The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Psaki: Donald Trump is addicted to power; planning, not so much
07 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The U.S. military deployed on the streets of America. Whole communities targeted for removal. And when accountability finally came knocking, the Burn Order to cover it all up.
So Donald Trump, we know this, he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't take any recreational drugs that we know of, but Donald Trump has a different kind of addiction, I guess we could call it. He's addicted to feeling like he is powerful, even if he's not really powerful, often he's not.
He lives, lives for the dopamine rush that comes with big public displays that make him feel strong and important. Actions that feed his fragile ego and quell all of his insecurities, and there are many. I mean, he kind of suggested as much last month, saying out loud, when he publicly admitted to having a possessive and addictive type personality.
Just the kind of person you want in the White House, right? Now, Trump craves the high that comes from the public displays of power so much that he doesn't concern himself with the consequences of his actions. Because by the time the dust finally settles, he's already chasing his next dopamine hit.
And Donald Trump's decision to invade a foreign country and arrest its president is kind of a perfect example of this. I mean, he relished the images of the dramatic overnight raid to capture Nicolas Maduro, who I would note is not a good guy. He's a very bad guy and a very corrupt guy, but still.
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Chapter 2: What addiction does Donald Trump have according to Jen Psaki?
Trump loved the scene of Maduro being perp walked off a plane in his tracksuit into an American prison. He even told his favorite Fox Morning program, quote, I watched it like I was watching a television show. The speed, the violence, it was an amazing thing. That's the president of the United States, everybody, saying that.
See, for him, this is all about the spectacle, about the images of toughness and conquest. It's why he's obsessed with the idea that the U.S. is now going to take their oil. It's a fantasy he's been fixated on for almost 40 years, seizing oil wherever the U.S. can flex its military might.
We got to go in and take over their oil. I have no doubt about it. Other people would say, oh, Donald, that might start a war.
Chapter 3: How does Trump's craving for power affect his actions?
We're going to have a war through weakness. You go and you take over the oil. Let them have the rest of their country. We just want the oil. Why aren't we getting it? Why don't we get some of it? Why don't we just take over the oil? We should take it over. You have to go in and take the oil.
Knock the hell out of them. Take the oil. We thereby take their wealth. We take all their wealth.
If we're going to get out, take the oil. The great oil companies, they'll rebuild that sucker brand new. It'll be beautiful. And I'd ring it, and I'd take the oil.
Okay, so Trump has clearly fantasized about doing this for a very, very long time. That goes back many, many years. Well, tonight in a post-untruth social, Trump announced that Venezuela would be turning over between 30 to 50 million barrels of, quote, high-quality sanctioned oil to the United States of America. And that money from that oil will be, in his words, controlled by him.
Now, there's so many questions here. For context, though, 30 to 50 million barrels of oil is roughly equivalent to the amount of oil the U.S. produces every three to four days. So this is not exactly a huge windfall to start with. But setting that aside, how is this supposed to work? What legal basis does the U.S. have to seize any country's oil?
What does he mean when he says it will be controlled by him? And what does Venezuela get in return, which I expect a lot of national security reporters are looking into right now? None of this feels particularly well thought out. Lots of questions.
Trump doesn't care, though, because just like with everything else he does, once the high of the announcement wears off, there is no plan for what comes next. Which is why three days after their attack on Venezuela, the Trump administration still hasn't given us any clear indication of what their long-term plan is for the country they're apparently pillaging for oil.
I mean, the morning after the raid on Maduro's home, Trump was at, the morning of the raid, I should say, Trump was asked, who is in charge of Venezuela? And this is what he said. It's largely going to be for a period of time, the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back.
So the people standing behind the president, you can see them there, you recognize all of them, in that moment were Trump advisor Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. And in the days since those men got that assignment from Donald Trump, while they stood right behind him, they have made pretty clear they are not exactly interested in the assignment.
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Chapter 4: What international actions of Trump are discussed in relation to Venezuela?
Over to you, Secretary Rubio.
Mr. Secretary, who is in charge? Are you running Venezuela right now?
Yeah, I mean, I keep people, you know, fixating on that. Here's the bottom line on it is we expect to see changes in Venezuela.
Who are those people who will be running the country specifically?
Well, it's not running, it's running policy. The policy with regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction.
So is the United States running Venezuela right now?
Well, I've explained once again, I'll do it one more time. What we are running is the direction that this is going to move moving forward.
Are you running Venezuela right now?
Jordan, I've explained again that the leverage that we have here is the leverage of the quarantine. So that is a Department of War operation.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of Trump's plans for Venezuelan oil?
