President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an address before Republican lawmakers that first lady Melania Trump is no fan of when he dances in public, calling it ‘not presidential.’

‘My wife hates when I do this,’ Trump said Tuesday at the Kennedy Center during an address at the House GOP Member Retreat. 

‘She’s a very classy person, right? She said, ‘It’s so unpresidential.’ I said, ‘but I did become president.’ … She hates when I dance. I said, ‘Everybody wants me to dance.’’

”Darling, it’s not presidential,” he continued of what the first lady tells him. 

Trump dancing became a hallmark of 2024 campaign rallies, with Trump routinely kicking off and ending public events by dancing, frequently while the Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A’ or Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ blasted in the background. The signature dance typically includes Trump making a fist and shimmying his arms back and forth while pointing to people in the crowd. 

The president has previously mentioned the first lady did not approve of his rally dancing, recounting to crowds of supporters in 2023 in Iowa that: ‘She said, ‘Darling, I love you, I love you, but this is not presidential. You don’t dance off the stage. This is not presidential.”

Trump continued Tuesday that the first lady had pressed him that past presidents did not dance solo on political stages, pointing to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an example of how presidents should conduct themselves. 

‘She actually said, ‘Could you imagine FDR dancing,’’ he continued. ‘She said that to me.’

‘And I said, ‘There’s a long history that perhaps she doesn’t know because he was an elegant fellow, even as a Democrat.’

‘He was quite elegant, but he wouldn’t be doing this. But nor would too many others. But she said, ‘Darling, please, the weightlifting is terrible.’ And I have to say this, the dancing, they really like,’ Trump said of supporters who enjoy his rally dance routines. 

‘She said, ‘They don’t like it. They’re just being nice to you,” Trump recounted. 

‘I said, ‘that’s not right,” he continued. 

Trump’s comments on the first lady’s dislike of his dancing came amid him impersonating weightlifters while discussing biological males competing against biological females. Trump has said in public before that Melania Trump does not approve of him imitating weightlifters, as well as dancing during political events. 

Trump’s address before the group of Republican lawmakers follows a historic and busy weekend, when he confirmed the U.S. military carried out a successful strike in Venezuela and captured the nation’s former dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. 

The pair, as well as others entrenched in the regime, were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. The couple pleaded not guilty in a New York City court Monday and are being held in a prison in Brooklyn. 

Tuesday’s event, however, is more focused on the party’s agenda for the coming year, as lawmakers prepare for the wild midterm season that will pick up steam in the coming months. 

Trump capped off his address by clapping and dancing to the ‘Y.M.C.A.’ as he walked offstage.

Health insurance companies are being summoned to Capitol Hill for a pair of blockbuster hearings as Americans across the country deal with rising costs for their care, Fox News Digital is first to learn.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees health policy, and the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy, are both holding hearings on the rising cost of healthcare in the U.S.

It’s not immediately clear which companies will be represented or if they will allow executives to appear voluntarily.

But the announcement appears to be the House GOP’s move to counter-program an expected vote this week on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expired at the end of 2025.

Obamacare subsidies were expanded in 2020 and 2021 to be available to more people during the COVID-19 pandemic, but then-Democratic majorities in Congress were only able to extend those for a finite period of time.

Whether to extend those subsidies was the subject of fierce debate on Capitol Hill in the waning months of 2025.

The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to extending the subsidies, dismissing them as a pandemic-era relic that’s part of a broken federal healthcare system.

Republicans have also argued that the subsidies only eased costs for 7% of Americans and did nothing to tackle the root causes of high healthcare costs.

But the moderate GOP lawmakers and Democrats who support extending the program have pointed out that an extension would give Congress more time to work on a more permanent solution to healthcare while avoiding the cost cliff seen at the end of last year.

A small group of moderate Republicans joined Democrats in late December to successfully force a vote on a three-year extension, which is taking place on Thursday.

The legislation is likely dead on arrival in the Senate if it passes, however.

House Republicans passed a healthcare bill just before leaving Washington for their two-week holiday break in December.

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act includes provisions to codify association health plans, which allow small businesses and people who are self-employed to band together to purchase healthcare coverage plans, giving them access to greater bargaining power.

Republicans also plan to appropriate funding for cost-sharing reductions beginning in 2027, which are designed to lower out-of-pocket medical costs in the individual healthcare market. House GOP leadership aides said it would bring down the cost of premiums by 12%.

