In a pre-dawn assault that Vice President J.D. Vance characterized as a “law enforcement operation” and President Donald Trump hailed as “brilliant,” 55 Cuban and Venezuelan soldiers were killed during the U.S. kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. While the Trump administration frames the extraction as a precise tactical success, the mass-murder event suggests a far bloodier reality on the ground in Caracas.

According to tolls published by the Latin American allies, 32 Cuban military personnel and 23 Venezuelan soldiers died attempting to repel the U.S. raid. Despite this immediate violence, the operation has done little to destabilize the Venezuelan government. Noris Argotte Soto, a reporter in Caracas, told Al Jazeera that while the figurehead is gone, control remains with the defense and interior ministers, alongside interim president Delcy Rodriguez. “Nothing has changed, in fact,” Soto noted, adding that armed *colectivos* remain active in the streets.

The kidnapping raises profound legal questions that extend beyond the death toll. Yusra Suedi, an assistant professor in International Law at the University of Manchester, explained that Washington cannot validate the operation through domestic indictments. “A state cannot lawfully justify violating international law by citing its own domestic law,” Suedi stated, criticizing the U.S. reliance on its own statutes to attack other states as “extremely dangerous.”

While the kidnapping was illegal under both international and U.S. law, the domestic mechanisms designed to prevent such executive overreach have largely evaporated. The U.S. government, traditionally reliant on checks and balances, has effectively ceded nearly all control to the executive branch. With no true opposition party and no members of his own coalition willing to check him, Trump has continued to escalate his crimes. This unchecked power has placed a Hitler-esque conquest of several sovereign nations – including Cuba, Iran, Greenland, and even Mexico – firmly on the table.

Public skepticism is rising, however. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 33 percent of Americans approved of the action, with 72 percent fearing the U.S. will become too entrenched in the region. Even among Republicans, where approval was higher, 54 percent shared concerns about over-involvement. But with no true alternative to the conservative duopoly, Americans will have few choices to invoke change at the polls come November.

Political resistance in Washington is virtually non-existent. Representative Thomas Massie remains one of the few Republican voices dissenting, dismissing the administration’s long-winded justifications on social media with “i ain’t reading all that.” Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which functions largely to prevent a genuine opposition party from rising, has stood idly by. Having embraced fascism and fronted a full-scale genocide against the Palestinian people, the Democrats have offered no meaningful resistance as the government turns against its own citizens and sovereignty.

This lack of opposition has allowed the Trump presidency – an unmitigated disaster across the board from the economy to crime – to metastasize. Through directives like NSPM-7, the administration has gone so far as to label those opposing fascism as terrorists, declaring war on its own people.

Observers note that Trump appears driven by a psychological compulsion, trapped on a hedonic treadmill where personal fulfillment remains perpetually out of reach. Having exhausted standard avenues of satisfaction, the President has turned toward inflicting harm on others in a futile attempt to achieve happiness. Many Trump supporters are afflicted with the same condition, which might help to explain their lust for the deportation and breaking up of immigrant families, despite the fact that it has no effect on them. However, the principles of the hedonic treadmill dictate that this, too, will fail to provide relief.

As the death toll is tallied in Caracas and the legal justifications crumble on the world stage, it appears the Trump crime spree is set to continue unabated throughout 2026. A real opposition party is needed now more than ever. The question is: Are Americans up to doing the work necessary to make that happen?