And I say, if you believe in love and the goodness of the American people, that gives people hope. So rather than just focusing on him, but she does this in order to get attention, we want to show that the American people are good people and that our We'll honor the vision of our founders. We'll respect the courage of our men and women in uniform.
And we will be faithful to the aspirations of our children. And we will not let his lies take us away from that.
No, and we want to keep working to preserve the memory of what happened that day. I wanted to play part of Jack Smith's testimony. It was so incredibly powerful. I've been saying we didn't all even know the sound of his voice, really, until they shared this all. But let's play that. I want to talk to you about it on the other side.
The evidence here made clear that President Trump was, by a large measure, the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol as part of this case does not happen without him.
It is so powerful to hear that it's been five years. It's important for people to hear that.
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Chapter 6: What questions arise about the U.S. legal basis for seizing Venezuela's oil?
I was, of course, working in the Biden administration at the time. I have great affection for Attorney General Merrick Garland. It was a tough choice he made and how he pursued the strategy. You know, he went after and they decided to go after the insurrectionists first to build the case against them. It feels to me watching that or this is what I was thinking about the time.
Jack Smith ran out of time. He ran out of time. Do you wish, looking back, that there had been a reversal of the strategy, that they had gone after Donald Trump earlier than they decided to?
Well, I don't want to relitigate what happened in that period of time, except to say that when we had the January 6th committee, we provided the data. Now, nothing as conclusive as Jack Smith did, and that was part of our testimony today as well, just people quoting him. Quite a remarkable presentation he made in his testimony earlier.
But what we did in the Congress was to have a bipartisan committee that established the facts based on testimony of people 99% of the people were Republicans in elective or appointive office. Maybe two of the people who were poll watchers, I don't know what party they were to, but everybody else were Republicans.
So the data was there, the facts were there, the violations were there, and we presented that. How they go around, I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what the... validation that they have to have of all that we presented. But the fact is that this is not over. A price will be paid. And today we saw such beautiful testimony. And it was mentioned the person who was there in the Capitol.
And she said, I did wrong. I did wrong. And she would not be pardoned by the president because she said she knew did wrong. So in any case, this isn't over yet. But let's just remember the times found our founders to be. Just put together this great democracy. Thank God they made the Constitution amendable so we could ever have expanding freedom in our country.
Our men and women, Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln saved our union. The times found him. Now the times have found us. And rather than just prey on what he has to say next because that's why he lies so much so he gets the attention that he wants for lying, we're here to respect the goodness of the American people as we go forward.
I expect other people are going to be wanting and loving those bracelets. We're going to take a very quick break. There's a lot more to discuss with you, including the year ahead and your incredible legacy in Congress. We'll be right back.
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Chapter 7: How does Nancy Pelosi describe the aftermath of January 6th?
And unfortunately, that's the big part of the Republican Party. It is a big Ponzi scheme. Donald Trump is the head of a Ponzi scheme. And every day it's got to get 1% shinier, 1% more bombastic. So you forget about all the crazy stuff that was promised or done the day before. And they're willing to do and say anything.
But I will tell you, there are millions of Republicans on the same journey I'm on. They're just behind me. They are waking up every day and they've just had enough. They've had enough. And I think a lot of people in America have had enough. They're ready for change and just honest leadership to step forward. We need a role model in the Oval Office like we've never needed one before.
When you say Republicans are behind you, do you think some of them are in Congress? Some of them are people out there in the country who were just they've had enough of Donald Trump? Do you see kind of what do you see as the future of the Republican Party once Trump is no longer in office?
I think it's going to be a series of half-lives. I think you're going to see other folks come in to try to be like Donald Trump and you're going to try to act like Donald Trump. But look, I ran out of making excuses. My journey to becoming a Democrat has been one of the most public displays over the last five years.
This journey to becoming a proud Democrat was based on one being embarrassed of walking into rooms and saying I was a Republican and I supported Donald Trump because I didn't. Two, it was the policy thing started to fall apart, right?
I got tired of driving by that hospital in Georgia, watching families nervous about walking in because they're sick because they don't have health insurance and they don't want to bankrupt themselves. Or driving by that school and blaming the teachers for the lack of progress. Or not making excuses for mass shootings when we want to pass common sense gun legislation.
The list goes on and on and on. I got tired of it and I wake up as a proud Democrat now. with a better toolkit to reach into and reach Georgians' lives.
I've talked to a number of people who they have different journeys than you have had, but who were maybe formerly worked in the Trump administration or formerly supported him and have kind of come. I shouldn't say a number. They're not that many of you. Maybe you're on a text chain. I don't know that there's a cost of speaking out.
You talked about this today and I found this to be a very powerful moment about kind of the impact on threats on your families. Talk a little bit about that. It's not easy to do what you've done. What has been the impact?
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