Scarcely per week in the past, U.S. warplanes and drones have been streaking throughout the Caracas evening sky to ship a swift finish to the reign of the Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. The extraordinary show of kinetic violence delivered a shocking reminder in regards to the attain of the world’s strongest army—and symbolized the beginning of a brand new chapter for the person who instructions it.
Donald Trump has been emboldened. The president and his advisers consider that the strike each reignited his political momentum and underscored the shortage of concrete limits on his means to wield energy at house and overseas. He blew previous the necessity for congressional approval—and even notification—and has reveled in brandishing armed forces to intimidate international foes and associates alike. He seized upon a lethal confrontation on a chilly Minnesota road to speed up his push to place masked, armed federal officers in Democrat-run cities that didn’t vote for him. And he introduced his marketing campaign of retribution in opposition to perceived political enemies to a brand new goal, one that might undermine religion within the pillars of the nation’s financial system.
Even for Trump, it’s been fairly the week. However that is greater than only a collection of dizzying information cycles. The White Home, after months of wrestle, believes that it has discovered its footing once more. Trump, although by no means restrained, is now pure id, performing on impulse and goaded on by advisers who see a possibility to additional develop govt energy.
His ballot numbers are nonetheless low, and the aura of invincibility that he held for the primary half of final yr is gone. The MAGA base has been fractured, and a few Republicans have objected to his plans, whereas many extra quietly fear that the president is ignoring the financial points that can probably resolve this yr’s midterm elections. However Trump merely doesn’t care.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s longtime adviser, put it to me this manner: “It’s a full flex.”
The first days of 2026 have been breathtaking of their share of Wait, he did what? headlines, cable chyrons, and information alerts. The Caracas strike, although rumored for weeks, occurred so shortly that many Individuals who’d gone to mattress unaware {that a} seize operation was below approach woke as much as a picture of Maduro sporting a Nike tracksuit and handcuffs. Trump then introduced that the USA would “run” Venezuela—wait, what?—and in addition take a lot of its oil. The army’s triumph then impressed the president and his advisers to resume a name to grab Greenland, completely alarming European leaders who’ve watched in horror as Trump’s needs for a strategically positioned however largely uninhabited sheet of ice have escalated from social-media trolling to an existential menace in opposition to the NATO alliance. The place else might Trump wield American energy? Maybe in Iran, which has been engulfed by mass protests, main the president to threaten motion in opposition to an oppressive regime that has bedeviled the USA for almost half a century.
Again house, an ICE agent in Minneapolis fired three bullets into the automobile of a 37-year-old mom who had been protesting deportation operations. Trump, as a substitute of calling for nationwide unity at a time of tragedy, blamed the sufferer, and his administration despatched extra armed officers to the town. And his retribution marketing campaign—faltering up to now, to make certain—focused the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who’s now the topic of a Justice Division investigation. The usually soft-spoken Jerome Powell known as it payback for a disagreement on rates of interest and warned that Trump had jeopardized the Fed’s independence, perceived by many because the bedrock of American monetary stability.
Oh, and for good measure, the White Home launched a web site on January 6 that completely twisted the details of the 2021 rebel, as Trump, as soon as extra, instructed that U.S. elections, together with the upcoming midterms, may very well be rigged. The subsequent day, Trump sat for a two-hour interview with a newspaper he typically derides to precise remorse for not seizing voting machines in 2020 and to bemoan the influence of civil-rights laws on white individuals.
“It’s insane,” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia informed me, as he recapped the occasions of the previous week, together with the threats in opposition to Powell and Greenland. “That is past ludicrous. What’s he even speaking about? At what level is sufficient sufficient?”
Many second-term presidents, coming to grips with their destiny as a lame duck, flip to an space during which they’ve essentially the most unilateral management: international coverage. But it’s been stunning to see how firmly Trump has embraced a brand new plan of worldwide motion. He campaigned in 2016 in opposition to so-called endlessly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pledged to keep away from such army entanglements. However then he fell in love with the “one and completed” technique of a fast burst of army motion—such because the bombing of Iran’s nuclear services final June—and blustered about Maduro for months earlier than green-lighting the strike.
He stunned many—and outraged the isolationist factions of his base—by repeatedly declaring that the U.S. can be closely concerned in Venezuela for years. Besotted with Venezuela’s means to flood the market with oil, Trump has arrange what critics say is an extortionist racket of the South American nation. He has informed its new chief, in essence, Give us the oil we wish, and we’ll allow you to keep in energy, and has privately joked that Venezuela may very well be within the operating to turn into the 51st state, two individuals near him informed me.
There’s probably extra to come back. Some within the administration consider that Cuba may very well be subsequent, and White Home aides informed me that Trump will likely be briefed tomorrow on an array of choices for intervention in Iran, together with some army operations which are ostensibly meant to guard the protesters however that might additionally hasten the tip of the regime. Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out utilizing army drive to grab Greenland, despite the fact that it might shatter the globe’s most enduring and profitable alliance. Greenland is a part of Denmark, a fellow member of NATO (Article 5 of NATO’s constitution declares that an assault on one is an assault on all). European leaders are so spooked by Trump’s bellicose rhetoric that they’ve publicly rebuked the USA. Germany and the UK are contemplating troop deployments to Greenland. Trump, although, appears unbothered by the blowback to his menace to redraw the world’s maps. Making a deal as a substitute of utilizing drive can be “simpler,” the president informed reporters final evening on Air Drive One, including, “However somehow, we’re going to have Greenland.”
Trump, in fact, is not any stranger to the technique of flooding the zone with outrageous statements and acts, making it onerous for his political opponents and the media (to not point out most of the people) to maintain observe. White Home aides and shut allies privately acknowledged to me that they’ve been grateful to regulate the information cycle within the early days of 2026.
However Trump remains to be set to start the second yr of his time period far weaker than he was within the first. He’s an unpopular president, per polling, and most Individuals dislike each the strong-arm deportation techniques on the heart of the Minneapolis protests and Trump’s efforts to make use of the Division of Justice to hold out his political vendettas. West Wing aides have been wanting to shift the dialog away from the continuing Jeffrey Epstein controversy, which, when it erupted over the summer season, was the primary second when many Republican lawmakers appeared prepared to defy Trump. (The DOJ has repeatedly missed deadlines to launch all the supplies within the case; the story will probably spring again to life when extra comes out within the weeks forward.) The White Home has additionally begun to tackle its thorniest political difficulty: excessive costs. As a part of its information blitz this month, the Trump administration has unveiled measures meant to drive down the prices of pharmaceuticals and credit-card charges, in addition to to make mortgages extra obtainable.
The White Home spokesperson Kush Desai informed me in a press release that the blitz is a part of the administration’s work in “implementing the free market insurance policies like tax cuts and deregulation that do work rectifying the ‘America Final’ insurance policies which have let Individuals down.”
However some within the GOP stay involved that Trump is distracted and that the flurry of foreign-policy flexing will likely be a sugar excessive that wears off shortly. Others have urged him to cease meddling with allies. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, in a flooring speech final week, mentioned that he was “sick of silly” and urged Trump to deal with his home legacy.
Certainly, Republican lawmakers have despatched phrase to the White Home that affordability, not army interventionism, stays prime of thoughts for his or her constituents, and that voters don’t a lot care about what’s moving into distant lands akin to Venezuela and Iran—and may discover Greenland on the map solely as a result of it’s drawn disproportionately giant.
