What Happened Today - 5 Jan 2026
What Happened Today – 5 January 2026
The Maduro snatch-and-grab
Trump musing about Cuba and Denmark (Greenland)
Jack Smith’s testimony and what it means now
Tim Walz backing out and the “fraud” noise
Trump’s posting spree
Hegseth vs. Mark Kelly – and why this is infuriating
ICE cruelty and other threads you should know
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The Maduro snatch-and-grab
So, on the Maduro situation: he was hauled into federal court in Manhattan today, in shackles, alongside his wife, and both of them entered not guilty pleas to narco‑terrorism and related drug and weapons conspiracy charges that were superseding earlier indictments from 2020. His lawyer is already telling the judge that there are serious problems with the legality of how this “arrest” happened, because this wasn’t some normal extradition — this was a U.S. military raid on a foreign capital to kidnap a sitting (or at least recently ousted) head of state and drag him here. That’s textbook extrajudicial rendition.
Venezuela’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez first called this what it is — a kidnapping and a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty — and the Venezuelan Supreme Court moved to name her interim leader after Trump’s strike. Now she’s trying to sound more “pragmatic,” talking about cooperation and sovereignty in the same breath, because she’s under massive pressure and probably trying to keep the country from being hit again. But her tune shifting doesn’t magically make what the U.S. did lawful — it just shows how much leverage Washington suddenly has after dropping bombs and removing her boss.
What Trump did here is basically the international equivalent of you walking into your neighbor’s house, grabbing “your” TV off the wall, and yelling “they stole it, so I’m just taking it back.” There are legal processes for resolving disputes — police, courts, warrants — and at the international level that’s treaties, extradition agreements, and the U.N. system. You don’t get to skip all of that, send in 150+ U.S. aircraft to bomb another country, kill scores of people including foreign personnel, and then say it’s fine because “he’s a bad guy.”
And the right‑wing spin on this — that this is “bringing peace” by “removing a dictator” — is absolute nonsense. The U.N. Security Council is literally meeting in emergency session to talk about the U.S. attack and the kidnapping, because this is widely seen as a blatant violation of international law and state sovereignty. Human rights groups and a bunch of international law experts are already saying this sets a dangerous precedent: if the U.S. can do this to Venezuela, what stops other big powers from doing the same to leaders they don’t like?
If Trump wanted to “earn respect” from people who oppose him by going after actual authoritarians, the way to do that would be the exact opposite of this cowboy stunt: seek congressional authorization, build a coalition, and work within international law. Instead, he’s basically advertising a doctrine that says, “If we don’t like you and we think we can get away with it, we’ll cross your border and snatch you.”
Other countries are not just shrugging this off. The U.N. is seized with it, regional governments are condemning it, and even some U.S. allies are clearly nervous because this rips up the already‑fragile rulebook. Could the U.S. face consequences? Yes: sanctions from other states, cases in international courts, real long‑term reputational damage, and a much higher chance that U.S. officials and troops are targeted or detained abroad by countries that decide, “If you can kidnap our guy, we can grab yours.” That’s the Pandora’s box Trump just opened.
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Trump musing about Cuba and Denmark (Greenland)
On Air Force One, Trump didn’t stop at Venezuela. He started talking out loud about what comes next, and the countries he rattled off should make everyone’s hair stand up: Cuba, Colombia, Greenland (which means Denmark), Iran, and even more pressure on Mexico. He told reporters that Cuba “looks like it’s ready to fall” and implied that U.S. military intervention there “sounds good” to him in the right circumstances, even while saying maybe they’ll collapse without direct U.S. action. For Colombia, he openly suggested a U.S. operation could be on the table and threatened its president by name.
On Greenland, he’s back to his old obsession, but now in a much scarier context. He told reporters that “we need Greenland” for national security, claimed it’s surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships, and said flat out that Denmark “won’t be able to do it.” That’s not a normal ally‑to‑ally conversation — that’s the president of the United States floating, again, the idea that the U.S. should in effect take control of a territory belonging to a NATO ally, while he is already actively using force to topple a government in the same news cycle.
He also fed into this narrative that his base is hungry for war now. Reporting shows his supporters, especially the hardcore MAGA media ecosystem, are cheering the Maduro abduction and treating it as a long‑overdue flex of American power, setting aside all their old isolationist “no more foreign wars” talk. Trump is leaning into that and telling people his base “wanted” this kind of action, which is his way of justifying more of it.
