#1762 Trump's Imperialistic Shakedown of Venezuela
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2026
⏱️ 197 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date: 1/3/2026
Imperialism is best thought of as a "Wealth Pump," extracting wealth from one country and depositing it in another. Venezuela has wealth and wealth is the only thing Trump cares about, his willingness to break his promise of being the peace president and go along with traditional Republican hawks is not a complicated mystery.
Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email [email protected]
Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube!
In honor of our 20th birthday, we're giving new Members 20% OFF FOR THE LIFETIME OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP...this includes Gift Memberships! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!)
Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience!
KEY POINTS
(00:48:15) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
On the structure of imperialism
DEEPER DIVES
(01:02:10) SECTION A: DRUG WAR BS
(01:41:05) SECTION B: THE MONROE DOCTRINE 2.0
B2: Trump's Piracy in the Caribbean - The Real News Podcast - Air Date 12-23-25
B3: Why Do Horrible People Keep Winning Nobel Peace Prizes? - Overzealots - Air Date 11-15-25
(02:20:52) SECTION C: NIGERIA BOMBING
C1: Inside Nigeria's Bombed Border Communities - Focus on Africa - Air Date 12-29-25
(02:37:40) SECTION D: WAR WITH VENEZUELA
D2: They Finally Admitted Its All Fake - Chris Norlund - Air Date 12-29-25
D4: Venezuela? I Hardly Knew Ya - The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 12-12-25
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
Description: Composite graphic showing Trump looking proudly at strikes on a small alleged "drug runner" boat while the corner of the image is flipped up revealing his arm grabbing barrels of Venezuelan oil.
Credit: Internal composite design, Elements from Pixabay | Pixabay License | Unclassified boat image from U.S. D.O.D. shared on social media.
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com
Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere!
Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X
Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft
Contact me directly at [email protected]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast. |
| 0:07.3 | Imperialism is best thought of as a wealth pump, extracting wealth from one country and depositing it in another. |
| 0:13.9 | Venezuela has wealth, and wealth is the only thing Trump cares about. |
| 0:19.1 | His willingness to break his promise of being the peace president and go along with |
| 0:23.8 | traditional Republican hawks is not a complicated mystery. |
| 0:28.8 | For those looking for a quick overview, the sources providing our top takes in about 50 |
| 0:33.1 | minutes today includes MS Now reports, the Majority Report, Democracy Now, Al Jazeera English, |
| 0:39.3 | the Intercept Briefing, and The Socialist Program. Then, in the additional deeper dives half |
| 0:44.1 | of the show, there will be more in four sections. Section A, Drug War BS, followed by Section |
| 0:49.4 | B, the Monroe Doctrine 2.0, Section C, Nigeria bombing, and Section D, War with Venezuela. |
| 0:57.2 | But first, a reminder to check out our new show solved on the Best of Left YouTube channel. |
| 1:01.9 | We're really proud of the show we're making, and we know that you're going to get real value out of it. |
| 1:05.6 | Plus, you checking it out actually helps us find new viewers on YouTube. |
| 1:09.4 | So thanks in advance for all of your views, likes, subscribes, and comments. |
| 1:13.2 | That's all on the best of the left YouTube channel, linked in the show notes. |
| 1:16.9 | And now, on to the show. |
| 1:24.5 | Have you and your colleagues been briefed on the latest on the Venezuela situation? |
| 1:29.2 | No, look, there was a briefing that happened right before Congress went out of session, but these new developments, there has been no briefing. And we should be really clear. I mean, the administration has targeted strikes, whether it's this possible strike that appears to have occurred and what are |
| 1:44.7 | involvement and level of involvement, I think we'll hopefully find out in the days in the days |
| 1:49.0 | ahead. But at the end of the day, Congress has been in the dark. I mean, you look at the boat |
| 1:53.4 | strikes. You look at Susie Wiles' comments about regime change. You look at what the Trump is |
| 1:58.0 | trying to do around oil and the resources in Venezuela. And the fact that |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 21 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Tomlinson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jay Tomlinson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.