The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | December 6th, 2025: What Maduro Asked For Before Leaving Power & The Welfare Scandal Rocking Minnesota
06 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, Maduro's possible terms for stepping aside are coming into focus, including his requested demands and security protections and exile options. We'll examine the details with Joshua Phillip, senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times.
Later in the show, a deeper look at Minnesota's widening welfare fraud investigation, including the overseas money networks now under scrutiny and concerns that some of the cash, and there's a lot of it, may be ending up in the hands of terrorists. We'll talk with Ryan Thorpe from City Journal, one of the investigative reporters who helped break the story.
But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight. We're learning far more about that phone call between President Trump and Nicolas Maduro. And the picture that's emerging suggests that Maduro may have been preparing for an exit.
New reporting indicates the Venezuelan leader floated a deal that would allow him to step aside, asking for broad legal protections, safety for his inner circle and a destination for exile. And, of course, a very large suitcase full of cash.
The discussion reportedly even touched on where he might flee with options ranging from China or Russia to Cuba and now Qatar being floated as a possible compromise host. Here to help us break it down is Joshua Phillips, senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times and host of Crossroads, which you can find on YouTube and you should find on YouTube.
Just go to at Crossroads with Joshua Phillips. Man, listen, thank you very much for joining us here today on The Situation Report. Hey, real pleasure being here. Tell us about this phone call.
Well, Donald Trump seems to have given Nicolas Maduro an ultimatum, leave or die. And it seems that Nicolas Maduro came back with it and said, well, how about you give me like $200 million and make me also so I can't be criminally charged anywhere else in the world.
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Chapter 2: What terms did Maduro propose for stepping down from power?
And Trump seems to have suggested, you know what, I think you're asking a little too much here, buddy. I don't think you realize the predicament you're in. But what I will say is this. The policy to remove Maduro from office was a Biden policy. It was a Trump first term in office policy.
It was even before that, because what Maduro represents is not just, you know, everyone's paying attention to the drug boats. Right. And they're blowing up the drug boats and whether you agree with it or not. Right. Right.
The deeper context of it is that Venezuela was kind of the beachfront used by a partnership with Cuba, Fidel Castro and Chavez working together on it, to bring in Chinese Communist Party Belt and Road debt traps through all of Latin America to create what they called the pink wave of socialist governments.
It took over almost every country and to push the United States out and to reject the Monroe Doctrine. So Venezuela is like more than just... drug problem
They're an ideological threat to the United States in terms of the influence operations they've been doing throughout the entire region, creating organizations designed to exclude the United States in interregional diplomacy and to instead bring in, crazy as this sounds, Iran, Russia, and China.
What's old is new again, Joshua. It's the domino theory. But yeah, look, I think you're right. Obviously, the relationships...
with cuba uh russia and china in particular are fascinating and i think people lose track of that because they they are you know the way this is being reported is very myopic right so it's it's just this this struggle between the us um and in most narratives it's trump so it's the struggle between trump and nicholas maduro right so i'm glad that you pointed out the wider context here i
It's interesting. It sounded from the reporting that's come out of that phone call where Maduro was essentially laying out his conditions for giving up power and leaving Venezuela. Sounds like when he was talking about the 200 million or so, that it wasn't so much you give me 200 million. It was that let me keep at least 200 million of my money, of my personal wealth. That's crazy.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How did the phone call between Trump and Maduro influence the situation?
That was, by the way, a position maintained even under the Biden administration. The Biden administration recognizes Juan Guaido as the government in exile, and he's currently in Florida, right? What happened was this, though. Trump's first term in office. Trump was talking about intervening militarily in Venezuela.
We were going to send troops there because what Maduro was doing was there were large scale protests throughout the country. People were mad at him. They were rioting on the streets. He then started using paramilitary groups tied in with FARC, which is a narco terrorist organization. And of course, you know, he's with the Cartel of the Suns.
They started using narcos, gangs to shoot people point blank, to raid people's apartment buildings, to arrest people and just was just crushing brutally. the uprising and protests because they knew that Maduro stole the election. And again, it's controversial here, but Biden, even Biden recognized this. Even a policy of the Biden administration.
Then what happened was Trump talking about intervention. As you have happening now, Maduro called for foreign help. He asked for help from China. He asked for help from Iran. He asked for help from Russia, which he's now done and they've already denied him. But at the time they did come to his rescue.
China went to the diplomatic stage, started calling for other countries to reject American diplomacy and how dare America make threats. And then Russia deployed two strategic bombers, nuclear capable to Venezuela, and then issued a statement to the United States that if we intervene, if we intervene, the results will be catastrophic. and there will be bloodshed.
They made an indirect nuclear threat to the United States, and Trump actually backed down.
Nobody's better at rattling the nuclear saber than Dmitry Medvedev, former president there in Russia. That guy, he has never, never lost an opportunity to talk about how anything we do could result in catastrophic nuclear results. So the position that we're in right now, though, it's interesting because,
I've had conversations, right, and this is not going to surprise you, but I've had conversations with folks who are on the side of saying, well, this is simply the U.S. creating an opportunity, right, that they're saying, look, the cartel, you know, de los solos, you know, that doesn't exist. Well, you know, it doesn't exist kind of in the way that people typically think of a cartel, but it is.
It is a network. It is a structure in a sense, right? But they'll look at that and go, that's an invention of the U.S., and we're doing this purely for oil. What do you say to people who have that?
