Are We at War With Venezuela? Dan Bongino Is Out. Is This ACA Discharge Petition Happening?

I did not expect to spend my day asking whether the United States is about to launch a military intervention in Venezuela, but here we are. The reporting ahead of Donald Trump’s 9 p.m. Oval Office address suggested he might formally announce direct action against Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Given the recent bombing of Venezuelan boats and the administration’s decision to designate Maduro-linked actors as terrorists, the speculation did not come out of nowhere.

What gives me pause is the absence of the usual drumbeat that precedes war. There has been no sustained media push, no daily parade of officials warning about imminent humanitarian catastrophe, no rallying cry from the base. I do not remember “Maduro must go” chants at Trump rallies. Trump’s political instincts usually align with spectacle and popular applause, and this feels different. It looks more like coercive posturing than a war sold to the public, closer to his madman theory approach than a full-scale regime change campaign.