America First? Trump Declares Himself Acting President of Venezuela

Donald Trump’s “mandate from the people” apparently extends to foreign oil-rich nations.

The president informally declared himself “acting president” of Venezuela Sunday evening, sharing an edited variant of his Wikipedia profile to include the detail underneath his official 2025 portrait on Truth Social.

The line reads: “Acting President of Venezuela, incumbent, January 2026.”

The title addition also precedes details of his U.S. presidency.

The Truth Social post received more than 23,000 likes, and fielded replies suggesting that America should take over all of Latin America. “This is our hemisphere,” reads one response that included an image of a red, white, and blue map spanning from Greenland to Argentina.

U.S. forces invaded Venezuela earlier this month, bombing its capital, Caracas, as nearly 200 American troops infiltrated the city to capture its 13-year ruler, Nicolás Maduro. That’s left open questions about Venezuela’s political future and who will run it, especially as Trump and his officials tout that the military incursion was primarily to acquire the nation’s oil resources.

Trump has signaled that he would recognize Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as the face of the country. Rodríguez was recognized by Venezuela’s armed forces as its interim leader, and she was sworn into office shortly after Maduro was kidnapped.

In a press conference hours after Maduro’s abduction, Trump warned that Rodríguez would pay “a very high price” if she did not “do what’s right” with regard to helping American companies access Venezuela’s oil reserves.

On Tuesday, Trump announced that the U.S. would oversee the sale of some 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil, a sale that could be worth as much as $2.5 billion. The following day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that America would continue to oversee and sell Venezuelan oil “indefinitely,” even after the government finishes chewing through the Latin American country’s stockpiled oil reserves.

In an interview with The New York Times published Thursday, Trump claimed that the U.S. will likely run Venezuela for years.

President Donald Trump suggested that being “disrespectful” toward law enforcement justifies the deadly use of force.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday, Trump offered a new excuse for why an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis: She wasn’t being very nice.

“We have to respect our law enforcement. At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” he said. “And you heard the same noises, you saw the same crunch that I saw. You can’t do that with law enforcement, whether it’s police or ICE or Border Patrol or anybody else.”

When asked whether the use of deadly force was necessary, Trump replied: “It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement, the woman and her friend were highly disrespectful. You saw that.” He even suggested that Good and her wife (whom he incorrectly identified as her “friend”) were “professional agitators.”

So, in Trump’s America, being disrespectful toward law enforcement is enough to get you killed.

The “crunch” sound that Trump was referring to was from the 47-second clip filmed from the perspective of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Good. In the video, there is a loud sound as Good tries to pull away from the group of officers. But the crunch wasn’t Ross being hit—more likely, it was him shooting his service weapon through her windshield.

Even if what Trump was saying was true, that Good had been “disrespectful” to law enforcement, that wouldn’t justify her killing. But once again, the video evidence Trump was referencing quickly disproved his own claim.

The video taken by Ross as he stalked around her vehicle showed Good behind the driver’s seat, saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” The president’s version of events conveniently ignored other footage that showed Good wasn’t actually blocking traffic and had waved the agents past her car, urging them to “go around!”

Instead of pulling around, the ICE agents swarmed her vehicle, pulling on the doors and demanding she “get out of the fucking car!” One witness even said that another officer ordered her to leave. When she attempted to drive away, Ross, who was in front of the vehicle, shot her at least three times.

Trump had previously claimed that Good “ran [the officer] over,” before reporters had to brutally point out that video evidence did not actually support that claim.

President Trump declared on Sunday that Iran crossed a “red line” after the country’s violent crackdown on anti-government protest, before walking it back.

“On Iran, have they crossed your red line yet to trigger a response?” a reporter asked the president while aboard Air Force One.

“They’re starting to, it looks like. And there seem to be some people killed that aren’t supposed to be killed,” Trump said. “You can call ’em leaders; I don’t know if they’re leaders … they rule through violence. But we’re looking at it very seriously … we’re looking at some very strong options.”

But he then floated negotiating with the leaders ruling “through violence.”

“Iran called to negotiate [yesterday] … the leaders of Iran,” he told reporters. “I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States.

“A meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting, but a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

At least 544 protesters have been reported dead and 10,600 detained by the Islamic Republic of Iran as demonstrations enter their third week. Iranians are entering their fifth day without internet access.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell shot back at President Trump Sunday after the Department of Justice served the Fed’s board with grand jury subpoenas.

In a statement, Powell called the move a “threat of criminal charges,” saying it was a “consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”

“I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one—certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve—is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration’s threats and ongoing pressure,” Powell noted. 