As Venezuela enters the post-Nicolas Maduro era, former officials and regional experts warn the country may be facing not a democratic transition, but a period of deeper instability and internal conflict between possible successors that some warn could be even worse than Maduro.

Marshall Billingslea, the former assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes in the U.S. Treasury Department, said Maduro’s removal has exposed a fractured system that was never held together by a single strongman, but by competing criminal power centers now moving independently.

‘The cartel has always been a loose association, with each of the mafia bosses having their own centers of gravity,’ Billingslea said. ‘Maduro was the frontman, but he didn’t exercise total control. Now we’re seeing each of those centers spinning off on their own.’

Billingslea said the capture of Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife, was as consequential as Maduro’s removal itself.

‘The capture of Cilia Flores is a particularly big deal because she was the brains behind the operation and the one who cleared out potential rivals,’ he said. ‘Her removal is equally significant.’

Billingslea outlined what he described as five competing power centers, four within the regime and one outside it. ‘The removal of Maduro, and particularly the removal of Cilia Flores, leaves a huge power vacuum in the cartel,’ he said. ‘We haven’t yet reached a new equilibrium here.’

In the interim, he foresees a high risk of internal power struggles, violence and further repression as rival factions maneuver to secure control in a post-Maduro Venezuela. But he notes that the Trump administration anticipates this and is executing a clear-eyed strategy to first secure U.S. core interests, followed by the gradual restoration of democracy, all without needing American ‘boots on the ground.’

Delcy Rodríguez takes over, but power remains contested

Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s longtime vice president, was quickly installed as interim leader. But her rise has done little to reassure Venezuelans or international observers that meaningful change is coming.

Rodríguez is deeply embedded in the Maduro system and has long played a central role in overseeing Venezuela’s internal intelligence and security apparatus. According to regional reporting, her focus since taking office has been consolidating control within those institutions rather than signaling political reform.

Former U.S. and regional officials say Delcy Rodríguez’s rise has revived long-standing questions about who truly influences her decisions as she moves to consolidate power.

Those officials point to Rodríguez’s deep ties with Cuban intelligence, which helped build and operate Venezuela’s internal security and surveillance apparatus over the past two decades. Cuban operatives played a central role in shaping how the regime monitored dissent and protected senior leadership, embedding themselves inside Venezuela’s intelligence services.

At the same time, former officials say Rodríguez appears to be testing cooperation with Washington, creating uncertainty over how much leverage the United States actually holds. Some view her limited engagement with U.S. demands as tactical, aimed at buying time while she works to secure loyalty inside the regime and neutralize rival factions.

A former Venezuelan official previously told Fox News Digital that Rodríguez ‘hates the West’ and represents continuity with the Maduro regime, not a break from it.

Cabello mobilizes loyalists

Diosdado Cabello, one of the most feared figures in the country, has emerged as a central player in the post-Maduro scramble for control.

Cabello, who wields influence over the ruling party and interior security, has been rallying armed colectivos and loyalist groups. Those groups have been active in the streets, detaining opponents and reinforcing regime authority through intimidation.

Sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for corruption and alleged ties to drug-trafficking networks, Cabello is widely viewed as a figure capable of consolidating power through force rather than institutions.

Jorge Rodríguez holds the levers of control

Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of Delcy Rodríguez, remains one of the regime’s most important political operators.

Rodríguez has served as a key strategist for Maduro, overseeing communications, elections and internal coordination. Recent reporting indicates he continues to work closely with his sister to maintain control over intelligence and security structures, reinforcing the regime’s grip despite Maduro’s removal.

Experts say Rodríguez could play a central role in shaping any managed transition that preserves the system Maduro built.

Padrino López

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, long considered the backbone of Maduro’s survival, remains a critical figure as well.

While Padrino López has not publicly positioned himself as a successor, analysts note that the armed forces are no longer unified behind a single leader. Senior generals are split across competing factions, raising the risk of internal clashes or a shift toward overt military rule if civilian authority weakens further.

Beyond the power struggle among regime elites, Venezuela faces a broader danger.

Large parts of the country are already influenced by criminal syndicates and armed groups. As centralized authority weakens, those actors could exploit the vacuum, expanding control over territory and smuggling routes.

Experts warned that an uncontrolled collapse could unleash forces more violent and less predictable than Maduro’s centralized repression, and the events unfolding now suggest that risk is growing.

