A blockbuster shakeup to the world order
The David Pakman Show
David Pakman
4.6 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
-- On the Show
-- Donald Trump orders a U.S. military operation that captures Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores in Venezuela and brings them to New York despite lacking clear legal authority
-- Reporting says Donald Trump escalates to military action after Nicolás Maduro dances on Venezuelan state television and aides treat it as personal mockery
-- Donald Trump bets the Maduro seizure will unlock Venezuela's oil, but allies, businesses, and markets resist a plan with no clear political transition
-- Donald Trump gives rambling, conflicting answers about Venezuela, oil, and military escalation that raise questions about his decision making
-- Donald Trump admits he did not brief Congress yet says he spoke with oil companies and calls the Maduro seizure a kidnapping
-- The Wall Street Journal reports Donald Trump shows visible signs of decline, disputes doctors, and mislabels a CT scan as an MRI while aides manage optics
-- The Wall Street Journal says Donald Trump takes more aspirin than doctors recommend and blames bruising on superstition instead of updated medical guidance
-- Marco Rubio tells Kristen Welker the United States is running Venezuela but cannot explain elections, governance, or the legal rationale in real time
-- Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham indicate Cuba is a likely next target after Venezuela, signaling escalation rather than containment
-- On the Bonus Show: Oil markets steady after Trump's Venezuela strike shocks the world, speculation grows that Donald Trump Jr. is being groomed for a 2028 run amid tension with J.D. Vance, and Minnesota politics take a twist as Governor Tim Walz looks ready to exit and Amy Klobuchar eyes a comeback.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Donald Trump has crossed the line that no modern president has crossed and he did it without |
| 0:04.8 | a plan, without guardrails, and no concern for what happens next. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm talking about the U.S. kidnapping the sitting president of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, |
| 0:14.2 | a terrible guy, admittedly, not through extradition, not through international law, through |
| 0:19.8 | a military operation in the middle |
| 0:22.1 | of the night. |
| 0:23.1 | And we're learning that one of the things that pushed Trump to do it was being mocked on TV |
| 0:28.1 | and Maduro dancing. |
| 0:30.4 | That is reporting, not hyperbole. |
| 0:32.8 | We are then going to talk about why this violates US lawS. law, international law, and why the idea |
| 0:39.7 | that this somehow solves Venezuela is complete fantasy, politics. |
| 0:45.1 | We're also going to look at Donald Trump's own words, where he admits that he has no plan |
| 0:49.1 | timeline or idea what happens next, but he has a couple more ideas for invasions. How could the winner |
| 0:55.6 | of the FIFA Peace Prize be looking at invading so many countries? And then new reporting shows |
| 1:01.5 | Trump never had the MRI that he and the White House have been talking about for months. He's ignoring |
| 1:07.7 | doctors. He's self-medicating with handfuls of aspirin. |
| 1:12.1 | And meanwhile, he's got the nuclear codes. |
| 1:14.4 | This is really not an episode about left versus right. |
| 1:17.9 | This is about what happens when there is no strategy and just impulsivity. There are only a few political events a year that we remember five, 10 years down the line. |
| 1:36.8 | And this weekend was one of them in a move that completely shocked not only the world, |
| 1:41.0 | but put the entire future of the international order at risk. |
| 1:45.8 | The United States under Donald Trump executed a military operation in Venezuela that captured |
... |
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