Globally, this kind of talk sends a very clear message: no one should assume they’re safe from Trump’s impulsive use of force or his willingness to threaten regime change, including U.S. partners and long‑time adversaries. You’re already seeing:
• Emergency U.N. meetings and strong statements from governments warning that the Venezuela strike shows contempt for the U.N. Charter and could destabilize the region.
• Countries like Iran warning that U.S. threats of strikes over protests or regional behavior could lead to escalation that drags in U.S. forces, even as Trump brags the U.S. is “locked and loaded.”
This is dangerous because normal guardrails are missing: Trump is openly musing about war, bragging about how his people “want” it, and there’s no sign he’s interested in getting congressional approval first. That’s how you stumble into an actual shooting war, not just a one‑off raid.
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Jack Smith’s testimony and what it means now
Jack Smith sat for hours of questioning by House Republicans in December, and the transcript and video just dropped, so we’re seeing his words in full for the first time. He told them plainly that, in his view, the evidence he gathered in the Jan. 6 and classified documents cases was “powerful” and would have been enough to convict Trump if the cases had gone to verdict.
He laid out that Trump knowingly pushed lies about the 2020 election, made false statements to state legislators and his supporters, and was fully aware his base was angry when he invited them to Washington and then aimed them at the Capitol. He also said something really damning: that the Capitol riot “does not happen” without Trump and that Trump was “the most culpable and most responsible person” for what went down on January 6.
Smith emphasized that the investigations began under Biden, but the decision to charge was his, grounded in Trump’s actions, not politics. He made it clear that a lot of his case was built on testimony from Republicans and Trump allies who decided to tell the truth, including a former GOP congressman who called the fake elector scheme an attempt to overthrow the government.
Now, what are the implications? Legally, those criminal cases are dead because Trump’s DOJ killed them once he got back in office, but politically and historically, Smith just put on the record that:
• A former special counsel believes there was ample evidence Trump committed crimes tied to Jan. 6 and classified documents.
• The current Trump Justice Department is openly acting in retaliation against people involved in those cases, which Smith said he’s convinced is happening.
That matters going forward because it strengthens the argument that Trump is using the DOJ to punish his enemies, and it gives future prosecutors a detailed blueprint if he ever loses power again. It also undercuts MAGA’s “total exoneration” spin, because the guy who ran the cases just told Congress, on the record, that the evidence was strong and the prosecutions were justified.
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Tim Walz backing out and the “fraud” noise
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced that he’s not running for a third term, and MAGA is having a field day, trying to frame this as proof of some massive personal scandal. The actual story is more boring and more honest than what the right‑wing “Nick” types are selling.
Walz pointed to ongoing fallout from fraud in Minnesota’s safety net and child‑care programs — something that has been under investigation for years, including under the Biden administration, by law enforcement and auditors trying to track down the criminals who exploited these programs. Walz’s own statement is basically: there was a serious fraud scheme, organized criminals took advantage of the system, oversight failed in places, and his administration is now devoting a ton of time and energy to fixing it and holding people accountable.
So when MAGA influencers scream “fraud” and act like this was some secret cover‑up that only they exposed, they’re leaving out the key part: these cases were investigated, charged, and litigated under Biden’s DOJ and the state system; they weren’t magically invented this week by Trump’s people. Walz is stepping aside for political and governance reasons — he says he can’t give a campaign his all while also focusing on the fraud fallout — not because he was indicted or proven to be some mastermind.
On top of that, Trump himself helped normalize calling Walz “seriously retarded” in one of his gross, anti‑immigrant rants about Minnesota, and his base ran with it. So now you’ve got right‑wing content creators casually calling Walz a “retard” like that’s just normal political talk, which is exactly the kind of dehumanizing garbage that this movement has turned into a brand. It’s cruel, it’s ableist as hell, and it’s a distraction from the real question: who actually stole the money, and what did the state and feds do about it — which again, happened under Biden, with actual prosecutions.
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Trump’s posting spree
Trump’s been on a posting bender since the Venezuela raid, and while the exact “89 posts last night” number is coming from his critics and watchers, it fits the pattern: when he’s hyped up or cornered, he spams Truth Social nonstop. In this window he’s been:
• Bragging that the U.S. “captured” Maduro, posting dramatic images of him in the Situation Room‑style setting watching the operation, and declaring that “we are in charge of Venezuela” now.
• Ranting about Iran and promising that if they “shoot and kill peaceful protesters,” the U.S. is “locked and loaded and ready to go,” in that barely coherent post that still clearly threatened military action.
• Cheering his base’s reaction to the raid and framing himself as a historic tough guy who’s finally “doing what should have been done long ago,” while still whining about his old criminal cases and “deranged” Jack Smith.