Outside the regime, opposition leader María Corina Machado remains the most popular political figure among Venezuelan voters. But popularity alone may not be enough to translate into power.

Machado lacks control over security forces, intelligence agencies or armed groups. As repression intensifies and rival factions maneuver, her ability to convert public support into political authority remains uncertain.

Maduro’s fall, analysts say, did not dismantle Venezuela’s power structure. It fractured it.

With armed loyalists in the streets, rival factions competing behind the scenes, and an interim leader struggling to assert authority, Venezuela now faces a dangerous period in which the aftermath of Maduro’s rule could prove more chaotic — and potentially more brutal — than what came before, experts say. For Venezuelans, the question is no longer whether Maduro is gone, but whether anything that replaces him will be better.

A House Republican is seeking to tighten the screws on the U.S. immigration system in the wake of multiple investigations into alleged fraud within Minnesota’s social services system.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Somalia.

Immigrants from those countries currently in the U.S. on refugee status would be forced to self-deport within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

‘It’s important that we ensure that those entering our country are properly vetted, and they clearly have not been properly vetted. So what we are trying to do is ensure that we address this, we stop this,’ Hunt told Fox News Digital.

Part of his impetus for introducing the bill now, Hunt said, was the increased scrutiny on Minnesota’s Somali community as federal prosecutors investigate what they believe could be billions of dollars of fraud targeting social programs in the Midwestern state.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged multiple people with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

The probe has since widened to multiple state-run programs being investigated for potential fraud, however.

Childcare providers receiving state funding, mainly within the Somali community, are also under scrutiny.

Pressure from the growing scandal pushed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to drop his bid for a third term. He said Monday that he did not want to distract from efforts to shield his residents from both fraudsters and people seeking to politicize the situation.

‘Every minute that I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity, and the cynics who want to prey on our differences,’ Walz said.

Walz previously said his administration has taken steps to crack down on the fraud, but argued federal officials are over-inflating the scope of the damage.

‘I mean, looking at Tim Walz’s decision not to seek re-election — where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There certainly is more to come out of this situation,’ Hunt said. ‘He was clearly complicit in what was going on. That’s why he’s not seeking reelection, and so there’s a lot of ‘there’ that’s there, and it needs to be exposed, needs to be investigated.’

He added, ‘Making sure that we revoke these TPS designations is the beginning of cleaning up this mess.’

Hunt argued that his bill would help hasten the timeline for President Donald Trump’s move to end TPS for foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota.

He added that the wider purpose of the bill was also to block Sharia law from spreading in the U.S., noting it was something he experienced firsthand as a member of the military.

‘As somebody that has lived under Sharia law, somebody that has deployed to the Middle East, this is also a broader conversation about keeping people that hate our country out of here,’ Hunt said. ‘And so what we’re going to do is try to pass legislation that codifies what President Trump is trying to do.’

Hunt is currently running for U.S. Senate in Texas.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said that President Donald Trump is under the ‘thrall of Lindsey Graham’ following the U.S. operation in Venezuela, according to audio of the remarks by the lawmaker that MeidasTouch’s Acyn Torabi posted on X.

Paul said that after the first presidential debate in 2016, the Trump family told him that they liked him and the ‘idea of not being involved in foreign wars.’ 

‘It was something I liked about Donald Trump,’ Paul said. ‘It was one of the things, whenever I had misgivings about something else, I would always come back and say, ‘Well, he’s the best we ever had.’ Much better than the Bush’s, who were war mad and wanted to be involved in all these crazy wars overseas… ‘We’re gonna make the world safe for democracy.’ I never liked any of that. And I thought Trump was different, and so, it disappoints me, but he’s under the… thrall of Lindsey Graham.’

Paul has described Trump’s move to unilaterally depose Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro without seeking congressional approval for the attack as ‘disdainful.’ 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican from South Carolina, has strongly supported the president’s action.

‘This is Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham has gotten to the president who expressed — I saw a clip — there’s like 20 clips of [Trump] saying he’s not for regime change and how regime change has always gone wrong. Somehow they’ve convinced him it’s different if it’s in our hemisphere,’ Paul said to reporters Monday, according to The Hill.

Torabi also posted audio on X in which Paul can be heard quipping, ‘There should be a law’ stipulating that Graham may only visit the White House ‘every other week’ and may only meet with ‘mid-level people, not the president. And no more golf outings.’

