December 11th, 2025: Trump’s Post-Maduro Strategy Revealed & Ukraine’s New Peace Proposal

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Prosecutors say she spent years acting essentially as an agent of influence for the Chinese regime, and in addition, used her position to secure kickbacks in a PPE fraud scheme during the pandemic, among other charges. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. We continue to track the escalating confrontation, of course, between the U.S. and the Maduro regime in Venezuela. And while the dramatic U.S.

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seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker grabbed headlines today – we'll have more on that in a few minutes – there's a quieter development happening behind the scenes that isn't getting much attention. And that's a look inside the Trump administration's plans for what happens the day after Nicolas Maduro falls.

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According to new reporting, the White House has been quietly drafting a series of contingency plans for every possible scenario, specifically a negotiated exit by Maduro, a forced departure triggered by U.S. military action, or perhaps a chaotic collapse from inside the regime itself.

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Sources who spoke to CNN say these plans are being built through the Homeland Security Council and are being closely held. Only a small group of senior officials has visibility into the details, and they're gaming out what the U.S. should do in the first hours and days after the regime is gone.

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This includes options for securing the country, stabilizing key institutions, restoring economic functions, and, of course, filling the power vacuum. And while the administration publicly frames its military deployments as counter-drug missions, internally there's acknowledgement that these assets also could support potential action against the regime.

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Dramatic video showed federal agents and Coast Guard personnel fast-roping onto the ship from helicopters and executing a seizure warrant with support from the Defense Department. Attorney General Pambandi said the tanker had been covertly moving sanctioned Venezuelan and Iranian oil, part of a larger dark fleet that helps Maduro evade sanctions.

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Maritime data shows roughly a dozen other tankers waiting offshore, with more operating with their transponders switched off. The seizure obviously sends a deliberate message. Washington isn't just pressuring the regime diplomatically or militarily. It's now targeting the financial lifelines that keep Maduro afloat.

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Kiev is once again placing its hopes in a document written largely on its own terms, despite Moscow having already dismissed the 19-point revised framework last week that didn't favor Moscow as much as the original 28-point plan drafted by the White House. Confused? Yeah, a lot of people are. The likelihood that Moscow will now favor a revised version that was prepared by Kiev is minimal at best.

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As we previously discussed, President Trump's envoys pushed through another marathon weekend of talks to try to produce a version that Kiev would sign, only to run into the same wall. The White House wants peace, even if it means Ukraine cede the Donbass region to Russia, while Kiev says territorial concessions can't be part of the plan.

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By Monday, Zelensky was signaling that his team was assembling, quote, alternative proposals. From the White House's perspective, this is from their perspective, it's starting to feel like Zelensky's circle keeps rearranging the same pieces on the table and hoping Moscow somehow reacts differently the next time.

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Now, from Kiev's perspective, it's looking like the White House is willing to trade away a large chunk of Ukraine and meet Putin's demands in order to say a peace deal has been accomplished. Meanwhile, Putin shows no signs of looking for any off-ramp from his invasion.

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After Ukraine and several European capitals balked at the original 28-point peace play from the White House for accepting key Russian demands, the Kremlin returned the favor with a rejection of its own, saying the revised 20-point plan hammered out by U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators failed to meet their demands. So, for now, as we've said many, many times on the PDB, the war grinds on.

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Carried out from inside the highest levels of New York State's executive branch. In the simplest of terms, look, from the Chinese regime's perspective, Xi was working as an agent of influence. They weren't giving her money and gifts because they liked her.

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She was a classic target, frankly, for Chinese intel, a first-generation Chinese American in a position of influence with access to persons of interest.

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The Chinese intel apparatus uses a wide range of espionage tools around the world to gather information, influence policymaking, monitor targets of interest, and work to suppress individuals or organizations that the Chinese regime considers hostile to its interests.

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Their efforts encompass everything from recruited assets to agents of influence, witting and non-witting cooperative contacts, and more. Linda's son would have to be incredibly moronic not to have known that she was advancing the Chinese regime's interests and objectives while accepting remuneration from them.

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And the regime would have considered her as an important asset in helping to advance their agenda in New York and hopefully beyond. She was able to put herself in positions of responsibility with two different New York governors and to brag about her influence to individuals within the Chinese consulate. So perhaps we could rule out that moron scenario.