OIL & TROUBLE

Donald Trump keeps saying the U.S. is “in charge” of Venezuela. The reality is more complicated — and very dangerous.

• Is Marco Rubio now the secretary of state, national security adviser, acting archivist… and acting president of Venezuela? President Donald Trump seems to think so. He repeatedly claimed over the past few days that the U.S. is running Venezuela, whose leader, Nicolás Maduro, was kidnapped from his bedroom (and then photographed sporting a Nike tracksuit) by American special forces. Rubio tried to dodge responsibility during interviews, saying the U.S. is running a blockade, not governing the place. But Trump is adamant that “we’re in charge.”

• In reality, Trump is full of it (again). Maduro is gone — but his entire team remains in place. Trump is attempting regime change by shakedown, warning the remaining officials: Do what I say, or else! His approach amounts to a Tony Soprano-style protection racket, with hell to pay if he doesn’t get what he wants. What does he want? Oil, of course.

• “It’s about the oil,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told What A Day. “He has already given [the oil industry] a lot of favorable treatment, but this is the biggest gift he could probably give them.… It’s just about making some more money for his oil industry backers.”

• Unless the U.S. puts a large number of troops on the ground, “we will not be running the country,” Mick Mulroy, a senior DOD official during Trump’s first term, told What A Day. “The regime minus Maduro is still in charge.”

• One of many dangers ahead: What happens if Venezuelan leaders don’t bow down to Trump’s wishes? Trump will face a choice: Escalate, or look weak. And he hates looking weak.

• Trump reportedly dismissed Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as a possible new leader because, naturally, he was jealous of her Nobel Peace Prize. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” a person close to the White House told the Washington Post.

• The White House is also considering giving Nosferatu-esque aide Stephen Miller an elevated role overseeing Venezuela, the Post reports. Personally, I wouldn’t put that guy in charge of filling potholes in downtown Caracas, but I’m no stable genius.

Meanwhile, Trump is also threatening Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Greenland. Is Congress powerless to stop his global rampage?

• Trump launched the operation in Venezuela without approval from lawmakers — or even a heads up. On Thursday, Senate Democrats are expected to vote on a resolution that would require Trump to seek approval from Congress before striking again.

• “I’m not sure it’s going to pass, because I’m pretty sure almost every Republican will line up with Donald Trump,” Murphy said. “Even if that vote were to pass, it’s probably likely that he’d ignore it.”

• Republicans will regret supporting Trump’s actions without congressional approval, Murphy predicted. “It’s really hard to put this genie back in the bottle if a president just doesn’t believe that the Constitution applies, that law applies,” he said. “I don’t know why a future Democratic president wouldn’t take advantage of that space, just like Donald Trump has. So, Republicans are going to rue the day that they set this machine in motion.”

So… are we at war? “We’re effectively at war with Venezuela, because there is an invasion that has happened, and the president is threatening future invasion,” Murphy added. “That needs the consent from Congress.”

STORMY SEAS

Most Americans want more accountability for the Trump administration’s actions in the Caribbean, according to new polling exclusively obtained by What A Day.

Even before the Venezuela raid, significant majorities said they want stronger oversight on Trump’s belligerence in Latin America. The U.S. has killed dozens of alleged drug smugglers with airstrikes in the Caribbean, including eight last week. The Coast Guard recently suspended its search for survivors of the latest strike.

Eighty-three percent of Americans say that the Trump administration should explain its legal justification for those boat strikes, according to a ACLU/YouGov poll conducted two weeks ago.

Another 63 percent of voters would support Trump’s team releasing the unedited videos of those attacks, including video of the strike that allegedly killed survivors clinging to wreckage (which Trump promised to release… and then didn’t).

The majority of voters (58 percent) would support Congress holding a public hearing with government officials responsible for the boat strikes. Most voters are also worried that top officials will escape responsibility while soldiers are blamed.

“Given the life-or-death stakes of the president’s use of force, it’s imperative that this transparency and accountability comes immediately,” Christopher Anders, director of the ACLU’s Democracy and Technology Division, told What A Day.

WHAT ELSE? 👀

ICE agents have used a new facial recognition app more than 100,000 times to quickly determine a detainee’s legal status and potential criminal history, a government official told the Wall Street Journal, speeding up the administration’s radical immigration agenda.

The CDC is recommending that children receive fewer vaccines — just 11, down from 18. Doktor Brainwürm strikes again. I feel healthier already.

Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) is heading for the door. The governor said he won’t seek reelection, despite previously insisting he would. His surprise move comes amid GOP allegations about widespread social services fraud in his state. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) may run to replace him, according to multiple outlets.

Are you fabulously rich? If so, great news: The Supreme Court has your back. The high court has grown more likely to rule in favor of wealthy people in recent decades, according to Yale and Columbia researchers. Republican appointees now support the wealthier side 70 percent of the time. You mean the right-wing justices who fly on private jets and have wealthy benefactors favor the rich??? No way!

More than 40 million Americans ask ChatGPT for health advice every day, according to a new OpenAI report. This is NOT what we meant by universal health care!

A court in Paris found 10 people guilty of cyberbullying First Lady Brigette Macron, following false claims about her gender and sexuality. I wonder what those French jurists think about America’s cyberbully-in-chief?

LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️

Senators, they’re just like us. At least, in some ways. I asked Chris Murphy for his New Year’s resolutions: “My resolutions always tend to be the same, which is to spend more time doing things other than politics… and then politics just keeps on dragging me in,” Murphy told me. “So yeah, I’ve got a long list, from playing tennis with my kids to hiking to you name it. I just think once again, I’m probably going to be unsuccessful.” We believe in you, senator.

Americans can get GLP-1 weight-loss pills at pharmacies and via mail-order starting today. The price for the pills range from $150-$300 per month without insurance, while the manufacturer said it may cost only $25 with insurance.

Finnish elementary students are being taught media literacy skills, including how to spot fake news and disinformation, and how to tell if a photo is AI-generated or not. “It is a little bit hard,” one 10-year-old student said.

South Korea President Lee Jae Myung, who has voluminous full head hair, is pushing to have hair-loss treatment covered by insurance — describing it as a “matter of survival” for many young people.

The first full moon in 2026, known as a Wolf Moon, illuminated the night sky over the weekend. It’s the first of three so-called supermoons expected this year

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