In his Tuesday post, Trump referred to President Nicolás Maduro’s government as a “Hostile Regime” and accused it of using oil to “finance themselves” and commit crimes. The Maduro government, in a statement, said Trump’s actions were “grotesque” and “warmongering threats.”
“On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property,” the statement said. “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”
US lawmakers also expressed outrage.
“A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war,” Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said on X following Trump’s post. “A war,” he added, “that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want.” Castro is a part of a bipartisan group of congressmembers putting forth a resolution to be voted on Thursday in the House, directing the president to end “hostilities” with Venezuela.
Which is really deeply ironic, considering the first campaign that made a real name for the USN and the USMC outside of the revolutionary war (as well as the first major campaign outside of the “new world” - that is, very far from the continental US) was against Ottoman Tripolitania, when we stoped paying them bribes that were effectively protection money so they wouldn’t pirate US merchant ships. Hence the lyric: “to the shores of Tripoli” (from the USMC anthem).
Huh, TIL. tbf, ive only heard the line as part of Tom lehrer’s ‘send the marines’ (“to the shores of Tripoli, but not to Mississipoli…”)
Marines’ Hymn. Just saying