Graham was with Trump during a recent gaggle aboard Air Force One.

The senator also recently posted a photo on X that showed him giving a thumbs-up while smiling alongside of Trump, who was holding a cap that read, ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.’

Graham donned such a cap during an appearance on the Fox News Channel.

Trump endorsed Graham for re-election last year.

Hope Walz, daughter of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shared why her father decided to drop out of the 2026 gubernatorial race in a wide-ranging podcast interview on Monday.

Speaking to ‘One Hour Detours’ host John O’Sullivan just hours after her father announced that he would not seek a third term, Walz said the decision had been made over the winter holidays.

‘I think just with things rapidly changing in the past, you know, month or so, I think my dad kind of started questioning it,’ said Walz.

She explained that she didn’t want to speak for her father, but said the increasing intensity of public scrutiny, particularly on social media and toward her family, prompted him to reassess his campaign.

‘When things started getting really intense for me, like on my social media, and then people even saying things like to Gus and stuff, I think that’s when he was really like, OK, like I need to evaluate what’s best for the state, and then I need evaluate what’s best for my family. And then I think it was just kind of a natural, you know, the past couple weeks have been really intense, kind of a natural conclusion,’ said Walz.

Gov. Walz’s decision to drop out of the gubernatorial race came amid renewed scrutiny over childcare funding following fraud allegations raised in a viral video by independent journalist Nick Shirley and the large-scale federal Feeding Our Future case.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in December that the Feeding Our Future investigation uncovered a $250 million scheme that siphoned federal food aid intended for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case has already resulted in 78 indictments and 57 convictions, with prosecutors also charging defendants in a separate alleged plot to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash, Patel said, adding that the investigation remains ongoing.

Walz has come under pressure from President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers over the Feeding Our Future fraud case, one of the largest pandemic-era fraud schemes in the nation, and broader allegations that state agencies failed to adequately oversee Minnesota-administered social service programs.

He said in a press release announcing the end of his re-election campaign that his decision reflected a desire to prioritize governing and the challenges facing Minnesota.

‘I know this news may come as a surprise. But I’m passing on the race with zero sadness and zero regret. After all, I didn’t run for this job so I could have this job. I ran for this job so I could do this job,’ Walz explained. ‘Minnesota faces an enormous challenge this year. And I refuse to spend even one minute of 2026 doing anything other than rising to meet the moment. Minnesota has to come first – always.’

His daughter added that part of her father’s decision to step away was to get the ‘target’ off Minnesota.

‘I think he believes if he’s not in the race, there’s nothing, they [Republicans] have nothing else because he has that, you know, national profile,’ she said. ‘Trump just hates him for some reason. I think it’s because he’s everything Trump will never be.’

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has vowed to return to Venezuela ‘as soon as possible’ following America’s capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, warning that the current regime is escalating an internal crackdown on dissent and journalists.

Speaking to ‘Hannity’ on Monday, Machado said the moment is now right for her return after spending more than a year in hiding. She secretly escaped Venezuela last month and traveled to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to President Donald Trump.

‘Well, first of all, I’m planning to go back to Venezuela as soon as possible,’ Machado said. 

‘As I’ve always said, Sean, every day I make a decision where I am more useful for our cause. That’s why I stayed in hiding for over 16 months, and that’s why I decided to go out, because I believed that at this moment I’m more useful to our cause, being able to speak out from where I’m at right now. But I’m going to go as soon possible back home.’

Machado said developments in the past 24 hours have been deeply concerning, pointing to what she described as a sweeping executive order signed by Maduro on the same day he was captured and flown out of the country by U.S. forces.

‘What we’re seeing right now in the last 24 hours is really alarming,’ she said.

Machado said the order mandates the persecution of Venezuelans who support Trump’s actions and claimed at least 14 journalists have been detained. A state of emergency decree issued Saturday, but published Monday, orders police to ‘immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack by the United States,’ the text of the decree reads, according to Reuters.

She said the situation must be closely monitored by the United States and the Venezuelan people, arguing that the transition away from Maduro must continue.

‘So this is very alarming. This is something that has to be followed carefully, I’m sure, by the United States government and by the Venezuelan people,’ she said. ‘And certainly we believe that this transition should move forward.’

