Trump must be held accountable!
Jan 03, 2026 (deanobeidallah@substack.com)
If the world does not stand up to Donald Trump now, he will continue to wage military attacks on other countries, kidnap their leaders and steal their resources. History tells us appeasement of an aspiring fascist leader like Trump will only empower him. Will the world learn from history–or will they allow Trump to repeat it?!
Those words may sound over the top, but only because they are being applied to an American President. Put that fact aside for a moment and ask yourself: What would be our reaction if Putin waged a surprise military attack and kidnapped the leader of an oil rich country after he spoke of wanting to take their oil? Is there any doubt the US would be leading the charge to impose sanctions?
Of course not–as we saw with our reaction to Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. And the rationale was the same: If the world did not stand up to Putin, he could very well be like Hitler in 1938 when he annexed Austria and then set his eyes on Czechoslovakia.
Does anyone doubt that Trump who attempted a coup, incited the Jan. 6 terrorist attack and then pardoned his MAGA terrorists is just as dangerous as the fascist leaders and tyrants we have seen in the modern era?!
Now let’s be clear about one thing: Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro is awful. He headed a brutal and oppressive regime. As Human Rights Watch (HRC) documented, since Maduro stole the 2024 election, the Venezuelan government “has killed, tortured, detained, and forcefully disappeared people seeking democratic change.” The head of HRC said earlier this year, “Foreign governments should recommit to supporting the fight for democracy and human rights in Venezuela and press to hold the Maduro government accountable for its atrocities.”
But the way to effectuate change is within the parameters of international law—sanctions, diplomatic pressure, bank freezes, etc. Instead, Trump has turned the United States into a rogue nation by openly and repeatedly violating international law—beginning with murdering people in international waters off the coast of Venezuela.
That is not just my view but also international legal experts and United Nation’s officials. Just last month, I wrote an article that focused on UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s statement on why the military strikes on fishing boats by Trump are illegal under international law. As the UN official noted, “Under international human rights law, the intentional use of lethal force is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life.”
Turk continued that based on the “very sparse” information about the ships provided by Trump, “none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law.” This view is backed up international legal experts.
Every fishing boat targeted was more than 1,500 miles from the US coastline—in other words days away. None were an imminent threat to our nation or citizens. And Trump lied that the ships carried fentanyl. Fentanyl does not come from Venezuela.
Finally, Trump declared two weeks ago that his designs on Venezuela were actually about taking the oil. That is when Trump told reporters about Venezuela, “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.” He backed that up with a post on social media demanding Venezuela return “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.” (As fact checkers note, the oil was owned by Venezuela as a natural resource—not by the United States.)
Given the world yawned as Trump murdered more than 100 people in fishing boats, Trump knew he could escalate the military action which led to Saturday’s surprise military attack and kidnapping of Maduro. After the attack, Trump vowed “to run the country” until we can install a leader who lines up with Trump’s views. (I hope the people of Venezuela like higher prices, higher unemployment and Trump’s name being affixed to all their big buildings!)
But Trump—not being able to censor himself given his cognitive slide—also told us that he will be sending in oil companies to take the oil. Trump declared, “We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”
These massive, multi-national oil companies are NOT doing a public service. They are going into Venezuela to make billions for their executives and shareholders. This is just as Trump promised during the 2024 campaign when he told the oil oligarchs if they support him with massive campaign donations, they will make even more money when he is the White House. Big oil did exactly what Trump asked so Trump is now rewarding them with access to literally the largest oil reserves in the world.
Few support this military action. A recent Quinnipiac poll found nearly 2/3’s of Americans oppose military action against Venezuela. What percentage support military action? Only 25%. That means even a big chunk of MAGA opposes it. But Trump doesn’t care. This a military campaign to help the oil oligarchs who bankrolled his campaign.
The idea that Trump is bringing Maduro to justice for allowing drugs to come to America is a joke. Just weeks ago, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez—a narco-terrorist who was a business associate of the notorious drug dealer El Chapo. As I wrote about, Hernandez was convicted of helping violent drug cartels dump more than 400 tons of cocaine in the United States. Based on the overdose death data, Hernandez was responsible for more American deaths than Bin Laden. That is who Trump pardoned.
Put politics aside for a moment. Think about how the United States of America is now seen on the world stage after Trump waged a surprise military attack upon Venezuela to remove the regime, has vowed to “run” the country until he can find a new leader who will do what he wants and is openly sending in his oil oligarchs to make billions off the nation’s oil?! Is that the America you want to be known for?!
At this point, Democrats in Congress need to do more than just move to impeach Trump. They should be calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Trump for his crimes. And while it’s true that the US is not a member of the ICC, the court still has jurisdiction over a citizen of a non-member country who commits war crimes on the territory of an ICC member country. Venezuela is a member nation of the ICC meaning Trump can be charged for war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes he commits on the soil of Venezuela.
Trump is the Putin of the Western hemisphere and should be treated as such including being prosecuted and personally sanctioned—along with his top officials—by other nations.
As we learned with Trump, if there is no punishment for his crimes, he will commit more—meaning he will 100% attack other nations. That is why we must demand Trump be prosecuted at The Hague. Even the threat of that very real prosecution may be enough to deter Trump from more illegal military actions. In any event, we can’t be silent or the world will believe that we all agree with Trump’s illegal actions!
The Dean’s Report by Dean Obeidallah is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