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Chapter 4: What are the details of the Minnesota welfare fraud investigation?
And then they also said they need a war in Latin America. They wanted at the time Brazil to start a war. during Lula Silva's first term, who's now back in and currently working with Maduro on the plan to take over Guyana. And that was going to be the trigger as soon as they had that to invade Taiwan. And that would be World War III.
That has been averted by just basically locking down, you know, airspace over Venezuela and just blowing up targeted strikes, Venezuelan leaders. So if America wanted a war... We would have let it happen. That would have been the big war and the whole military industrial complex. If that was the objective, they would have let that happen.
I want to pick up on that. But first, Joshua, we need to take a quick break. So don't move. Don't leave from where you are. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with more from Joshua Phillip and the Situation Report. So stick around. Hey, Mike Baker here, the PDB host and well-known snack expert. Now, let me ask you a question. Have you ever read the label on a typical bag of chips?
Chapter 5: How is al-Shabaab potentially connected to the fraud in Minnesota?
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the Minnesota welfare fraud scandal?
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You don't feel like ordering online? Well, no problem. Masa and Vandy are now available nationwide at your local Sprouts supermarkets. Just stop by and pick up a couple of bags before they're gone. Welcome back to the PDB Situation Report. Joining me once again is senior investigative reporter for The Epoch Times, Joshua Phillip. Joshua, thank you very much for staying with us.
I know this is this is speculation, but we do love speculation here on the Situation Report. Are we close to seeing some type of kinetic event on the ground in Venezuela? I mean, a direct conflict with the U.S. military?
Well, so let me give my prediction of what's going to happen. This is a Trump policy and a Biden policy. Trump acknowledged his first term in office as well.
Chapter 7: How did COVID-19 impact the scale of welfare fraud?
Nicolas Maduro is the leader of the Cartel of the Suns. They work together with FARC, an arco-terrorist organization. They also work with Tren de Aragua. which then works with the Mexican cartels and everybody else. With any gang, there's go-betweens of territory. That's just how they work, right? Gangs work with gangs.
Joshua, could I interrupt you just for a second? I apologize. But for those watching, for their benefit, could you give us just a quick summary of this cartel de los solos, the cartel of the sons that's being talked about? Because I think there is confusion over what this is.
Well, so basically you have to understand what the Venezuelan economy is. The Venezuelan economy, they were one of the top rising economies in the entire world, wealthiest country in Latin America. Chavez came in, basically destroyed it all, right? And then Maduro dealt with the final impact when the thing finally hit the ground. You know what I mean?
It was, I think, the fifth largest economic collapse without a war like we've ever seen. They were a wonderful country decimated by dumb socialist policies. But a lot of their economy was in oil. So they were an oil tycoon country, like the Saudis of the South, basically. Bad business deals, socialist policies wrecked all of it. The other core part of their economy is drugs.
And between drugs and oil, that's about all they got, right? The U.S. sanctions on, again, Venezuelan oil, they do a lot of stuff with China and they have like black ships. They call them black ships. They turn their trackers off and they go dark and help, you know, they violate sanctions, basically.
It's like the Russian shadow fleet. Same idea.
The same thing. So they do that to kind of get around the sanctions, but they can only do it so much. Drugs are a huge part of their economy. Drugs are part of the business, and drugs is also a government operation. So the Cartel of the Suns, if you want to talk about what it really is, it's basically the Venezuelan military, and they don't have a full-standing military. They have more like...
More like a paramilitary, you know what I mean? It's not like we normally think of it. They're a militia. You'd call them like a militia, right? They're a cartel.
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Chapter 8: What are the challenges in addressing welfare fraud in Minnesota?
They're basically a cartel. So the leaders of the Cartel of the Suns, it is Nicolas Maduro was the guy on top. He's the El Chapo of the Cartel of the Suns. A lot of his cadres are deemed leaders of the Cartel of the Suns, and the military in Venezuela is basically also the cartel. And so, you know, call it what you will,
call it a cartel or call it the Venezuelan government and military, but that's basically what it is, right? And that's their economy.
How good is the intelligence that ties Maduro and his senior military and other members of the military to this sort of activity? How good is that intelligence?
And let's put it this way, about as good as we know that most leaders in Latin America are also involved in the same type of thing, but Trump's not going after all of them just yet. Yeah. Remember when Trump was running for office, what he was saying? He was saying that he is going to destroy the cartels.
And if any leader in any country tries stopping us, that he will expose their connections to the cartels. The unfortunate reality with a lot of Latin America is most of their governments are narco governments. And most of their governments are compromised by the cartels. And very few of them do not have ties to it because it's very hard to get power otherwise.
Right.
I don't want to do a left turn here, but I'm about to, I think Josh, we're not, I don't, we can talk about this particular issue another time. Cause I'd love to have your back on. Cause there's an awful lot here to, to digest.
But, um, when we talk about this, this, this is why I am so confused over the past week or so over the white house, Trump pardoning at the, basically at the request of the constant lobbying of Roger stone. And then we don't know what's behind Roger stone. So that is something that I'd love an investigative journalist to get on. Um, is the pardon of Juan Hernandez, the former Hunter and president.
Convicted in the U.S., 45 years. Evidence was there. It's not like, oh, perhaps it's political persecution. There's solid evidence. And he's just been pardoned, a full and complete pardon. So there's a conflict there that I'm having a hard time understanding. Again, we can talk about that another time. Let me give you my take on it. Sure, sure, please.
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