Trump Wages ‘Undeclared War’ on Venezuela - The Monday AM Quickie 9/22/25

By Whitney Curry Wimbish — Sep 22, 2025

I went to Anthony Scaramucci’s big crypto conference in Wyoming and this is what I saw. - Whitney

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THE BIG NEWS

Trump Wages ‘Undeclared War’ on Venezuela, Blows Up Third Ship

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro condemned Trump’s “undeclared war” and called on the United Nations to investigate after Trump blew up a third ship of alleged Venezuelan drug runners in the Caribbean late Friday, according to the AP and Al Jazeera. The US attack killed three people, bringing the total killed in Trump’s boat bombings to 17. The campaign, which Congress has not authorized, comes as the US is stockpiling weapons in the region, including a nuclear-powered submarine, warships and F-35 fighters.

Maduro says Trump is trying to provoke regime change and steal Venezuela’s oil. Trump says the attacks are part of an anti-drug operation. In addition to blowing people up, Trump also demanded this weekend that Maduro take back Venezuelan immigrants from the US, threatening him with “incalculable consequences” and describing the immigrants as “prisoners,” “monsters,” and “people from mental institutions” who have hurt and killed thousands of Americans, which is a lie. “GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT NOW, OR THE PRICE YOU PAY WILL BE INCALCULABLE!” he screamed on his social media website.

Lawmakers, human rights groups, and legal experts said Trump’s summary executions are illegal. A draft law circulating on the Hill seeks to change that, at least by US standards. It would give Trump permission to attack drug cartels and “any nation he says has harbored or aided them,” the NYT reported. It’s not clear who wrote it, but sources told the Times that Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills, an Armed Services Committee member, was involved. He wouldn’t comment and neither would the White House.

Per the NYT:

The broadly worded proposal, which would grant sprawling authority to Mr. Trump for five years to use American military force in a drug trafficking war, has set off alarm bells in some quarters of the executive branch and on Capitol Hill, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity about sensitive internal deliberations.

According to a Reuters report this weekend, Maduro wrote to Trump asking for direct talks just days after Trump bombed the first boat. “President, I hope that together we can defeat the falsehoods that have sullied our relationship, which must be historic and peaceful," Maduro wrote in the letter. “These and other issues will always be open for a direct and frank conversation with your special envoy (Richard Grenell) to overcome media noise and fake news.” The White House didn’t comment. Meanwhile, YouTube took down Maduro’s channel, which published speeches and clips from Venezuelan state TV. According to Al Jazeera, the channel had 200,000 followers.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

Trump’s DEA Wanted to Bomb Mexican Infrastructure and Assassinate Drug Cartel Leaders “DEA’s acting administrator at the time of these early conversations, Derek S. Maltz, told The Washington Post that he is ‘totally in favor’ – and has been since Trump’s first term as president – ‘of hitting the production labs and command control leaders in Mexico.’” via The Washington Post.
Russia Sends Jets into Estonia It’s the third time Russia has violated a NATO nation’s airspace, following incursions over Poland and Romania earlier this month. via the AP.
AOC Gearing Up for 2028 Senate or Presidential Bid Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has done practically nothing to fight Trump’s authoritarian takeover, is up for re-election in 2028. Not really sure why anyone would vote for him at this point. via Axios.
US Law Enforcement Thinks Using Train, Sword, Ninja, Alien and Strawberry Emojis Means You’re a Tren de Aragua Gang Member “Gang experts and immigration attorneys who reviewed the records said the claims were ‘ludicrous,’ ‘uneducated’ and ‘baseless’ and raised concerns that authorities could cite emojis to erroneously label people as Tren de Aragua members – allegations that can have dire consequences, including deportation.” via The Guardian.

SOME NUMBER

4

That’s how many US citizens Israel killed when it dropped a bomb on a car in Lebanon, CNN reported on Sunday night. Three of the four dead were children. By Monday, CNN had updated its story to say that an unnamed US State Department spokesperson claimed the dead were not Americans, though they acknowledged that “the situation is fluid.”

ON THE SHOW TODAY

9/22: It’s News Day ~~Tuesday~~ Monday! Join Sam and Emma for a discussion of The News before Sam takes time off tomorrow in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

DON'T MISS MR CLIPS‌

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PARTING WORDS

“When families get squeezed, especially when there’s inflation and rising housing costs and food costs rise, they’re going to pay all of their fixed expenses first – their rent, their transportation, their utilities, and then they’ll compromise on their food budget.”

-- Barbara Laraia, professor and chair of the University of California at Berkeley’s Food Nutrition and Population Health Program. Laraia discussed with The Washington Post the importance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual Household Food Security reports. The latest report, published last September, found that about 18 million U.S. households were food insecure during 2023, a million more than in 2022. I wrote an article last week about how food banks are already reporting more visitors across the country and the upshot is that Trump is ending the study just as more Americans are going hungry, and he is also making it harder for hungry people to get help. Now would be a great time to donate to your local food bank or food rescue organization if you have any money to spare.

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