The Patriot Post® · Trump Seizes Tanker

President Trump announced Wednesday afternoon that the United States had seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. I am counting down to when the first Democrat runs to a microphone and says, “Now Trump is committing piracy on the high seas! He’s a fascist pirate!”

This specific tanker is among a group of ships known as the “dark fleet” that have been sanctioned for transporting illegal oil from Iran and Venezuela. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the ship was part of “an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”

The administration went into a federal court citing these facts, and a federal judge issued a “seizure warrant” for the ship. We conducted a military operation to board the ship, and it will be thoroughly searched.

This is a good thing, not a bad thing. It’s not what a king does. It’s what someone who is serious about the national security of the United States does. (In other words, not a Democrat.)

It will predictably set off another round of media hysterics about “war with Venezuela” and demands for Trump to “get permission from Congress.” Nobody wants a war with Venezuela, even though Venezuela is engaged in warlike actions against us.

But don’t miss the disgusting double standard here.

The globalist attitude of American leftists, who own the Democrat Party and control some elements of the Republican Party, has been completely exposed. They’re all in on doing whatever we have to do to risk war with Russia over Ukraine.

Apparently, the security of Ukrainian borders is a more important priority than the security of America’s borders. Why can’t they see the difference between defending another country’s borders and defending our borders?

The same members of Congress furious that Trump is not giving Ukraine weapons to hit Moscow with and all that would entail are upset about Venezuela. These people sound like idiots on social media! “War with Russia good. War with Venezuela bad.” If you had to pick, shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Drugs & Thugs

I was thinking about the absurd controversy over the Venezuelan drug boats, and it occurred to me that we have seen this kind of bizarre reaction from Democrats before. It was the confrontation that occurred in the summer of 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, when Michael Brown was killed by Officer Darren Wilson.

Within hours, the Left and its media allies created the narrative that Brown, dubbed a “gentle giant,” was on his knees with his hands up, saying, “Don’t shoot!” Ferguson erupted in riots. By the time it was all over, we learned it was all a lie.

Brown was wrestling with Wilson, trying to take his gun. There is no doubt that if he had succeeded, there would have been one more dead cop.

The communist Chinese were quick to throw Ferguson in our face when we raised concerns about their human rights abuses. Beijing’s state-run media parroted the language of the Left about systemic racism in American law enforcement.

So, what do we have now? President Trump is taking out some really bad guys who are part of the drug chain that results in American families burying their sons and daughters.

If the military makes a decision to strike a target and the strike doesn’t completely eliminate the target, they hit it again. But the Democrats immediately made the drug runners into “victims” who were shouting, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” And just like Ferguson, this was a lie, too. The drug runners were trying to save the boat with the drugs. They were still in the fight.

President Trump declared the cartels to be foreign terrorists. Pete Hegseth knew his orders. The admiral who led the operation is a renowned combat hero. From Ferguson to the drug boats, it’s not hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. But Democrats and the American media are always on the wrong side.

Healthcare Stalemate

As I am sure you have heard, temporary emergency Obamacare subsidies passed during COVID expire, as required by law, at the end of the month. Without the subsidies, many Obamacare premiums are predicted to double.

The December 2025 expiration date was established by the Biden administration and Democrats when they rammed the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act through Congress. So, this is another “affordability crisis” that Democrats created.

The Senate Thursday voted down healthcare-related bills from both the Democrat caucus and the Republican caucus, largely along partisan lines. That was the expected outcome, given that 60 votes were required for either bill to pass and the two parties are miles apart on the issue.

The Democrat bill extended the temporary subsidies for three more years without any reforms whatsoever, even though we know Obamacare is full of fraud. Republicans could not vote for a bill that does nothing to address fraud and out-of-control spending.

The Republican bill did not extend the temporary subsidies. Instead, it would have converted the subsidies “into federal contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) to defray out-of-pocket health care costs.” The idea is to give the dollars directly to people, instead of insurance companies, giving people more choice and control over those dollars.

But just like school choice, where federal dollars would follow individual students, that was a nonstarter for Democrats.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of moving parts on the other side of Capitol Hill, but House Republicans have yet to agree on a single plan. Some members are backing compromise proposals such as a one or two-year extension of the subsidies with reforms to control costs and combat fraud.

Migrant Magnets

Here’s a depressing but predictable statistic for you: 81% of Somali households in Somaliland, previously known as Minnesota, are on some form of government welfare. Among Somali households with children, it’s 89%. Welfare and other taxpayer-funded services are huge magnets for migrants and illegal aliens.

I remember the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 when U.S. troops found themselves surrounded and outnumbered by a sea of Somalian Islamists. Our soldiers fought bravely against their attackers.

Sadly, 18 of our soldiers were killed and more than 70 were wounded. Then, we had to watch in horror as the Islamists dragged the mutilated bodies of our soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu while thousands lined the streets and cheered.

I know whole groups of people can’t be judged by the actions of some. But I don’t see evidence that the majority of Somalians have rejected radical Islam, and I still seethe over what happened to America’s sons in Mogadishu.

So, my blood boils when ingrates like Ilhan Omar complain about America. My blood boils when I see American citizens struggling to pay their bills while 81% of households in the new Mogadishu, USA, are on welfare. So, struggling Americans have to pay their own bills and the bills of many people who are ingrates, including many who shouldn’t even be here.

Trump Is All In

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said President Trump is going to campaign in the 2026 midterm elections “like it’s 2024 again.” I am happy to hear it because that’s what it will take to prevent a “Blue Wave” like 2018.

The “conventional wisdom” says that midterm elections should be run on local issues and that Trump hurts GOP candidates. That may be the case in some places. But there are many more places where he helps. We need to make it a national election, a referendum on the key issues.

Republican candidates have to draw out the low-propensity voters who put Donald Trump back in the White House, and Donald Trump is the best man to do that.