Is the Operation About Oil or Symbolism?

Robby explores motives: Trump's instincts, oil interests, and America-first advisers' hemisphere rationale.

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Episode notes

This week, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Matt Welch are joined by Reason senior editor Robby Soave to dig into the U.S. capture of Venezuela's sitting president, Nicolás Maduro, and what it means for the White House to claim it can "run" another country without congressional authorization. They debate what temporary American control is supposed to mean in practice, whether the capture of Maduro was legal, how war powers and congressional authorization fit into it all, and why White House officials keep framing the moment as a fight to expand U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere.

The discussion shifts to New York politics after Mayor Zohran Mamdani calls for replacing "the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism," prompting a debate over his motives to use such rhetoric in his inauguration speech. They also examine Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's decision not to seek reelection as attention intensifies around a major fraud case that gained national notice following a viral empty-daycare video. A listener question asks whether immigration policy should weigh factors like culture and religion, and what reforms could reduce corruption and conflict without abandoning the case for legal immigration.

0:00—Can the U.S. "run" Venezuela?

12:46—President Donald Trump's foreign policy ambitions

25:52—Mamdani denounces "rugged individualism"

33:46—Listener question on immigrant assimilation

44:30—Walz not seeking reelection

52:22—Weekly cultural recommendations