Trump delivers deeds, not words

Facta, non verba. Latin scholars can translate that phrase immediately, if they watch out for false cognates. Deeds, not words. Some, preferring to translate pithy Latin phrases into complete sentences, express it as: Actions speak louder than words. Either way, this describes the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Past Presidents have delivered largely empty rhetoric, to deceive the people as to their competence or their intentions. Many heads-of-state also deliver empty rhetoric, as a bluff. Donald J. Trump does not bluff. And many bad actors, accustomed to those past Presidents and their empty words, are finding that out the hard way.

Trump takes note of systematic welfare fraud

Over the long Christmas break, news broke about a breathtaking system of fraud running out of Little Mogadishu. Which is to say, the Somali colony in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That same colony prevailed upon that State’s feckless governor to adopt a modified Somali flag as the new State flag. Residents of rural Minnesota must surely have wondered what other favors Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) would do for Little Mogadishu.

Last December, they found out. Colony residents have built a network of babysitters and empty warehouses labeled as daycare centers. (One has a famously misspelled name.) These establishments have systematically bilked the State and federal governments, by billing for public daycare services they had no intention of providing. When certain influencers (like Nick Shirley) filmed some of those empty warehouses, colonists literally drove their children in, for show. Then they took those children in the front door and out the back.

That’s not even the worst of it. Other such establishments have billed the State and feds for special education services (read: Autism Spectral care). Those services never happened, either. This happened through the Medicaid program, which States administer – but the feds subsidize.

This has resulted in $8 billion in improper payments, i.e., fraud. Any other President, Republican or Democrat, would let the State handle it. Donald Trump has frozen all Medicaid payments until the State cleans that mess up. Make that unless and until, because that cleanup might have to wait for another State-wide election.

Not Minnesota only

Nor is Minnesota the only State involved. Trump himself has taken note of more such fraud in California – a situation he describes as worse.

There is more FRAUD in California than there is in Minnesota, if that is even possible. When you add in Election Fraud, then they are tied for first. Two Crooked Governors, two Crooked States!

Another influencer, copying Nick Shirley, discovered the same scam in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio has a Republican governor – a RINO governor. Where has he been? Mike DeWine has governed Ohio for years. He should have discovered the problem in his State as soon as the Biden administration planted the Somali colony in that city. (“President” Joe Biden might have planted many of these colonies, if they are not of longer standing. But State governors are responsible for policing their States. Tim Walz no doubt took the oldest and most subtle kickback known to machine politics: votes. Mike DeWine has no such excuse.)

Therefore, Trump presumably ordered the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to suspend payments to California, Ohio, and many other States. He did this on the reasonable theory that the government should not continue to give money away for no good reason.

Apologists for such programs are already accusing Trump of seizing upon an excuse to cancel the programs involved. But that illustrates the problem with such programs. Their design inherently allows fraud. Whether through negligence, recklessness, knowledge – or intent – these flawed program designs have the same results. Trump is doing exactly the right thing in suspending payment as soon as he had definite grounds to do so. (Furthermore, many Minnesota residents agree with him.)

Trump and the “Donroe Doctrine”

As remarkable as this is, the weekend operation in Venezuela surprised even Trump’s most ardent supporters. The Washington Free Beacon has details.At about 2:00 a.m. Venezuelan Time, the first airstrikes on and near Caracas, the capital, knocked out electric power. (Venezuelan Time is the same as Atlantic Standard Time in North America, or one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time.) So began an operation involving 150 aircraft, plus the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group. That task force has been operating in the Caribbean since November 16, 2025. Among its operations: destroying drug-laden fast boats, and seizing tankers laden with Venezuelan oil.

Those seizures were a distraction. The real targets were Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, both of whom were already under indictment.

The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.

Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted in the Southern District of New York. Nicolas Maduro has been charged with Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States. They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts. On behalf of the entire U.S. DOJ, I would like to thank President Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf of the American People, and a huge thank you to our brave military who conducted the incredible and highly successful mission to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers.

The indictment, on various money laundering and drug trafficking charges, dates back to March 2020 and the first Trump administration.

The Maduros are already on U.S. soil, and presumably in the Brooklyn Detention Center. Trump has pledged to run Venezuela until such time as he can hand power to good actors, not bad actors.

Those opposition leaders – María Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez – have already expressed their appreciation for the operation. That, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo called the operation an application of the “Donroe Doctrine.” That’s a reference to the original Monroe Doctrine, according to which the Western Hemisphere is our Hemisphere.

Reaction – and just concern

Reaction to the Venezuelan operation has been largely predictable. Most Democrats in Congress have condemned Trump for laying on the raid. They said Trump exceeded his lawful authority and acted contrary to American interests. The New York Times and others actually call it “illegal” and “unwise.” Similar statements come from Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jin-ping of communist China. They also came from the Presidents of Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. (But from Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa came high praise. Argentine President Javier Milei similarly praised Trump, consistent with Milei’s history in that regard. Source: U.S. News and World Report.)

