What did Donald Trump do today?
He rattled the saber for a war against Venezuela that even he doesn't seem to know why it should be fought.
Trump took a few minutes from his six-day Thanksgiving weekend to, in so many words, threaten to blow up civilian passenger planes in Venezuelan airspace.
This is roughly as legal, and as dangerous, as if Venezuela had "closed" the airspace around Atlanta.
Trump still has not articulated a reason why he wants to start a war with Venezuela, other than references to drug smuggling. Very little of the illegal drugs Americans consume come from Venezuela—even ignoring the fact that domestic or legitimately imported prescription drugs are a major part of the problem. (The specific drug Trump invariably mentions, fentanyl, doesn't come from Venezuela at all.)
Even if drugs were the official reason, Trump's decision yesterday to pardon one of the biggest narcotraffickers in the region's history, for no reason he was willing to state out loud, makes it hard to believe that's what he cares about.
A war with Venezuela could jeopardize the government of Nicolas Maduro, its authoritarian president who is generally hostile to the United States, and who is one of the few world leaders who talks about Trump the way Trump talks about everyone else. But decapitating the government wouldn't guarantee it would be replaced by a friendlier one, and would undoubtedly cause massive disruption and loss of life within the country.
If there is a specific rationale in Trump's mind, it may be his cripplingly low polling. Under normal circumstances, presidents sometimes see a "patriotic rally" at the start of hostilities with another country. But one of the few things that polls lower than Trump himself is starting a military conflict with Venezuela.
Why does this matter?
- Presidents should be both willing and able to say why they want to use the U.S. military to attack another country.