Transcription
Donald Trump governs like he speaks, like he keeps promises, like he reads, like he he poorly. He does all of those things incredibly poorly. And all of that was on display today when a slurring, sick, tired Donald Trump, who was falling asleep, melted down at his press conference after his illegal strikes of Venezuela last night. The war that Donald Trump is dragging us into, breaking one of the uh most obvious lies of his campaign, the promise that there would be no new wars under Trump when in fact he's set a record for a president in his first year in office with the number of different countries that he's bombed.
But Donald Trump, we always had this expectation. We didn't expect it to be maybe this embarrassing somehow because it was even worse than I could have imagined this morning as Donald Trump couldn't read and fell asleep. We're going to get into it all, but before we do, if I could quickly ask you to leave a like on this video and if you haven't already and you enjoy our channel to hit that subscribe button because it goes a long way in supporting our work.
Now, there is so much to get into and what was a disaster press conference, but I want to start, of course, where Donald Trump did, bragging about an illegal war. "And early today, at my direction, the United States armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. Overwhelming American military power, air, land, and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was a an assault like people have not seen since World War II. It was a force against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracus to bring outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro to justice."
"He knows this is all on the record, right? That we can hear him, that we can see him, that we know that he is stating, that he is breaking the law. And honestly, I think that this is the battle that Donald Trump wants to have. He wants to debate the legality of this. He wants to say, 'Oh, I'm always happy, you know, because I'm such a strong, tough guy and I care about this country.' Such that I'm not I don't care about the law or the constitution or I'll break norms. That's the argument that Donald Trump wants to present. And while I do think it's important that we talk about the illegality of this, of course, we then have to follow that up with saying here's what the consequences will be for defying Congress. But it's also important to keep in mind that Donald Trump is doing this not just because he loves breaking the law, but to cover up the Epstein files. He's talking about seizing oil. I'm sure he wants to get a cut of that. And he wants to expand his authoritarian regime. There are so many different reasons for Donald Trump's illegal invasion. Of course, these aren't good reasons. These are personal reasons for him."
"Uh, but it did not stop him from of course his inability to to focus ever because Donald Trump instead of just ranting and raving about oil which he did and we'll get into the rest of these disaster moments decided to bring up Jimmy Carter with breathtaking speed, power, precision, and competence. You rarely see anything like it. You've seen some raids in this country that didn't go so well. They were an embarrassment. If you look back to Afghanistan or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days, they were different days. We're a respected country again, like maybe like never before."
"It's always crazy to me that he's reading the speech and again he's doing it slurring and he's really struggling to read and it actually uh it got worse, but that somehow he's always so happy to go off script. Why? Why are we talking about Jimmy Carter? And so, why are we talking about respect? Where do you command that? On the world stage, you're laughed dead at the UN. In this country, your approval rating has never been lower. I don't know what Donald Trump is talking about, but clearly he sees this as an opportunity and misreads the situation entirely to present himself as the strong man. As he said right here, 'We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.'"
"So, okay, you you hear the slurring, right? It's not just me. Also, much more importantly than just the president's inability to speak. We're taking over Venezuela. Will there ever be a moment in which the America first crowd cares about America? Why is that what we're spending our so the ballroom Argentina and now Venezuela are you aware of these skyrocketing prices? Clearly not. Um, but Donald Trump actually this funny enough thinks that the answer to it is what he said right here about oil in which he could just barely speak. 'And we have now a border where nobody gets through. In addition, Venezuela unilaterally seized and sold American oil, American assets, and American platforms, costing us billions and billions of dollars. They did this a while ago, but we never had a president that did anything about it. They took all of our property was our property. We built it. And uh we never had a president that decided to do anything about it. Instead, they fought wars that were 10,000 mi away. We built Venezuela oil industry with American talent, drive, and skill, and the socialist regime stole it from us during those previous administrations. And they stole it through force. This constituted one of the largest thefts of American property in the history of our country. Considered the largest theft of property in the history of our country. Massive oil infrastructure was taken like we were babies and we didn't do anything about it. I would have done something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere. That's what they did.'"
Donald Trump wants to make this argument. I think that the the purpose for regime change in Venezuela is there's a couple of prongs to it. Certainly one is Trump wants to say this is about stopping drugs even though he pardoned a convicted drug trafficker so it's clearly not about that but he also wants to say oil right he's kind of making this financial and economical argument he's saying the economic argument is like oh energy and liquid gold and drill baby drill so things will be cheaper but things aren't cheaper and while everyone is looking at rising cost I I don't think that gas prices is the number one thing that comes to mind it's the price of groceries which won't be made cheaper with Donald Trump going into Venezuela. So why is he trying to make that economic argument? It doesn't make a lot of sense. Clearly doesn't make a lot of sense to Donald Trump who was falling asleep through most of this press conference somehow like a giraffe standing up.