Lay aside for a moment that sentiment in Little Caracas in Miami, Fla., and inside Venezuela itself, is mostly celebratory.

Lay aside even that Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) also sounded a somewhat positive, though cautious, note.

The arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, whose criminal activity and destructive, brutal rule drove his nation into endless pain and poverty, was long overdue. I share my Venezuelan American constituents’ hope that his arrest will allow for a swift, democratic transition of power. However, I am deeply concerned that by leaving Maduro’s regime in place and failing to execute a negotiated transition of power in advance, this arrest will fail to alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people or restore the rule of law.

Moving Venezuela from one unelected regime to another, run by Donald Trump, is wildly inappropriate. He should entrust this responsibility to Venezuela’s legitimate democratic leaders, Edmundo González and María Corina Machado, who won a democratic election overwhelmingly.

I hope Maduro will be brought to justice not only for drug trafficking, but for his crimes against humanity. He stole the 2024 Venezuela presidential election and independent investigators have accused him of extrajudicial murder, torture, systematic corruption, and theft of Venezuela’s wealth.

I fear that President Trump has no concern for democracy in Venezuela and no plan for achieving it. He has failed to explain to Congress or the American people how he plans to prevent the regime from reconstituting itself under Maduro’s cronies or stop Venezuela from falling into chaos. His address to the nation was focused on Venezuelan oil and made no mention of Venezuela’s democratic leaders.

One thing is clear: Venezuela is extremely unstable and in a dangerous condition. I urge President Trump to immediately restore Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans until lawful governance and stability are restored. The Administration must explain their plan for the day after to Congress and the American people.

She happens to have a large part of Little Caracas in her district. Though CNAV must protest her tone, she raises some of the best arguments that have come from the Democratic side. True, she leaves out the minor difficulty of Trump not having grounds to depose Acting President Delcy Rodriguez – yet. (Already she has taken a defiant tone, and Trump has answered that tone.) But CNAV shares her concerns – and her apparent confidence in Sr. González and Sra. Machado.

Justification

As mentioned, lay all that aside. Consider instead the good reasons for President Trump to do what he has done so far.

The late Ayn Rand proposed four criteria that would justify the invasion of a dictatorial regime on humanitarian grounds alone:

• Execution without trial – or at least, execution without a fair trial,
• Detention without charge and especially without a time limit,
• Restrictions or outright prohibitions against ex-migration, and
• Censorship.

Any country that does all four, is a human lobster trap. So any freedom-loving people would be within their rights to crack that trap open. Venezuela under Maduro did all four of these things, in addition to flat-out ignoring the results of the last election.

In addition, the United States has direct casus belli for going to war with Venezuela. Remarkably, Erick-Woods Erickson laid out some of that casus belli:

For those interested, Nicolas Maduro lost his election in Venezuela and refused to give up power. In so doing, he invited Iranian militants and Hezbollah operatives into Venezuela and gave them land to set up shop. He also invited in the Chinese, Iranian, and Russian navies to train his navy for a planned military operation into neighboring Guyana to capture American oil fields. Previously, Hugo Chavez invited in American oil companies to Venezuela, had them build up Venezuela’s oil production capacity, then promptly took over the oil fields, threw out the foreigners, and forced the locals to keep working.

Maduro kept the policy and used the money to help fund Cuba, Iran, and provide China with oil, all while funding global narco-trafficking operations. He is not the legitimate leader of Venezuela…

Add to it that we now know, positively, that Maduro’s Venezuela interfered in the Election of 2020. That’s why Trump went to war.

Oil fields in Venezuela and Guyana might have been good enough cause without the election interference. But the election interference is the true cause.

What Trump should do next

Again, Donald Trump gave us deeds, not words. He must follow these deeds with more, and decisive, deeds.

First, Trump should explain a plan for “the day after.” But as for Temporary Protected Status, CNAV would recommend expedited vetting of all existing refugees from that country. Some of those people, especially some of the young men, are bad actors. (Does the name Tren de Aragua mean anything to anyone?)

Second, Trump should put forth a plan to establish the one cultural import of any value from France: all-paper voting.

What better reason to establish Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs in public high schools, than to have a ready cadre of disciplined – and trustworthy – student pages to count ballots at the precinct on Election Night? Or even to provide crowd and queue control during voting hours? (Managing the division of the electorate into the A-Js and the K-Zs might become their prime duty.)

Third, given the attitudes that Presidents Putin and Xi have expressed, Trump should move smartly to acquire Greenland. Until that happens, we risk letting Russia turn the Arctic Ocean into Nash Okean (Our Ocean – in Russian).

Fourth, the United Nations (which thinks of itself as the Anti-Empire) also stuck its nose in. So it’s time to get the U.S. out of the U.N. and get the U.N. out of the U.S.

This is what Making America Great Again really means.