David Frum on Trump’s Venezuela Venture

The Al Franken Podcast

News, Politics, Government, Comedy

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We had a chaotic start to the new year with Donald Trump invading Venezuela and kidnapping dictator Nicolás Maduro. We’re joined by The Atlantic's David Frum to help us make sense of and give us important context on the situation. Trump says that America is running the country and might be there for years to come. It sounds more like old-fashioned imperialism than a democratic transition.

Trump has openly admitted that this is about oil. He says he's taking Venezuelan oil and putting it into a special account controlled only by the President. Isn't it the job of Congress to appropriate how money is spent in this country?

We also discuss the administration's plans for Greenland. Are we actually prepared to seize it from our NATO ally, Denmark? Trump says yes. How crazy is that?!

Al also shares his thoughts on the horrific situation in his home state of Minnesota as ICE’s reckless aggression led to the murder of Renee Good.

READ David Frum in The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-frum/

LISTEN to The David Frum Show: https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/the-david-frum-show/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody. We got a great one today, you know, for a change. David Frum, staff writer at the Atlantic, and hosts of the weekly podcast, the David Frum show, is my guest. And we talk about Trump's adventure in Venezuela. Trump, of course, has been doing
0:22.2	victory laps since the successful kidnapping and extradition of dictator Nicholas Maduro. And
0:30.2	there's no question that Maduro probably should have listened to Trump and taken his offer
0:37.0	to step down from power, leave Venezuela,
0:40.1	and take refuge in some other country. Instead, he will probably spend the rest of his life
0:46.5	in prison. Well, too bad. And before we go to my conversation with David, I want to talk about what happened this week in my home state of Minnesota and especially the sickening reaction from Homeland Security Secretary, Chrissy Knoe, and President Trump and Vice President Vance.
1:12.6	They have all lied.
1:14.6	All of them have said that Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old mother of three,
1:21.5	ran over or tried to run over the ICE agent who killed her.
1:31.4	I'm sure by now you've seen the videos and know that she didn't run them over and she wasn't trying to. She was driving away. Now here's
1:38.6	Chrissy Noam in her first press conference after the shooting.
1:48.9	She then proceeded to weaponize her vehicle, and she attempted to run a law enforcement officer over. This appears as an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents,
1:56.2	an act of domestic terrorism.
1:59.1	Domestic terrorism. This is the Secretary of Homeland Security accusing a woman who is simply trying to drive away,
2:07.6	and that is very clear in the videos, accusing her of domestic terrorism.
2:14.6	Now here's what Trump wrote on Truth Social, four hours, four hours after the
2:20.8	shooting. The woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing, and resisting, who then
2:28.6	violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.
2:38.1	Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive,
2:43.2	but is now recovering in the hospital.
2:49.1	It's hard to believe he is alive.
2:52.7	This is the president of the United States, four hours after the shooting.
	...

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