Machado also sharply criticized Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, calling her unfit to lead any transitional authority. Rodríguez, who has been vice president under Maduro since 2018, was sworn in as interim president on Monday.

‘Delcy Rodriguez, as you know, is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco trafficking,’ Machado said. ‘She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors. And she’s really rejected, repudiated by the Venezuelan people.’

Machado’s comments came just two days after the Trump administration announced that U.S. forces had captured the dictator and his wife, Cilia Flores, after successful ‘large-scale’ military strikes targeting the Venezuelan government. The dictator and his wife are now being held in New York while they await trial on narco-terrorism charges.

Fox News’ Maria Lencki and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is set to huddle with House Republicans on Tuesday morning, days after the U.S. government executed strikes in Venezuela and captured the country’s leader Nicolás Maduro. 

Trump will address GOP lawmakers at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, multiple sources told Fox News Digital. 

A White House schedule released late on Monday said Trump will speak around 10 a.m., and that his remarks will be streamed live.

House Republicans will be at the Trump Kennedy Center for an all-day policy forum Tuesday aimed at discussing their agenda for 2026, according to an email obtained by Fox News Digital.

It comes the day House lawmakers return from a two-week recess for the end-of-year holiday period.

Part of the day’s agenda was meant to include remarks by Trump to rally Republicans around their legislative priorities, but three sources told Fox News Digital they anticipate Venezuela will be a focus of the day as well.

‘My guess is he does 30 minutes on Venezuela and five on policy,’ one House GOP source told Fox News Digital.

Another source told Fox News Digital, ‘I would expect him to give a pretty typical rally-type speech … but who knows.’

That source expressed frustration that Republicans were waiting ‘until we get back to work to strategize.’

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., also said he expected Trump’s remarks to focus heavily on Venezuela.

‘I think the president is going to walk through not only the justification he had for it, which is the court of law in the United States, but also the fact that, how legitimate is a country if the… Canadians, the [European Union], and the United States, no one recognizes this guy? The only people who recognize him are our enemies,’ the Florida Republican said.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, who is challenging Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, for his Senate seat, said he anticipated Trump to discuss November’s elections as well.

Asked what he thought he’d hear from the president, Hunt told Fox News Digital he could see Trump discussing ‘the successes of the administration, how important it’s been, what happened in Caracas a couple of days ago…codifying his agenda, and winning the midterms.’

‘I think we’re going to hear a lot of that,’ Hunt said.

President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will temporarily ‘run’ Venezuela following the capture of Nicolás Maduro may prove to be a defining moment for the Western Hemisphere — either a disciplined effort to restore regional stability or the opening chapter of an avoidable, open-ended entanglement.

At his Mar-a-Lago press conference on Saturday, the president stated plainly, ‘We will run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.’ He added that members of his national security team standing behind him would oversee the effort and did not rule out ‘boots on the ground.’ Hours later, speaking aboard Air Force One, he sharpened the message further: ‘We’re going to run it, fix it.’

The strategic logic is easy to understand. Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves and has become a hub for narcotics trafficking, corruption and malign outside influence. The administration’s December 2025 National Security Strategy explicitly embraces what it calls a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine — pledging to deny non-hemispheric competitors such as China, Russia and Iran control over strategically vital assets in the Americas. In that framework, Venezuela is not merely a humanitarian tragedy; it is a test case.

But this is precisely where experience should sober ambition.

The first problem: Who is actually in charge?

A central contradiction now confronts Washington. How does the United States ‘run’ Venezuela when its constitutionally designated vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has already been sworn in domestically as interim president following Maduro’s removal?

Rodríguez’s claim to authority — backed by Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice and regime-loyal institutions — is rejected by Washington as illegitimate. Yet in practical terms, ministries, security forces and regional authorities inside Venezuela remain staffed by officials loyal to the old system. That means the United States is not governing Venezuela in name, law or day-to-day administration — even as presidential rhetoric suggests otherwise.

This disconnect between declared authority and actual control is where post-conflict operations often fail.

Lessons written in blood: Iraq and the cost of improvisation

I learned that lesson firsthand. In 2002 and 2003, I served as a member of then–Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Military Analyst Group. We were given extensive access — briefings, travel and candid discussions with officials planning both the Iraq invasion and what would follow.

In early 2003, several of us met with retired officers outlining postwar governance plans. We asked basic but essential questions: Who would secure ministries? How would local governance function? How would electricity, water and fuel distribution be restored? The answers were often vague, more aspirational than operational.

