This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

So many things about Donald Trump's presidency have been without precedent.

But the U.S. seizing power over a smaller country,

well, there's a very, very long history of that. The American record of military intervention

and adventure overseas, it goes back well into the 19th century and forward to Vietnam, Iraq,

and beyond.

In Venezuela, Trump has made no secret of his desire for oil revenues

and who will be running the show.

So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and

judicious transition.

Daniel Imervar is a professor of history at Northwestern and one of our most interesting writers on foreign policy and American imperialism.

His most recent book, a bestseller, was called How to Hide an Empire.

At The New Yorker, he's covered subjects from 17th century piracy

to the seizure of

Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro. I spoke with him last week.

Daniel, let's start with the events of the past week. They're astonishing. In your 2019 book,

How to Hide an Empire,

you wrote of the United States

that even when it comes to oil,

flare-ups of naked imperialism

have been rare

...