Heather Cox Richardson

That is actually slightly different than the United States is going to become a colonial power.

That is a personalized power that looks very much like Vladimir Putin.

I think that's right.

And Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo referred to it as Trump's adventure in Venezuela.

And I actually don't think that's a bad word.

There's a long history, of course, with American adventures in Latin America.

But before we even pick a lane, because talk about the present could be anything from the missing Epstein files through the attacks on Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, through the Republicans in Congress appear to be AWOL.

to our foreign adventures, the piece that I think we really have to center is that Trump does not appear to have control of his mental faculties.

And we're not talking about that enough because when people talk about, oh, he shouldn't do this, he can't do this, why is he doing this, and so on, you don't make those arguments about people who don't have any logical reason for anything they are doing except perhaps, I want to feel good about myself and make lots of money.

you know, people keep saying to me, isn't this what he's really doing?

Isn't this what he's really doing?

And that's sort of like saying, you know, what is the internal logic of somebody who does not have the capacity to have internal logic?

So let's start with that.

The next big piece I think that we are maybe underplaying is that the Supreme Court at the end of 2025 indicated that over the long term, although they made a temporary decision, indicated over the long term that they were not going to back the kinds of intrusion into Democratic-run cities that the administration has really relied on to be their main show of force.

Yeah.

And I don't think it's an accident that Trump then lashed out in the foreign sphere where the Supreme Court has tended to give him extraordinary leeway.

By the way, that leeway that he is resting on is deeply contested throughout our history.

You know, there's been a fight between Congress and the president over who actually has control over foreign affairs.

And that's very complicated.

But he believes he has real leeway there.