [00:08:02] Again, that's ziprecruiter.com/ziprecruiter the smartest way to hire. - What do you make of this news? - Yeah. So I'll tell you what the plan was supposed to be. I'll tell you what it wound up being. And I'll tell you what it's going to be, as we go forward. [00:08:20] So the plan was to always replace the Maduro regime with Machado and her allies. Who came up with that plan? The neocons said in this case, the neocons are a little bit broader than Israel. First, there's this the same coalition that brought us the Iraq war, [00:08:36] oil companies, Wall Street speculators, defense contractors. Yes. Israel First is in there. We're going to have a different segment about that later in the program where Netanyahu, Huckabee and Rubio are all saying, yeah, we did this for Israel, okay. But that's not the only reason we did it at all. [00:08:52] It's a confluence of all those factors coming together. And so, they were supposed to put Machado in place. Otherwise, the plan is unworkable. Even Elliott Abrams, the guy, the guy you just saw, who's a one [00:09:08] of the top neocons in the country, is saying, wait, we're going to run the country from outside of Venezuela? No, no no no no no no no, no, that wasn't the plan. The plan is put in a puppet regime and let them run it. [00:09:23] So where's the puppet regime? Well, so that's flaw number one in their plan. The guy who has executed is Donald J. Trump. And he threw the biggest curveball there is there. And he's like, I don't like her. And she should have given me the peace prize. That's not even a thing. [00:09:38] Nobody's ever been like, oh, thank you for the Nobel Peace Prize. But I give it to Bob instead, right? But apparently, since she didn't do that ludicrous, unprecedented thing that was only in Trump's head, he talked her down and he's like, no, we're not going in that direction. But wait a minute. Her ally is the guy who we are saying won the last election [00:09:58] and probably did, by the way. So how about him? No, there's no talk of him. So then what are we going to do instead now that this giant curveball is in there? And by the way, putting Machado in place would not have been easy at all. That's going to get to the future as well, because the neocons are going [00:10:15] to go back in that direction. In fact, they're already going back in that direction. But without her, we're screaming orders at the vice president that remains there and going, okay, now we are running your country. Now let them, ExxonMobil, come in and take all your oil fields and and okay. [00:10:34] And then kick out Iran. Israel doesn't like them. What do we do? Are you crazy that nobody's going to listen to that? And guys, I've been since the moment we invaded to today. I've been religiously checking to see what's happening on the ground. So if you've seen some celebrations, that's corporate media. [00:10:51] It's not wrong. It's all about framing. Guys? Are those people really celebrating? Yes. Are they real Venezuelans? Yes. Is two thirds of the country, at this point, kind of against Maduro? Two thirds of Venezuela? I would say roughly, yes. Okay. [00:11:06] So those are real people getting excited. And our TV crews, corporate media comes and goes. You see that everybody loves that we kidnap their leader and attack their capital, and they can't wait for us to rule from an aircraft carrier off the coast. Right? No no no no no. [00:11:22] There's a Venezuelan people. And then there are the people who are in charge of Venezuela today and the people in charge of Venezuela today, including the vice president, which Jordan showed you going, no, we're not going to be your slaves. No, we're not going to do what you want. By the way, corporate media is amazing. [00:11:37] If you turn on television, they're like, oh, the vice president has obviously submitted to us and will be serving us loyally from here on out. I'm like, she didn't say that. She said that at all. She said, oh, we're for global peace. They're like, that's it. That's surrender. We win, you no. [00:11:54] In all other videos, she's like, Maduro is still our leader. We're definitely sticking with him. And even more importantly, the defense minister and the military are sticking with Maduro. And I looked this up. I talked about it in a video I did over the weekend. You should check that out too. [00:12:11] There are local gangs and militias that are under Maduro's control, and they're now roaming the streets and patrolling the streets, and they're not going anywhere. So what happens when Trump's Trump's bluff gets called, which is the future? [00:12:28] So the minute they we shout out an order, okay, you are to let do this or what? X, y or z and they don't do it. Trump has said we're going to do a second wave. And and the vice president is going to have a fate worse than Maduro, [00:12:44] presumably death. Right? He's going to murder her. Et cetera. But right now, they seem unmoved by that. So then we're going to have to do a second military attack. But this time the Venezuelans will know for sure we're coming and be very well [00:13:00] prepared for whatever good that does them. But much more importantly, then, we have to have guys on the ground directing people. They're going to run into the militias, they're going to run into the military, they're going to run into Maduro forces. And there we go. Quagmire bogged down in an insurgency. [00:13:18] So either we're going to be totally ineffectual. They're not going to listen to us. It's going to be humiliating, and we're going to have to tuck tail and turn around or much, much worse. We're going to get there on the ground and it's going to turn into a massive insurgency. [00:13:34] So the future looks terrible in this regard. There are there are almost no wins. Jordan. The only scenario where I see that there's a 10% hope is the CIA is way better than I realized. And they're they got this thing figured out. Even though Trump and Rubio are all giving different answers. [00:13:52] One is saying law enforcement. The other one is saying we're running the country. Somebody else is saying attack and invasion. Another one saying, no, not invasion. Like they look to be an utter mess. But if the CIA somehow already has the vice president and the defense minister and the militias in their back pocket, [00:14:09] and this is all a show for internal Venezuelan population, but secretly they're working for the CIA. Okay. Like, that's not a great scenario, but at least then that's our only prayer of avoiding some sort of quagmire here. [00:14:24] But that is very unlikely. The CIA hasn't been competent in decades. So what's much more likely is what's happening. Exactly what happened to Bush after his Mission Accomplished sign. They don't they don't have a plan for running the place. [00:14:40] And the place is crawling with Maduro forces. The minute we go on the ground, we're screwed. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.