Ben Rhodes

And is the opposition, what are they going to do?

They're going to fight?

Are they just going to try to have an election?

Are they going to try to get the political prisoners released?

Is the military going to listen to things that she says?

Like all these questions about how that place is going to work

or not answered by just saying, Delcy's in charge, but the U.S.

is really running the place.

Well, look, all of those are difficult, right?

Because like you said, maybe she can turn off some symbolic drug trafficking, but she can't kind of, these are criminals, right?

Like they don't listen to authority by definition.

The Cubans would be hard to get out of there because you talk about like the intelligence ministry, they're deeply, deeply embedded with the Cubans.

It's kind of like a blurred together by design.

The Iranians may be a little easier.

And the Chinese have been buying that oil for years.

So this is all difficult stuff.

And if you're in Venezuela, if you're one of these factions there, what you're probably thinking is, is Trump going to lose interest in this place?

Like he just did his big show.

But everything you know about Trump is, you know, a few weeks go by and he's focused on something else.

And so they have every incentive to kind of maybe throw some symbolic chum at Trump.