by Dan Burns

Jan 5, 2026, 5:30 PM

Trump has no plan

(I’ve posted before about Trump’s mental health here and here.)

In a lot of the commentary on Venezuela I’ve seen perplexed speculation as to “Trump’s plan.” I respectfully beg to differ. I’m not sure people are taking into account where his head is really at.

First of all, his detachment from reality and entire unwillingness to even try to reason from fact make him as god-damned pathetically stupid as anyone can be. In addition, he’s long been afflicted – indeed, probably for his entire life – with malignant narcissism and a severe delusional disorder (the two usually go together). A paranoid disorder developed, or rather became clearly evident, during his first term. But right now, the most important thing to consider is his rapidly worsening senile dementia, probably due to Alzheimer’s disease.

Trump can’t plan anything. He’s going entirely by what “pushes his buttons” at any given moment. Moreover, he doesn’t remember what he said to whom from one day to the next. This means he’s at the mercy of whoever is working on him through groveling flattery at any given time. From what I’ve seen mostly it’s Miller and Bannon, but undoubtedly the likes of Rubio and Hegseth get their shots. And not infrequently it could just be something he catches on Fox or Newsmax or whatever his favored viewing is these days. That’s the real reason for the appalling and often frightening “chaos” that so many have noted is fundamentally what this despicable farce of a presidency is all about..

My suspicion is that his remarks about taking over Venezuela were unscripted, and that his minions have been trying to deal with it while Trump himself, giddy with glee at being lionized in media as the most glorious warrior king since Alexander the Great, keeps babbling.

I don’t know what’s going to happen. There are parallels here with the (largely ineffective) attack on Iran – which would mean that things will settle down before long as far as the US is concerned. But there are plenty of differences as well. I’m only confident that being that it’s Trump’s DOJ the Maduro trial will probably get royally screwed up, as does absolutely everything that that crew of pitiful, corrupt incompetents touches – not that that matters. And that none of this will do anything to rescue him in the eyes of the public (he’s even losing MAGA now). Because as long as Americans aren’t getting killed most people honestly don’t much care.

Comment from Joe Musich: If the public does not understand the connection between the lardollini pardon of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and his “incursion” into Venezuela to capture Maduro we are in deeper trouble than I thought.