America reaches its breaking point

We live in at least two different realities. In one, a woman driving away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was murdered without cause. In the other, a woman ramming an ICE agent was killed in self-defense.

Welcome to 2026. If any of what has occurred this week makes sense to you, then you might need therapy or a 12-step program.

Last Saturday, the third day of the new year, more than 150 aircraft supported by the U.S. Navy transported a heavily armed military strike force, members of the CIA and enough Tomahawk missiles to “orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger” —  quoting John McClane in “Die Hard” — to Caracas, Venezuela, where they successfully extricated President Nicolás Maduro from his heavily-defended compound with no loss of American lives. The Drug Enforcement Administration got the credit for serving a criminal warrant. Maduro and his wife were flown to New York, where he now resides in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and faces drug trafficking charges. 

On Wednesday, the seventh day of the new year, the American military also successfully boarded and seized two Venezuelan-linked oil “ghost tankers” — one of which was Russian flagged — in the North Atlantic and Caribbean and arrested their crews of “international criminals,” as the administration described them. Presidential Pep Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the crew of the Russian-flagged vessel would face prosecution. Donald Trump, channeling his inner JR Ewing, proudly proclaimed that the United States is “in the oil business.” 

Sounds like we’re state-sponsored pirates and kidnappers, but that’s only because if those actions were taken by other nations, or independent operators, that’s exactly what we would say.  

Later that day, ICE agents operating in Minneapolis couldn’t successfully execute an operation in a neighborhood less than a mile from where George Floyd was asphyxiated six years ago. The agents shot and killed an unarmed 37-year-old woman driving a Honda Pilot. Renee Nicole Good was a poet, a wife, a mother of a six year old, a member of the LGBTQ+ community and an auburn-haired American citizen. She faced no criminal charges. Perhaps if she were, like Maduro, she might still be alive.

After his capture, the government said Maduro’s security forces were ready to defend him, but Trump told the nation we were able to bring the “outlaw dictator” to justice. He also called it one of the “most stunning American displays of might and competence” in history. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio continue to call it a law enforcement action, stressing that we aren’t at war with Venezuela — we were just serving a criminal warrant.

It is definitely the most expensive warrant ever served. The action was  like an episode of “America’s Most Wanted” on steroids. I worked at “AMW.” I’ve been with U.S. marshals, the DEA, the FBI, and state and local police when they have served warrants or rounded up fugitives. Until this weekend I never saw anybody use a tomahawk missile or witnessed the CIA being involved in such operations.

Trump even circulated a “trophy shot” of Maduro taken while he was blindfolded and handcuffed aboard the USS Iwo Jima.

Referencing the seizure and boarding of the oil tankers, Rubio said such actions serve to pressure the Venezuelan government into doing what Trump wants regarding the sale of oil and the harboring of “international narco-terrorists.” Apparently we can pull over oil tankers in the ocean, but it’s difficult to pull over a Honda Pilot being driven by a soccer mom.

Administration officials used nearly the same language in describing Renee Nicole Good as they did the alleged narco-terrorists. Trump said she was “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.” He also blamed the death on the “Radical Left” and said they are “threatening, assaulting and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said an agent had opened fire after the woman “weaponized her vehicle” in an attempt to kill federal officers. In response, a visibly emotional Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called her statement “bulls**t,” describing the shooting instead as “an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed.”

“I have a message for ICE: Get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” he said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference with other city officials. “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt. Families are being ripped apart…and now somebody is dead.”

Frey added that “the presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city.” Video footage circulated on social media clearly shows the mayor has a point about the chaos and was accurate in his assessment of McLaughlin’s statement. It also illustrates that Trump either lied about what he saw in the footage — or was under the influence of hallucinogens when he viewed it. According to a New York Times analysis synchronizing videos of the event taken from different angles, it appears clear that Good was turning away from the officials when one apparently stepped in front of her car. The agents, who were acting like members of a paramilitary, escalated the situation. Good cops de-escalate violence. A frightened woman isn’t necessarily a domestic terrorist. And a cop with a gun isn’t necessarily a hero. 

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem briefly addressed the shooting during an unrelated news conference in Brownsville, Texas, and described the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism.” Technically she’s correct. But it was the ICE agent who was the terrorist, not the dead woman, who had been charged and convicted of nothing. I’ve known many police officers in my long career covering crime who could have de-escalated that event without bloodshed.