Trump has railed against Powell and his stewardship of the Fed for months, attacking the chairman whom he appointed during his first term on everything from his criticism of  tariffs to his refusal to cut interest rates as quickly or as much as Trump wants. This grand jury summons is ostensibly over the high cost of renovations to the Fed’s office buildings, which Trump has exaggerated as pretext to attack Powell. 

Powell warned  that the DOJ’s action is a pretext to coerce the Fed to do Trump’s bidding.

“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” Powell said. 

By law, the Fed is supposed to be politically independent. That hasn’t stopped Trump from trying to fire one of the board’s governors, Lisa Cook, or from issuing this unheard-of subpoena. In reality, Trump is mad that his own policies are tanking the economy, but refuses to recognize that. Unfortunately for him, having yes-men at the Fed will not bring forth the economic renaissance Trump seems to think he’s capable of. 

Donald Trump humiliated himself Friday when Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to slyly pass him a note during a meeting with oil executives, and the president immediately read it aloud.

Trump was in the midst of promising “a very nice return” for executives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Halliburton, Valero, and Marathon—in exchange for a $100 billion investment in rebuilding Venezuela’s energy sector, when he was suddenly sidetracked by a scrap of paper from Rubio.   

“You’re all gonna do very well—Marco just gave me a note. ‘Go back to Chevron, they want to discuss something,’” Trump read, turning to look at Chevron Vice Chairman Mark Nelson. “Go ahead, I’m going back to Chevron, Mark.”

Rubio grimaced uncomfortably, as Trump patted him on the back. “Thank you, Marco,” he said.

“Was there a question, Mr. President?” Nelson asked.

“Yes, go ahead Marco, what are you saying here?” Trump asked, inspecting the note again.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright jumped in. “Mark, if you could update us on operations on the ground, appropriate approvals, what you might be able to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months—give us a little view from the ground,” he said. 

Nelson launched into a description of Chevron’s ground operations. Chevron is the only oil company currently operating in Venezuela, as part of a joint venture with Petróleos de Venezuela. Wright told CNBC Wednesday that the Trump administration was receiving “daily updates” from Chevron and working closely to “allow their model to grow even more.”

Trump’s gaffe was part of a larger trend of cognitive decline, as the aged president has spent the last year in office appearing to fall asleep during meetings and giving incoherent, confused rants.

Katie Miller, the wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, fumed Friday when ChatGPT didn’t give her the answer she wanted about the ICE shooting in Minneapolis. 

Miller shared a post on X from one right-wing commentator that appeared to show an interaction with ChatGPT, in which a user asked the chatbot “who was responsible” for killing Renee Good. 

“Based on available video and reporting: ICE agents escalated a chaotic stop, gave conflicting commands, and fired as the woman tried to leave,” the chatbot replied. “The responsibility for the shooting lies with the U.S. Immigration Enforcement agent who pulled the trigger.”

That answer wasn’t good enough for Miller, however. “ChatGPT is dangerously woke,” Miller wrote on X. “An AI that wrongly judges an outcome is a threat to the future of nation and world. xAI is the only truth-seeking AI.”

(xAI is Elon Musk’s chatbot that is under fire for making sexualized images of women and children. It has already been used to generate an image of Good’s body in a bikini.)

Surprisingly enough, ChatGPT’s description of the violent shooting was right on the money.

Initial footage of the incident showed Good wave at the agents and urge them to “go around” her vehicle. (Newly obtained video showed that Good wasn’t fully blocking the street, as cars were able to pass her on either side.) ICE agents swarmed her vehicle, pulling on the doors with one officer demanding she “get out of the fucking car!” while another ordered her to leave. 

When Good attempted to drive away from the group of officers, one ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, who was standing near the front of the vehicle, pulled out his service weapon and shot her once through the windshield, and twice through the driver’s side-window. Ross had a history of escalating arrests with violent tactics. Another new video shows that an unidentified agent said, “Fucking bitch,” after Ross fired.

Miller shared another X post calling ChatGPT a “national security threat.”  She then made another post far more despicable than any of her useless toiling over AI, mocking Good’s wife, Becca, and calling her “another sad Liberal angry at the World because daddy didn’t love her enough.” Having seen how her husband talks, is anyone actually surprised?

The president’s myriad disparate interests finally aligned on Friday when he was able to squeeze his recent acquisition of Venezuela’s oil reserves into the same sentence as his White House ballroom project.

“The largest Oil Companies in the World are coming to the White House at 2:30 P.M.,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social. “Everybody wants to be there.

“It’s too bad that the Ballroom hasn’t completed because, if it were, it would be PACKED,” Trump continued. “We apologize to those Oil Companies that we cannot take today, but Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, will see them over the next week. Everyone is in daily contact.

