Why Did Trump Deploy Warships to Venezuela?

In the latest flurry of media narratives, one story has been barely mentioned.

Donald Trump’s dreams of a fast-tracked bid for a Nobel Peace Prize came crashing down over the last week, dealing yet another blow to his collapsing ego. On Fox yesterday, he said this about the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine:

But, you know, if I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole. If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.

Psychologically, Trump has shifted his goal from the tangible object of a Nobel Peace Prize to a religious mission, a holy war. He is projecting that he is not just a peacemaker, he is a savior unconcerned with a mere prize. This is significant because it marks a change in his psychological frame, and a further disintegration of any remaining barriers to abnormal, transgressive action.

Trump Deployed US Warships to Venezuela. Hello?

In what should have been major news, but barely caused a blip in the media, immediately following the White House meeting on Monday with Zelenskyy and the leaders of Europe, EU and NATO, Trump sent three warships and 4,000 troops toward Venezuela to “combat drugs.”

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Three U.S. Aegis guided-missile destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the next 36 hours as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.

President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations.

There is a lot to be disturbed about by Trump’s military action towards Venezuela, but it must be seen in the context of his domestic situation. On Monday, when Zelenskyy was asked if he would be willing to hold an election he said yes, but is unable to do it during a war. This prompted a remark from Trump to which Zelenskyy reacted appropriately:

TRUMP: So you say during the war you can't have elections. So let me just say three and a half years from now. So you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody? No more elections. Oh, this is good. I wonder what the fake...

ZELENSKYY: You like this idea. No no no.

Again, this was barely covered by the media, but a president musing openly about putting American troops in harms way to cancel an election is by itself an incredible, unprecedented admission. In point of fact, no U.S. presidential election has been canceled, even during the Civil War and WWII.

So what is Trump doing in Venezuela? Why send warships there?

Recall that the start of Trump’s paramilitary squads kidnapping people off the streets to send to El Salvadoran torture prison CECOT was based on an Executive Order that was ultimately blessed by the Supreme Court. The EO misused a wartime power, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to declare an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to justify weakening due process and habeas corpus protections.

Trump’s terror of losing control of Congress in 2026 has already motivated him to launch a mid-decade gerrymandering project in Texas and a number of other states and to try to cancel mail-in voting. He has already said he intends to do military occupations of numerous Democratic cities and has several Republican governors sending National Guard troops into DC.

So Trump’s move to create a zone of conflict between the country he has scapegoated for America’s drug problem, Venezuela, and the US Armed forces cannot be seen in any other light than a preparatory move.

Enter the Prince of Darkness

International terrorist Erik Prince was deeply involved in El Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele’s CECOT becoming Trump’s go-to foreign black site and has been pitching himself as Trump’s operations manager for mass deportations for several years, including a plan earlier this year that sounds suspiciously like what DHS / ICE / CBP is planning to do with the nearly $200 billion allocated to them in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Prince has a very long record of showing up in countries to agitate for (often violent) change in government so he can make money in the aftermath. Now he has a new Blackwater, Vectus Global, to muscle back into the mercenary business. But Prince has a special hatred for Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and has been agitating to overthrow his government for at least six years. In 2019, Prince pitched a plan to topple Maduro with 5,000 contractors, costing ~$40M, selling it as a quick clean intervention that wouldn’t burden U.S. troops. Last year, Prince launched a massive psychological warfare campaign in Venezuela called Ya Casi Venezuela to oust Maduro.

To add to the concern about the goals of this operation, the Pentagon is now under the control of theocratic, misogynist Fox host Pete Hegseth, a close friend of Erik Prince who was instrumental in getting Hegseth the top job at the Pentagon—despite Hegseth’s total lack of qualifications and character.

”I’m not close to Trump. But I am close to his staff,” said Prince, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The two men swam together across the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York for a charity event. Hegseth, as a Fox News host in 2019, advocated clemency for the four Blackwater contractors sentenced to prison for the killing of 14 civilians in Iraq.

Potential Outcomes

It’s unclear whether Trump has a specific plan for Venezuela yet, but here are some of the possible ramifications of his provocation, both geopolitically and domestically.

As context, Venezuela is geographically strategic, a failing petrostate with a huge pile of gas and oil reserves. But Maduro is also making a claim to Essequibo, a disputed territory with Venezuela’s neighbor Guyana.

The region is already unstable, with both Russia and China having interests in Venezuela and Essequibo, as well as active contracts with American oil giants like Exxon and Hess.

Limited Strike / Demonstration of Force

It is highly likely that Trump is going to immediately execute some kind of limited strike inside of Venezuela with the assets he deployed. Trump is cornered and desperate for a win, a show of dominance. The sight of missiles blowing up a “drug cartel headquarters” or paratroopers landing in a “terrorist compound” is just what he thinks he needs.

The consequences of this could be limited, if Maduro chooses not to escalate and Russia and China stay out of it.

Escalation into Proxy Conflict

While an escalation is not guaranteed, Russia has armed Maduro before, and China has real economic stakes in the region. A strike on Venezuelan soil could trigger Maduro to appeal to Putin and/or Xi to respond.

If that happened you could have Russian or Chinese military assets sent to the region which would pose a serious danger of a standoff between superpowers, destabilizing oil markets and escalating cyber and hybrid warfare conflict.

Full-Scale Intervention Or Regime Change Attempt

While it is unlikely that even this Trump regime would execute a full-scale military campaign or overtly attempt to overthrow Maduro, given Trump‘s spiraling psychology and the evident lack of checks and balances or adult supervision at the Pentagon, it is not impossible.

If that were to happen we might have another Iraq in South America, a catastrophic quagmire with consequences we might never recover from.

Domestic Crackdown / Emergency Powers

Trump has already used Venezuela as a scapegoat for America’s drug problem; he sent people to a foreign torture camp on the basis of Venezuelan “narco-terror cartels.” He has already occupied and traumatized two American cities with military presence and paramilitary violence, with the excuse of “fighting crime.”

Whatever he does in Venezuela is certain to be used in America to “crack down” on “sanctuary cities” and other domestic boogeymen. Trump has been trying to find a rationale to impose martial law, and, if there were to be some sort of conflict, whether in Venezuela or domestically, this could be the test case to cancel elections.

Leading Indicators

Donald Trump’s psychology is not hard to understand. After successive body blows to his ego, he is hungry for something that will prove he is still worthy of love—and fear. And there are plenty of fascists around him with ideas like striking Venezuela to “help.”

His open provocation and scapegoating of Venezuela is no accident or coincidence. He is going to do something. Here are a few things to watch out for:

• Increased US naval or air presence in the Caribbean

  • Forward staging of Marines or SOCOM assets in regional bases

  • Joint exercises announced near Venezuelan borders

  • Surge in ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) flights around Venezuelan airspace

• Trump invoking emergency powers—War Powers Resolution maneuvers, Alien Enemies Act language, or new EOs on Venezuela, narco-terrorism, immigration

• State Department shifting recognition to opposition groups

• Formal terrorism/narco-terror designation of Maduro’s government or Tren de Aragua, paving way for strikes

• Erik Prince and MAGA amplification of narratives outlining “solutions” for the “failed state” of Venezuela (Vectus, mercenary framing, bounties, or “freedom fighters”)

• “Stolen election” talk about Maduro from the government, military or MAGA media

• Sudden oil and gas disputes in the region, or border clashes with Guyana or Brazil

Unfortunately, while there were already unpredictable variables at play in this scenario, by moving assets to the region, Trump has added much more uncertainty, and risk, to the equation. Watch this space—even if the media doesn’t.

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