Instead of going ‘Baghdad Bob’ on us regarding Venezuela’s regime, the Trump team needs to level with allies

It gives me absolutely zero pleasure to say this, but the Trump administration is making a really big mistake in its praise and support for the Venezuelan regime in the wake of the two earthquakes which struck on June 24 and its hideous response.

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The Trump administration claiming that the dictatorship is ‘in total compliance with the U.S.’ on earthquake relief, that Venezuelans are dancing in the streets, and that 2024’s defrauded election winner, Maria Corina Machado, who desperately wants to return to Venezuela to be with her own people in their time of need, is ‘a political opportunist.’ 

There’s little or no course correction. And each statement is worse than the next:

June 26:

June 29:

June 30:

July 1:

There also was this, reported by Fox News Digital:

“Every request we have made has been immediately granted and in turn, we have seen an incredible outpouring of support from the Venezuelan people towards Americans on the ground,” they said.

Which doesn’t explain this:

I read somewhere that someone in the administration claimed it was a ‘misunderstanding.’

If so, misunderstanding of what?

I’d like to know what the rescuer is thinking as Trump administration officials hail all that total cooperation from this regime whose featured thug has a $25 million price on his head for trafficking drugs into the U.S.

The media is having a field day. No friend of Venezuela’s opposition up until now, it has been making hay with news stories about disgusting Chavista behavior during the rescue and recovery operation — Chavista officials standing around and doing nothing as residents dug with their bare hands, Chavistas obstructing rescue workers, as we saw in the Diosdado video, Chavistas blocking incoming aid shipments, Chavistas hording heavy earth-moving machinery, Chavistas stealing incoming relief convoys, Chavistas stealing and looting from destroyed homes with bodies still in them, Chavistas forbidding medical personnel on political grounds from aiding the victims, Chavistas dumping bodies into the sea to hide the body counts.

That’s the immediate behavior, obstructing the rescue.

Dig a little further and the broader picture is bad, too: Chavista lack of earthquake-preparedness in building construction, and Chavista destruction of the nation’s health care system, its first responders, Chavista shortage of fuel for heavy equipment, and its missing emergency planning have all been prominent in the news. It’s so … Karen Bass.

But nothing explains the immediate obstruction of aid.

To deny it’s happening is very tough to read from the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, on social media, well, we saw the videos. To say all is hunky dory after seeing some of those is hard to stomach.

Do they think we didn’t see the videos? Are we on the same planet?

Worst of all was the anonymous insult directed at Maria Corina Machado, who dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump.

Calling her a ‘political opportunist’ ought to get whoever made that disgusting statement fired.  I would like to know who he is because what he said was incredibly damaging to U.S. interests.

For the record, Venezuela’s government, led by dictator Delcy Rodriguez, has politicized the aid effort — keeping doctors from helping based on their criticism as dissidents, dragging rescue workers away from vital work where minutes count to pose in photo ops, confiscating aid and forbidding aid by anyone who isn’t with her government. That is naked politicization right there.

Does anyone understand that it would be natural for Maria Corina Machado to want to go to be with her people at their hour of need now that she is in exile? The Chavistas are botching it and she wants to rally, remoralize, and aid them. And it’s not hollow symbolism or photo ops, as the crummy insult continued (who was this bastard?) — she has an absolute army of fanatically dedicated volunteers in her political organization who could be repurposed to do a lot to draw, rally and get aid to where it is needed. She could actually do a world of good in a nation in its darkest hour.

Odds are, though, that if she slips in without the U.S., she will be arrested or killed by the Chavista goons, threatened by her referent political power and then severe unrest would be the result.

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Will the U.S. be standing by Delcy after that?

How about telling Delcy to leave Maria Corina alone or face a second strike,which would be the merciful thing, given that the regime would likely be facing the Ceausescu scenario from angry locals?

The Trump administration, presumably badly advised, has always dismissed Machado’s popularity as nonsensical. We know that one doesn’t land well — we saw the pictures and we have been following her story since 2004.