“Today’s meeting will almost exclusively be a discussion on Venezuelan Oil, and our longterm relationship with Venezuela, its Security, and People,” he noted. “A very big factor in this involvement will be the reduction of Oil Prices for the American People. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly of all, will be the stoppage of Drugs and Criminals coming into the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has used the news of the day to talk about his ballroom. He quickly pivoted to his pet project when asked about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and reportedly keeps leaving his actual duties to survey the construction.

U.S. forces invaded Venezuela early Saturday, bombing its capital, Caracas, as nearly 200 American troops infiltrated the city to capture its 13-year ruler, Nicolás Maduro.

Trump failed to notify Congress before doing so, but didn’t forget to tip off his friends at America’s biggest oil companies, which stand to gain the most from America’s newfound control over Venezuela’s oil supply—the largest in the world.

The invasion followed months of escalating naval attacks by the U.S. and rhetoric between the White House and Venezuela’s leadership, which saw the Trump administration repeatedly pin U.S. fentanyl deaths on Venezuelan drug cartels despite a resounding lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, East Wing ballroom architect Shalom Baranes revealed Thursday that the president’s plans for the White House were bigger than previously understood. In a meeting with members of the National Capital Planning Commission, or NCPC, Baranes announced that the administration intends to build up the West Wing after it finishes its 90,000-square-foot ballroom project in order to add “symmetry” to the executive mansion.

The architect did not offer a timetable for its completion, and did not say if the West Wing’s proposed growth would add to the redevelopment plan’s $400 million price tag.

This would be—at minimum—the second time that Trump has lied about his construction dreams for the White House. Back when the ballroom was first announced in July, Trump pledged that the development would “be near but not touching” the White House East Wing. He then proceeded to completely raze the FDR-era extension in October, plowing forward without prerequisite approval from the NCPC or the express permission of Congress, both of which were conveniently unavailable at the time due to the government shutdown.

Now it seems that no corner of the White House will go untouched by Trump’s white marble dreams.

A newly released camera perspective of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis has shed additional light on the moments leading up to Renee Nicole Good’s death.

The previously unseen cellphone footage, obtained and published by Allen Analysis Newsroom, depicts a federal agent’s vantage point of the lethal encounter, and captures audio of at least one ICE agent calling Good a “fucking bitch” after they shot and killed her.

The exchange, as captured in the new video, begins with a 360 degree shot of Good’s red Honda Pilot, with the agent walking from the passenger side to the front to the rear of the SUV, presumably documenting the vehicle and its license plates. In doing so, the agent filming captures video of Good’s dog in the backseat, his large, black head hanging out of the open window.

As the agent passes in front of the driver’s side window, Good can be seen and heard telling him: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”

“I’m not mad at you,” she shouts again as he walks behind her car.

The agent’s masked reflection is caught in the glass of the backseat windows as he moves away.

Another woman—presumably Good’s wife, Rebecca Brown Good—is filming the agent while standing next to the rear of the SUV. Her voice can be heard over a long shot of the vehicle’s license plate.

“Show your face,” she said. “It’s OK, we don’t change our plates every morning, so it’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later. U.S. citizen, former fucking veteran—disabled veteran. You want to come at us? I say you go and get yourself some lunch, big boy.”

Someone can then be heard telling Good to “get out of the fucking car,” when she reverses and then pushes the vehicle forward. As she does so, several shots can be heard. The image loses focus. When the camera stabilizes, Good’s car can be seen careening away.

“Fucking bitch,” an agent said.

In a paltry attempt to defend the agents’ deadly actions, Trump officials have branded Good a domestic terrorist for moving her car, and have suggested that defying the barked orders of masked individuals that evade identification is a crime punishable by death.

Yet other video footage of the incident illustrates that Good did not hit the agent who killed her, identified by the Minnesota Star-Tribune as Jonathan Ross.

Still, within moments of the new video’s release, Vice President JD Vance and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt breathlessly rushed to mold the clip to their political narrative, excoriating media coverage of Good’s death and claiming that the national outrage is little more than a Democrat-fueled smear campaign.

“The media dishonesty about this officer is an all-time moment in shameless press propaganda,” Vance posted on X Friday.

This story has been updated.

Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good, reportedly had a history of escalating arrests with violent tactics. 

Ross, a 10-year law enforcement veteran, was injured in June during the chaotic attempted arrest of Roberto Carlos Muñoz, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala with prior convictions for criminal sexual conduct, who drove off during a traffic stop in Bloomington, Minnesota. 