After the invasion, I visited Baghdad and met with Coalition Provisional Authority officials under Ambassador Paul Bremer. Again, the gaps were obvious. We had removed a regime but had not built the machinery needed to prevent the vacuum that follows. 

One decision still echoes: the CPA’s order dissolving Iraq’s security institutions, including the Ministry of Defense. RAND’s official history records that the order was issued with little objection at senior levels, even as misunderstandings were masked by apparent consensus. The result was predictable — security collapsed, insurgency surged and the U.S. presence expanded far beyond its original scope.

Venezuela now risks a similar mistake. Capturing Maduro may prove to be the easy part. Governing what comes next is the hard part — and the part America has too often improvised.

Panama is the wrong analogy

Some have compared Venezuela today to Panama in 1989, when U.S. forces captured Manuel Noriega and quickly installed Guillermo Endara as president. The comparison is tempting — and deeply misleading.

Panama was small, U.S. forces were already present, and a recognized successor government was ready to assume power. Venezuela, by contrast, has 30 million people, no broadly accepted transitional authority and entrenched military-criminal networks embedded throughout the state. What worked in Panama cannot simply be scaled up to Caracas.

‘Not day-to-day governance’— what that really means

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since clarified that the United States does not intend to govern Venezuela ‘day-to-day.’ That clarification matters — but it raises its own questions. If Washington is not running ministries, courts, budgets or police forces, what does that leadership look like?

In real terms, it appears the administration is signaling a model of indirect control rather than occupation. The primary lever is economic, especially oil.

Venezuela’s political and military elites survive on access to oil revenues. Whoever controls export permissions, sanctions relief, insurance access and dollar-denominated transactions controls the real center of gravity. Conditioning access to those revenues — while freezing assets abroad and coordinating sanctions enforcement with allies — offers Washington leverage over the top of the system without governing the country outright.

That approach amounts to influence without occupation: pressure without American administrators running Caracas.

A narco-state is not a one-man show

There is also a dangerous illusion at work — that removing Maduro dismantles the regime.

Maduro sat at the apex of a narco-state and was indicted in U.S. courts on charges of drug trafficking and narco-terrorism. But he did not act alone. His power rested on a network of generals, intelligence chiefs, judges, energy officials and cartel intermediaries who enriched themselves under the existing system. Many of those figures remain in place today.

They are unlikely to surrender quietly. Some will seek accommodation; others will resist through bureaucratic sabotage, violence or the manipulation of public fear. Without a credible transitional framework anchored in Venezuelan civil society and supported by international legitimacy, the system Maduro built may survive him.

The questions that must be answered — now

If the administration wants to avoid repeating Iraq, it must answer several questions publicly and soon.

What is the legal basis — and limit — of U.S. authority? Who provides immediate security, and under what rules? Which Venezuelan partners will be empowered to lead? What economic plan serves Venezuelans first, not just foreign interests? And how does this mission end?

Once the United States assumes responsibility for ‘running’ another country, it inherits responsibility not only for success but for failure.

The Trump administration can still make Venezuela a model rather than a warning. But doing so will require discipline: clearly defined objectives, credible Venezuelan partners, continuity in security forces, transparent reconstruction tied to humanitarian relief and an exit strategy that is real — not rhetorical.

Venezuela is not Iraq. But history has a way of repeating itself when preparation yields to improvisation.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday warned about the implications of President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, saying it could be the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 in an interview that Trump’s threats about Greenland should be taken seriously.

‘But I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,’ she said, according to the outlet.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that the U.S. needs Greenland, a Danish territory, for ‘national security.’

European and Nordic leaders pushed back against the comments, with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States Jesper Møller Sørensen underscoring their support for Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and stressing that its future must be determined by Greenland and Denmark alone.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland ‘should be part of the United States.’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

‘Greenland has a population of 30,000 people,’ Miller said. ‘The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland. What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?’

‘The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,’ he added.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Monday statement posted on Facebook that his country is ‘not an object of superpower rhetoric.’

‘We are a people. A land. And democracy. This has to be respected. Especially by close and loyal friends,’ Nielsen wrote in part.

‘Threats, pressure and talk of annexation do not belong anywhere between friends,’ he added. ‘That’s not how you talk to a people who have repeatedly shown responsibility, stability and loyalty. This is enough.’