The volume and tone here matter. This isn’t a calm, carefully messaged explanation of a controversial operation; it’s a string of grievance, threats, and self‑congratulations, with random capitalization and barely edited language. That’s the mindset steering U.S. foreign policy right now.
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Hegseth vs. Mark Kelly – and why this is infuriating
The Mark Kelly situation is exactly the kind of thing that should set off every veteran and every person who cares about civil‑military lines. Kelly — former Navy captain, astronaut, now Senator from Arizona — appeared in a video with other Democratic lawmakers telling troops and intel personnel the most basic thing taught in uniform: unlawful orders must be refused. That is not “sedition”; it is core U.S. military law, and service members are required not to follow unlawful orders.
Pete Hegseth, now Defense Secretary, has decided to turn that into a loyalty test. He has announced that the Pentagon is initiating a formal process to reduce Kelly’s retired rank and cut his retirement pay and has issued a letter of censure that will go into Kelly’s permanent record, calling the video “seditious” and arguing that, as a retired officer still drawing a pension, Kelly remains under the UCMJ and can be punished for his words.
Kelly has responded that this is about sending a message to every retired servicemember that speaking out in ways Trump and Hegseth dislike can make them a target. He has vowed to fight it “with everything I’ve got,” not for personal ego, but to make clear that Trump officials do not get to decide what Americans, especially veterans, are allowed to say about their government.
The entire point of law‑of‑war and rules‑of‑engagement training is that service members do not blindly obey and are allowed — and sometimes obligated — to say “no” to unlawful orders. Hegseth’s move to punish a retired officer for publicly reminding troops of that principle is an attack on free speech and on the integrity of the chain of command itself.
If this stands, it will chill every retiree who might want to warn active‑duty personnel not to get dragged into an illegal scheme by political appointees. That is why this “needs to be canned, asaply”: not just because Kelly did nothing wrong, but because punishing him is exactly how a politicized, fear‑ridden military takes shape — one where loyalty to a leader outweighs loyalty to the law.
And…as a 22 year veteran and RETIRED military member – Hey active duty folks…you do not have to follow unlawful orders. Come get me Hegseth, you are a garbage leader – the last pair of boots I wore in 2018 have more leadership experience then you do.
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ICE cruelty and other threads you should know
While all of this high‑profile drama is happening, ICE under Trump has quietly become deadlier and more abusive. Last year was the deadliest year in ICE detention in about two decades, with at least 20–25 deaths in custody reported, and watchdogs say the real number may be higher. Detainees from places like Haiti, Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Bulgaria have died in just days‑long windows, and oversight offices that are supposed to investigate deaths and abuses have been hollowed out or furloughed.
At the same time, deportations and expulsions are aggressively ramping up, including “lateral” deportations that dump non‑Mexican migrants into Mexico, creating dangerous bottlenecks and humanitarian crises at the border. Trump has already threatened to “permanently pause migration” from poorer countries and pushed rhetoric about “reverse migration,” casting immigrants as criminals and explicitly using slurs and dehumanizing language. All of that sets the stage for more ICE raids, more injuries, more deaths — and less accountability.
Karoline Leavitt at the podium is doing her part to normalize this whole foreign‑policy shift, too. She’s already called the Venezuela strikes and Maduro capture Trump “fulfilling his campaign promises” and is dodging questions about legal limits or future strikes while bragging about U.S. “strength.” In other words, instead of acknowledging that kidnapping a foreign leader and threatening more countries is a massive break with norms, she’s selling it like a campaign ad.
Put it all together and the picture is clear: unilateral raids, open threats against more countries, retribution against people like Jack Smith and Mark Kelly who challenge or restrain Trump, and a deadlier, more lawless ICE system. The throughline is power without accountability — and anyone who questions it, from governors to prosecutors to retired captains, gets painted as the problem.
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Well, quite a welcome into 2026! Welcome back, let’s hope all this bullshit just ramps up the timeline to have all these jackasses face their own trails, get some prison jumpers sized for them…and we can all return to normal life without worrying what the F the leader of America and his cronies are doing.
Speak Truth! Keep speaking TRUTH!
Don’t Give up the Ship!
Go Cause Good Trouble, with Your Elbows Up!
These are facts that I researched and verified – AI helped put together some sentence structure, but the words and tone are mine. These are my views based upon facts, research and thoughtful consideration using logic. I own the copyright to any images used. I’m comfortable to stand alone to uphold truth. Feel free to check me, but do not attack me. I am only causing good trouble.