Ross and another agent pulled in front of Muñoz’s vehicle to force him to stop. The two officers exited their vehicle and aimed their firearms at Muñoz, demanding he provide documentation, which he did, according to the affidavit. When the officers demanded that Muñoz roll down his window, he refused. Ross pulled out his taser, which he aimed at Muñoz’s chest, and the officers warned Muñoz that they would break the window if he did not comply.

Ross used a spring-loaded window punch to break the rear driver’s side window, and reached in to try and unlock the driver’s side door. Muñoz put the car in drive and dragged Ross roughly 100 yards, while Ross fired his taser “at least twice,” according to the affidavit. The agent later testified that he fired his taser 10 times.  

Eventually, Ross was shaken loose from the window, falling into the street. “The agent suffered serious lacerations on both arms, which required 33 stitches in total to close,” the affidavit said. 

“I was fearing for my life. I knew I was gonna get drug,” Ross said, according to a transcript of his court testimony from December. “And the fact I couldn’t get my arm out, I didn’t know how long I would be drugged. So I was kind of running with the vehicle.”

The claim that an officer was “fearing for their life” is a common phrase used by officers to justify their use of deadly force—and has become a familiar refrain for ICE agents who claim protesters’ vehicles were “weaponized” against them.  

Vice President JD Vance delivered a full-throated defense of Good’s killing Thursday, while botching some of the details of Ross’s backstory. 

Complaining about a CNN headline that described the incident, Vance said: “What that headline leaves out is the fact that that very ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car six months ago, 34 stitches in his leg, so you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile?” 

Setting aside the fact that it was Ross’s arm, not his leg, that was injured, Vance’s remarks also absurdly suggest that any officer hurt in the line of duty has a free pass to remain in the field and shoot dead civilians if they get scared. That’s exactly why desk duty exists, right?

It’s hard not to see the parallels between Ross’s interactions with Muñoz and Good. Not in the fact that Ross was in any danger from Good, but that in both cases, he drew his weapon in order to threaten his target when they did not immediately comply with his commands. In one case, that decision was deadly. 

The court documents involving Muñoz’s arrest also contained other information about Ross. He described himself as an Indiana National Guard veteran who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 before joining Border Patrol. In 2015, he joined ICE and was assigned to the Enforcement and Removal Operations special response team, where he pursued “higher value targets.”

The White House ballroom project is about to get even bigger.

East Wing ballroom architect Shalom Baranes revealed new plans for the executive mansion Thursday, showcasing a previously unreported, one-story addition to the West Wing that he claimed would balance out the 90,000-square-foot development.

The expansion, which would take place after the ballroom is completed, would “restore a sense of symmetry around the original central pavilion,” according to Baranes.

Responding to questions from members of the National Capital Planning Commission, Baranes said that the potential West Wing project would affect the West Wing colonnade but not the building proper, reported ABC News. The architect did not offer a timetable for its completion, and did not say if the West Wing’s proposed growth would add to the redevelopment plan’s $400 million price tag. (The project was, initially, supposed to cost $200 million before Donald Trump decided to tack on extra construction.)

Baranes also offered more details on the magnitude of Trump’s highly controversial ballroom, projecting that the new building will have 40-foot ceilings, be able to accommodate up to 1,000 seated guests, and would constitute just 22,000 square feet of the 90,000-square-foot development.

Baranes took over the ballroom project after Trump fired the original architect in early December. Despite handpicking James McCrery II to lead the renovation, Trump soon began clashing with McCrery after he disagreed with Trump’s desired size for the new East Wing.

A White House official who aided the presentation, Josh Fisher, said that the administration is also considering changes to Lafayette Square, which is located due north of the White House in the President’s Park.

Will Scharf, a senior White House official on the NCPC, claimed that the myriad changes to the White House were necessary in order to bring it up to snuff with the residences of other world leaders, comparing the symbol of democracy to the sprawling estates of King Charles of England.

But Trump also has his eyes set on spending heaps of taxpayer money on other portions of Washington.

The “Arc de Trump” is expected to be erected near the Arlington Bridge, opposite the Lincoln Memorial. It will be modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the historic monument that commemorates those who fought and died for France during the country’s revolution and the Napoleonic Wars—though the president’s arc is, by its namesake, expected to honor just him.

Trump also renovated Jackie Kennedy’s famous Rose Garden, mowing down flowers in order to literally pave paradise. He gutted the Lincoln bathroom, transforming it from Lyndon B. Johnson’s favorite office into a marble-slathered eyesore, and swapped the historic Palm Room’s lush green tones and tall ferns for white paint and framed photos of plants.

Meanwhile, his administration is doing some demolition of its own, reportedly planning to destroy some 13 historic buildings on the grounds of former psychiatric hospital St. Elizabeths in order to expand facilities for the Department of Homeland Security.