How Trump's Big Moment Left Him Exposed: Rothkopf

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to explain why Trump’s move in Venezuela looks less like foreign policy and more like a heist. Rothkopf walks through the rushed effort to topple Maduro, the boastful talk about “running” Venezuela, and the alarming reality that there was no plan for what came next — who governs, who controls the oil, or how any of it ends. Together, they examine what Rothkopf calls Trump’s “mafia doctrine”: kidnap the leader, seize the resources, ignore the law, and dare the world to respond. It’s chaotic, risky, and deeply consequential — for Venezuela, for America, and for everyone watching what comes next.

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0:00.0	As exquisitely planned as the military operation was, the minute that Maduro was put on a helicopter and flown out of the country, there was no remaining plan.
0:11.8	We don't know who's in charge in Venezuela. We don't know who's on our side in Venezuela.
0:16.5	We don't know what we're going to do next in Venezuela.
0:19.3	We don't know how we're going to control the oil in Venezuela. We don't know which oil're going to do next in Venezuela. We don't know how we're going to control the oil in Venezuela.
0:22.3	We don't know which oil companies are going to participate in this in Venezuela.
0:26.3	Frankly, I don't even think they understand really how the Maduro trial is going to play out
0:32.1	because a lot of what they're accusing him of isn't actually true.
0:37.1	I'm Joanna Cole. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Happy New Year, if this is your first
0:41.8	podcast of the year, though I urge you to listen to all the ones that we've dropped since January
0:47.0	the 1st. This is our first, however, with our favorite columnist and the founder of the DSR Deep State Radio Network, David Rothkopf.
0:57.9	His columns about Venezuela this weekend have been unsurpassable and he's here from his hotel
1:05.8	room in Paris where he's on holiday with his wife to tell us exactly what's going on.
1:12.5	David Rothkopf.
1:14.9	You're in Europe.
1:17.1	Happily, you're not stuck in St. Bart's.
1:20.8	What hell, what fresh hell to be stuck in St. Bartz, unable to move because of what's happening in Venezuela and the
1:29.1	airspace is closed. What else? What else should I be worrying about David Rosco? Is the world
1:36.3	coming to an end? I don't think anything else is more important than the billionaire. Jeff Bezos was
1:41.8	trapped. And I think Leonardo DiCaprio had a bad, hard time getting to the Critics' Choice Awards.
1:49.3	He barely made it.
1:50.7	He barely made it.
1:53.4	I mean, yes, the United States had a sixth of its Navy not too far away, invading another country illegally, to snatch up, or as Trump likes
	...

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