Thank you for joining us for this episode of The Sword and the Trial.

Today, Pastor Tom and I talk with our good friend Brandon Weikert, who is a geopolitical analyst, about some of the things that are happening to our south in Venezuela. We talk about some of the ethics of it, how it's good for the U.S., how it's risky for the U.S., and I hope it's a helpful conversation for you. Take a listen. Welcome to The Sword and the Trial.

The Sword in the Trial is a podcast of Founders Ministries and Founders Exist for the Recovery

of the Gospel and the Reformation of local churches.

I'm Graham Gundin.

I'm Tom Askell.

And today's episode is brought to you by Lake Yale Baptist Conference Sitter.

Today we have on, again, a return guest and a good friend of ours, Brandon Weikert. Brandon is Senior National Security Editor at the National Interest. He's a geopolitical analyst. He's an author. He's a podcaster. He's got several wonderful books on. You haven't done the one on submarines yet? No, no, I'm no, not yet. Okay. But you got a great one on Ukraine. You've got a great one on the war with Iran. Yeah, the disaster of our own making. You're at this, what, two years ago? Two years ago now. Yeah. So, yeah, great introduction into why we're watching the mess that's happening in Ukraine. But thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Really, really glad to have you on. And there's been a lot taking place over the past week,

just south of our shores here in Florida. Yeah. Yeah. And I understand you could have made a little

trip down there, but you decided not to, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I was to go, and the group flew out of Miami about a month ago was when

they went down there, and they were with, you know, affiliated with certain agencies.

Yeah.

And I was hesitant.

And, of course, my wife said, absolutely not. And I was like, I don't think I want to go anyway. This thing could end up, you know, not working out for me.

Yeah. End up like Maduro, right? So, so for those of us who are just complete layman to this world. Explain to us what happened. I mean,

what took place? I woke up Saturday morning. I said, it looks like we were in a war and it's over.

Yeah. Well, you know, moving at the speed of Trump, that's what we're, that's the world we're living

in today. Yeah, January 3rd, the new year opened with a literal bang. Basically, it looks to me like the Trump administration had been preparing for

some move at some point against the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Now, go back to November,

which is when the carrier, USS J.

J.L.R. Ford, arrived in the region.

I had sources who were telling me they were going to go within 96 hours of the carrier

...