The chickens are finally coming home to roost for Venezuela's socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, as his longtime ally Vladimir Putin appears to be cutting him loose just when he needs support most. For decades, Russia has been the primary lifeline keeping Venezuela's corrupt regime afloat, but now Moscow is sitting on the sidelines as civil war threatens to tear the country apart.
This dramatic shift couldn't come at a better time for America. While the Biden administration spent four years coddling dictators and projecting weakness on the world stage, President Trump's return to power has clearly sent shockwaves through the global order. Even Putin seems to be recalculating his investments in failed socialist experiments.
The Socialist Paradise CRUMBLES
Venezuela was once South America's wealthiest nation, blessed with the world's largest proven oil reserves. But two decades of socialist policies under Hugo Chávez and his successor Maduro have turned the country into a humanitarian disaster zone where people literally eat zoo animals to survive.
The Maduro regime has been a cancer in America's backyard—engaging in narco-terrorism, harboring international criminals, and sending waves of refugees flooding across the region. Russia's support allowed this criminal enterprise to continue threatening U.S. interests while oppressing the Venezuelan people.
But now, with Russia bogged down in Ukraine and facing its own economic pressures, Putin apparently doesn't have the resources or appetite to keep bankrolling Maduro's failing dictatorship.
Trump's America First Policy WORKS
This development validates everything President Trump has said about projecting strength on the world stage. When America leads from a position of strength—not the weakness we saw under Biden—even our adversaries start making different calculations.
As the Trump-Vance administration implements its America First agenda, dictators and their enablers worldwide are realizing they can no longer count on four more years of American weakness and appeasement.
The question now is: will the Venezuelan people finally have their chance at freedom, or will another hostile power step in to prop up this criminal regime? Either way, America is stronger when socialist dictatorships collapse rather than thrive.