To say the Chavistas are great partners in all this is pretty disgusting. These are the same old criminals who stole the last election, communized the country into economic ruin, drove millions of Venezuelans from their homeland as refugees, and shipped drugs and human-trafficked slaves to the U.S.

Now they are obstructing the earthquake rescue and recovery to the point where Venezuelans seem to be ready to revolt. To say and hear the U.S. act as though they are a faithful, friendly, ‘partner’ even on a puppet basis, even on a claimed transition basis, is difficult to hear. It’s Baghdad Bob stuff because everyone knows the truth, it’s way too out there for faking the story.

Venezuelans are at their wit’s end. The credibility of the regime was zero before the quakes, and now it’s less than zero. Anti-American sentiment is growing as a result. This description of ‘Mr. Danger’ going around is obviously resonating with Venezuelans:

Remember when Hugo Chavez used to go around bellowing ‘Mister Danger’ at President George W. Bush? This is the story described, and it weirdly sounds to desperate people like it’s President Trump, given U.S. control of Venezuelan oil.

And these sorts of memes:

This ‘open letter’ to Secretary of State Marco Rubio by a Venezuelan who grew up in Washington, Alejandro Peña, for dissident publication Voz, illustrates the scope of discontent:

Dear Mr. Secretary of State:

I was born in Washington, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. I graduated from high school in Arlington, Va. Therefore, I have a close historical connection to the United States, a country I cherish and admire. I am writing to you respectfully to warn you of the serious risk that the three-phase plan promoted by the United States for Venezuela will fail spectacularly if the corrective measures demanded by the new circumstances are not adopted in a timely manner.

Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, we Venezuelans—happy and hopeful—tolerated the interim regime of Delcy Rodríguez, trusting that, under the guidance of the United States, it would be possible to begin the path toward the restoration of democracy. However, that hope faded after the earthquakes of June 24. Once again, the regime abandoned the victims to their fate, allowing many to lose their lives and even hindering the rescue efforts undertaken by international teams.

The events of June 24 and the days that followed put an end to tolerance toward the interim regime and exhausted the patience of Venezuelans. As a result, there is a high risk of social unrest, regardless of whether María Corina Machado returns to the country or not. The immense pain of those who have lost everything, coupled with the perception of a regime that is insensitive and oblivious to the suffering of the people, is generating an unstoppable social force capable of jeopardizing the stability that has taken so much effort to build over the past six months.

He warns that the ‘Shield of the Americas plan, a great foreign policy success, is in danger of failing if the U.S. keeps defending the indefensible in the Delcy regime.

I think it’s worse than that: Not only will the potential allies scatter, Trump’s internal Latino allies — Venezuelan-Americans, Cuban-Americans and many other Latinos, will scatter, too. Is he really willing to throw those allies overboard.

Now, I’m not a dewey-eyed Bush-ite, imagining that Maria Corina can return to Venezuela and democracy will be restored.

I know that Trump has a strategic game here — to control the entire world’s oil supply to checkmate China. A puppet works better for that purpose than a freely elected leader with a strong nationalist base. Trump is probably modeling Venezuela on having a sort of non-ideological Lee Kuan Yew or Abdel el-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt. But that doesn’t work in this scenario, where the nation is at the breaking point of what is tolerable in the wake of the hideous earthquake response. People revolt when earthquake responses are botched — it’s happened in Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Venezuela itself in 1812. 

Some constructive advice for the Trump administration is to level with people: Admit that the U.S. doesn’t completely control Delcy and her goons, admit that there has been bad behavior in that camp, assure Venezuelans that they have not forgotten that there is a transition in place, and perhaps admitting that it all depends on getting Iran under control.

The latest statement is better than the previous ones:

Not great, but better. Right now the press is reporting that the U.S. and Venezuela’s democratic opposition are headed for a divorce. The State Department has diplomats. It’s their top job to prevent that much, and deliver the transition promised as soon as humanly possible, telling it like it is in order to obtain the best results. The regime has got to go in the wake of this quake. The diplomats have got to prepare for that too, in a way that doesn’t leave the U.S. with egg all over its face.

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We all know what happened to Baghdad Bob. Don’t be Baghdad Bob.

 Image: X video screenshot