Hypocrisy, though, is the creed of the Trump administration. He continues to claim he is all about “America First.” That’s a dying dog whistle for the declining number of supporters who still believe him. The truth is that Donald Trump is an imperialist, and as many have warned over the years, he is a danger to himself and everyone on earth.

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But outside the United States, people see it differently. The president often claims we are a stronger nation, well loved, in demand and “hot, hot, hot.” However, world leaders have realized that having anything to do with Trump is dangerous, and having nothing to do with him can be more dangerous. That’s the heat they feel. The art of making a deal with Donald Trump is to give him everything he wants. Don Corleone wasn’t as ruthless as Trump — though both Eric and Don Jr. take turns being a real-life Fredo. 

The leaders of Mexico, Colombia, Cuba and Greenland are all waking up these days wondering if their country will be next. 

There are now leaders of other nations wondering how long it will be before they end up in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. So much for the sovereignty of nations.

Leavitt echoed that thought in her first press briefing of the new year, saying the entire Western hemisphere belongs to us. None of these countries are a threat to our security, although Trump says Venezuela was a harbor for Russian and Chinese operatives. Meanwhile, Moscow condemned the seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker in a statement Wednesday. “No state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered under the jurisdiction of other states,” the country’s Transport Ministry said in a statement, according to the Moscow Times.

“Taking into account the incoming information about the presence of Russian citizens among the crew, we demand that the American side ensure humane and dignified treatment of them, strictly observe their rights and interests, and not interfere with their early return to their homeland,” the statement read.

Trump now has Greenland in his crosshairs. Though existing treaties give us pretty much anything we want there, including more bases and troops, Leavitt said that Trump wants “more control over the arctic region,” and that while he wants to buy Greenland, “all options are on the table. The president’s first option is diplomacy.”

Yeah, I’m sure it is. Here’s the diplomacy: Give me what I want, or I’ll kidnap you and throw you in a rat- and drug-infested jail cell in Brooklyn that smells of urine. 

There’s all kinds of speculation as to why Trump really wants Greenland, from rare minerals to stifling Russian hegemony to him simply acting like a pre-pubescent pustule and screaming “gimme, gimme, gimme.” 

Wherever the president makes his next move, it’s likely to be at least as violent and messy as Venezuela. As Leavitt and Rubio told us, “American dominance will continue” in the Western hemisphere.

In his famous “Foundation” series of science-fiction novels, Isaac Asimov wrote that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. That is Donald Trump in a nutshell and perfectly describes all three scenarios. But the thread that ties the administration’s actions in Venezuela and Minnesota together is Trump’s unbridled plunge into a narcissistic imperialism that cares neither for its neighbors, its own citizens nor the consequences of its actions.

Trump is hell-bent, along with those who work for him, on total control. Good’s death is likely to foment more anger and hatred, both of which Trump bathes in. Should something nasty befall ICE officers, Trump would gladly declare martial law and speculation is rife that he could cancel the midterm elections – since he’s scared to death he’ll be impeached should the Democrats regain control of Congress in November.

The president doesn’t care about Greenland, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia or any of the other countries he’s threatened. He believes himself the ultimate strongman, and he’s desperate to win a game he is losing as his mental and physical health fail him — and as his deputies see they will ultimately be the ones who will pay the price for their boss’ blind ambition, lack of conscience and disdain for humanity.

Trump was either too busy or too ill to be at a surprise White House briefing on Thursday there, but he did send Vice President JD Vance, who apparently was tasked to play cleanup with the Minneapolis incident, point fingers at “left-wing radicals using terror techniques” and defend ICE and the murder of a 37-year-old mother. Vance said the administration would “turn down the temperature” in Minnesota by ratcheting up its law enforcement. He blamed the media for making a hero out of the murder victim, and said, “of course no one wants an American citizen to be killed. It’s a tragedy — a tragedy caused by the radical left.”

Renee Nicole Good is an example of how Trump villainizes American citizens. Maduro shows how Trump exploits the villainy of other villains. The oil tankers are symbolic of his greed and reality-show tendencies. 

All three of these examples show that the consequences of Trump are very real and increasingly acute. At this point, they are painfully and terrifyingly obvious. Be prepared for martial law.

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