"Intelligence agencies including the CIA, NSA, and NGA. We watched, we waited, we prepared. We rem"
How is he so he's so out of it that he's falling asleep standing up? I like I got to say that's impressive. Like it's impressively bad to be like no and you're awake. He's like swaying back and forth and you can always see him like jump and catch himself like oh my god he's a mess. He's falling apart. Donald Trump has dementia. Donald Trump is in cognitive and physical decline. Donald Trump is covering up his health. And while all of this is happening, our incompetent president is sending us to war with no actual legal justification, first of all, and then no reason of consequence or substance that that isn't incredibly hypocritical or misguided. That is Donald Trump seeing this as a moment, I guess, to try to preserve power within MAGA. He thinks that his supporters are gullible enough to fall in line with his reasoning, which is flawed. And the other reason, of course, is he wants to expand his authoritarian project. He wants to say that if there is a a time in which we think a country a country Donald Trump might project out then to be ours is destabilized we will go in. But he is creating opportunities for dictators all across the world to destabilize and invade and to go and try to kidnap the leaders of other nations of other neighbors. This is incredibly dangerous. It is a horrible precedent for Donald Trump to be setting. He's certainly helping out his buddies, his strongman buddies who who tell him, "Oh, you're such a such a good little boy, Donald, and we love you. Here's a little pat on the head, you moron." And I think someone who gave a a great synopsis of of just all of the ways that we shouldn't consider why is this so dangerous was Rachel Matau right here.
"Questions of legality and illegality um are ones that he um that that may play differently for him than they would for a non-strong man leader. For example, I think that to the extent that this can be defined in the United States as having been an illegal action, I actually think Trump will see that as a political plus and he will lean into that. He will not care about not only will he not care about people saying this is illegal, he'll see that as an asset and he'll want to play that up. I also think that would be strong men and authoritarian leaders like to start wars. Um, they like to start wars, I think, both for ego and sense of purpose, but also because they like the expanded powers that war tends to give leaders domestically at home against their own political opponents."
"Even though he says he doesn't he he says that's not his thing, right? He's he's still jockeying for that Nobel Peace Prize nomination."
"Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to get a Nobel Peace Prize when you're starting wars and invading other countries. But, you know, I suppose if anybody thinks he can do it, it's probably President Trump."
"Uh, one of the, uh, things that David RH, who's with us this morning, uh, was pointing out is that, um, it's it's not clear yet, but it does seem like congressional authorization was not sought uh, for this action. But that's part for the course to your point, right? Donald Trump, if he if he doesn't if he thinks the law is in his way as it relates to military action, Congress is where that law is where you bump up against that law. So, he may not be as troubled by it. This morning, we're hearing from members of Congress, we'll have some on the show, uh, and from members of the Senate, from both parties who feel that the bombing of those boats off of Venezuela uh, was illegal and that this may it itself be illegal. That used to be relevant. That used to be a big conversation that would occupy a lot of our thought. Uh, seems to just play a smaller role these days."
"Yeah. Two things. One is that I think a lot of um, a lot of previous presidents have broken those rules. Um and so we inherit um from you know President George HW Bush and Panama, right? Like we we inherit from from George W. Bush in terms of his invite. We we inherit um uh a a presidential presidential sense of entitlement around war powers that is totally unjustified by the constitution. It's what I wrote my first book about. Um, but it's something that's been eroding for a long time. This idea that Congress controls whether or not we go to war. Um, and I I sincerely hope that in my lifetime we will get back to the founders's vision of who's supposed to declare war and how we're supposed to do it. But Donald Trump won't be the one to have broken that. But a second point, Alli, I really feel like what we've seen with the vote strikes and what we've seen with the president's domestic agenda is that if he had a choice to do this within the law or a choice to do it blatantly flouting the law, he would choose the latter. um because I think he thinks that makes him seem strong. Um and because I think he thinks that essentially doesn't just break the law in sense of violating the law, it breaks the law in terms of its ability to constrain him in the future. And I think that this president does not feel bound by the laws established by the United States Congress, nor does he particularly feel bound uh by the rulings of most US courts. And so I think that he'll see illegality in this case as a plus. Um, and he will hope that the debate domestically about what he's just done is about the constitutionality of his actions because I think he'd he'd proudly proclaim that he's acting outside the Constitution uh and hope to turn that to political capital in the in a sort of strong man uh strong man narrative that he's that he's so obviously so obviously uh enamored of in this second term."
This man has no idea what he is doing and we are going to continue to call it out on this show every single day. This is not just an illegal war. It is a war without real purpose. And while I think pointing out the illegality is important, we also need to make the case that it is time for America and it is well past time to stop getting involved in stupid foreign conflicts. We should be supporting our neighbors who are fighting for democracy. But if you want to talk about America first, it's not this. We should be supporting allies who stand up for democracy. But this is not America first. And that is not what Donald Trump cares about. If he did, he wouldn't tried to steal election, right? He wouldn't have tried to steal the 2020 election. We're going to keep calling it out on this show. If you want to support that, as always, you can hit that subscribe button, leave a like on this video. If you stuck around to the end, drop a blue heart in the comments. Keep on fighting, y'all. Don't let them silence you. And until next time, I'll see you.