Rubio, on the other hand, has spent the last few days insisting that there’s no war, that “this wasn’t an invasion,” that the US is merely going to be “running policy” in Venezuela rather than actually “run” it, and that Maduro “was an illegitimate leader.” These are the mealy-mouthed sophistries of someone who is aware of international law, and is desperately threading the needle. If Trump is allowed to unilaterally declare Maduro’s illegitimacy and spirit him away in the night, then “that’s the end of international law, that’s the end of the U.N. charter, that’s the end of any kind of legal limits on the use of force,” as Yale Law School professor and international law scholar Oona Hathaway told The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner. Recently, in a Truth Social post, he announced that “the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil to the United States of America.” The oil will be sold, and any proceeds “will be controlled by me, the President of the United States of America.” Can’t wait to see how Congress, the legislative body that theoretically controls the nation’s purse strings, will respond to this.
Author: Elizabeth Lopatto, Sarah Jeong
Published at: 2026-01-07 23:38:18
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