There probably isn't a more useful policy aim for the U.S. than taking out Venezuela's socialist regime. 

President Trump has hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens, including many criminals who have wrought mayhem, to deported  and sending back to a democracy will be a lot easier. Venezuela's regime has served as a useful catspaw to multiple anti-American dictators, including China's oligarchs, the Russian regime, and the Iranian mullahs to keep the U.S. in check, propping up the otherwise bankrupt regime in power to harass the U.S. They've threatened and attempted to destabilize their neighbors. And close to President Trump's heart, they are the motherlode, the source orgin, of modern election fraud done on a wide scale. How satisfactory that would be to take them out for that alone and replace the regime with the one the voters voted for. 

So yesterday, we saw this, the result of Trump dispatching seven warships and 4,500 U.S. military personnel to the international waters off the Venezuelan coast:

Democrats stood down & let Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang seize apartment complexes from landlords in Aurora & El Paso to use to sell girls, women & drugs

Democrat Colorado officials even lied to Americans to protect TdA & keep them in business

Trump just blew them away pic.twitter.com/bj5eUe2V7y

— Tara Servatius (@TaraServatius) September 2, 2025

Blown out of the water. And lefties are going into fill Abrego-Garcia mode, wringing their hands, even though past presidents, such as Barack Obama, launched plenty of strikes against civilian targets, and indeed the Navy itself has taken out drug boats in the past.

According to the Washington Post:

MEXICO CITY — U.S. forces could have stopped the boat that officials say was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela to the United States on Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, but President Donald Trump chose instead to destroy it, killing 11 people on board, to send a deterrent message to traffickers.

Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday in Mexico City.

U.S. forces launched a “precision strike” on the vessel as it traveled through the Caribbean Sea, U.S. officials said. When asked if they warned the crew, Rubio said the vessel, like others carrying drugs, posed an “immediate threat to the United States,” giving the country the right to destroy it.

Which, sure, is probably about the boat itself full of lethal cargo, but there isn't anyone out there who also doesn't think it was about the Maduro dictatorship of Venezuela, given that Nicolas Maduro has been identified by the U.S. as an actual drug lord and that a huge flotilla of ships and personnel have been sent to his front door.

His initial dilemma is whether he plays victim or strongman:

???? Good point. The question is whether it is convenient for Maduro to look strong or weak. While that shp may have sailed, the biggest challenge must be balancing the dangers of looking weak inwards vs. the advantages of playing the victim before the international community. https://t.co/AGLlgZgT6l

— Caracas Chronicles (@CaracasChron) September 3, 2025

But beyond that, the question is: What does Trump want? Did he really just send the Navy out to get the drug dealers at sea?

Or was he looking for the big drug dealer, Nicolas Maduro himself, who has turned his country into a socialist narcostate?

Two theories abound as to what could happen.

One, Trump plans not a war or nation-building project in Venezuela, but an extraction operation, to take Maduro out and bring him to justice, as was done with Manuel Noriega in 1990. Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe first put this idea forward several weeks ago, when the boats started appearing off the Venezuelan coast.

Two, as someone in the Post noted, Trump expects the working drug lords in his country to be mighty upset at the loss of income and personnel these blow-'em-out-of-the-water operations are wreaking. Because Maduro would be powerless at the loss of "his" people, and their drug billions, and more strikes are expected to follow, as U.S. officials say, it's possible the drug lords will take Maduro out themselves and then let what happens happen. That's a tricker solution, given the chaotic outcome, but it could be the plan now. Perhaps Argentina or another state will invade and restore order.

Whatever it may be, it's obvious it's just beginning. The left has been caught flatfooted by the operation and has lots to shriek about now, but it's hard to dismiss reactions like this from the regional local leaders:

Trinidad PM Persad-Bissessar praises US for hit on alleged "drug boat," which could have been heading to her country. "The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all violently.” pic.twitter.com/Vti3OFLwve

— Ioan Grillo (@ioangrillo) September 3, 2025

With a direct response like that, you can bet there's a bank of support in the region for putting this plague on the hemisphere out of its misery. And Maduro at this point is sleeping with one eye open.

 Kudos to President Trump.

Image: X video screen shot