https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/first-thoughts-on-trumps-excellent-venezuela-adventure
By Josh Marshall, EIC- - Talking Points Memo
I’ve heard a lot of people talking about not consulting with Congress or not receiving an authorization to U.S. force from Congress. I think this is far, far beyond what are essentially sub-constitutional technicalities. The U.S. president just went to war with another country and now will apparently occupy it for essentially no reason, with no warning and with public opinion overwhelming against all of it.
Someone quipped on BlueSky last night that Trump hadn’t even taken the proper constitutional steps to lie the country into this war. This was more than just a funny line. Even lying the country into a war gives some due to the idea that the country is supposed to have some idea what the president is doing, why and some opportunity at least to register an opinion about it.
Nor can any of this be separated from the broader domestic and global fabric of Trumpism, the casual illegality, the impetuousness and more than anything else the simple but always visible premise that Trump owns the United States, its military, its people, its wealth, everything. Someone told me earlier that this was like Trump taking his ICE raids global. And yeah, it pretty much is. Trump does what he wants, like one does with things one owns. You don’t ask your table what room it wants to be in and most employers don’t ask employees what tasks they want to do. In Trump’s mind he owns the country and its power. He won it fair and square in the 2024 election. Everything that stands in the way of that basic premise is an obstacle to be overturned.
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