Let’s be honest for a second. Just one second. The news cycle is currently exploding because President Trump said the quiet part out loud regarding **Trump's Venezuela oil comments**. He looked at the massive **Venezuela oil reserves**, saw an ocean of black gold, and essentially implied, “We should take that.”

The suits in Washington are losing their minds. The polite people on the news are clutching their pearls over this breach of **US foreign policy** etiquette. They are shocked. They are appalled. They say this breaks a “taboo.” They say **American interventionism** doesn't operate that way.

Give me a break.

The only thing that happened here is that someone finally stopped lying to you. For decades, the United States has been looking at other countries like a hungry dog looks at a steak. We have gone into the Middle East. We have messed around in South America. We have put our nose in everyone’s business. But usually, we have the good manners to lie about it.

That is the “taboo” that was broken. The taboo wasn’t stealing. The taboo was admitting it without the usual script.

In the old days, when a President wanted something from another country, they utilized high-ranking keywords like “freedom,” “democracy,” and “human rights.” They would go on TV with a sad face and say we had to send the army to help the poor people. They would say we needed to stabilize the region. They would use big, fancy words to hide the fact that they were just securing the bag. It was a performance. It was a play. And everyone in the audience nodded along because it made us feel like the good guys.

We love feeling like the good guys. It helps us sleep at night while our cheap gas fills up our big trucks.

But now? Now we have a President who treats global politics like a foreclosure auction. He doesn’t care about the script. He doesn’t care about the fancy words. He looks at the **Venezuela crisis**, sees the resources, and thinks, “That looks valuable. We are the big guys. Why don't we just take it as payment?”

It is ugly. It is crude. It sounds like something a mob boss would say. And that is why the establishment hates it. They aren't mad that the U.S. is bullying a smaller country. They are mad that Trump is being so rude about it. He is stripping away the paint and showing everyone the rusty, greedy machine underneath. He is ruining the illusion.

The Right loves it because they think it sounds tough. They think international politics is just a big game of playground bully, and they like being the bully. They cheer because they think might makes right. They see oil and their eyes turn into dollar signs like a cartoon character. They don't care about the people in Venezuela. They just want the loot.

The Left hates it because it makes them look bad. They want to believe in the fairy tale. They want to believe that when we intervene in other countries, we do it out of the kindness of our hearts. When Trump says, “It’s about the oil,” he is popping their balloon. He is forcing them to look in the mirror. He is showing them that their precious system runs on greed, just like everything else.

And what about Venezuela? The country is a disaster. The people are suffering. Their leadership has failed them. But does that give us the right to walk in and empty their pockets? In a fair world, no. But we don't live in a fair world. We live in a world where the strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must.

This whole situation is a joke. It is a dark, twisted joke. The media is running around screaming about “norms” and “traditions.” What traditions? The tradition of lying? The tradition of pretending we are saving the world while we rob it blind?

Trump didn’t change American policy. He just took the mask off. He stopped pretending that we are superheroes. He showed the world that at the end of the day, nations act like pirates. If you have something we want, and you can’t stop us, we will figure out a way to get it.

Maybe it is better this way. Maybe it is better to see the ugly truth than to believe a pretty lie. At least now we know who we are. We aren't the shining city on a hill. We are just the biggest guys on the block, and we are hungry. So spare me the outrage. Spare me the shock. This isn't a new movie. It’s just the first time the main character admitted he’s the villain.

## Authoritative References & Fact-Check * **Primary Source**: [Trump’s Oil Grab in Venezuela Shatters an American Taboo](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/us/politics/trump-oil-venezuela.html) - *The New York Times* * **Topic Context**: Analysis of **Venezuela oil sanctions** and historical precedents in **US-Latin America relations**.