Seizing Maduro: MAGAReport 1/3/26
MAGA's "America First" values are tested
The United States carried out a military strike against Venezuela last night, capturing President Maduro and his wife and flying them to the United States, Trump said.
The response within the hard-core MAGA forums I read has been profoundly mixed. It is one of the rare instances where we see fighting within the community and also disagreement with Trump.
Around 1/3 of the comments are chest-thumping, power-celebrations. These people do not care at all about Venezuela, but they love the United States flexing its military power. “Fuck yeah Mr president we toppled the Venezuelan government in less than an hour.”
Mixed in with this are also some anti-Democrat comments, complaining in advance about how the left is going to criticize Trump for this, even though Maduro was a bad guy. “Anyone wanna take bets on how long it takes for the Democrat party to essentially side with Maduro? I say within 45 minutes of the first nationally syndicated new show that runs Saturday mornings.”
The next 1/3 of comments are jokes making light of the situation. “Remember the scene in Christmas Vacation when Cousin Eddie left in his RV and brought back Clark’s boss tied up with a big red bow? I’m kinda picturing that….”
And finally, the rest of the comments are disapproving. A lot of MAGA supporters believe sincerely in the “America First” platform. Some are truly isolationist, some do not see the value proposition in US involvement around the world whether it’s military action or humanitarian aid, and some were just weary of what they call the “forever wars” of Bush and Obama.
Trump’s America First promises were a big attraction for them, and it is why they have supported policies like cutting off support to Ukraine and dismantling USAID. Now, they see Trump taking military action in a country that they don't care about and that is profoundly disappointing. At the same time, one of the rules of this forum is that participants must be pro-Trump, so any criticism of what he does is disruptive.
We see many critiques, some agreement with the critiques, and also some positively neocon pushback.
One commenter wrote, “If we end up doing this stuff but not prosecuting about a thousand Minnesotan politicians and Somalians for megafraud, yes, I will have a lot to say about it.” This is interesting because it captures the heart of the America First proposition: that we focus our attention on our own issues instead of issues abroad. Also, my (very delayed) draft MAGAReport from the holidays was going to tell you, dear readers, that every single post on the forums for nearly a week has been about the daycare fraud in Minnesota. They have been all-consumed by this, and the news of the day is not enough to draw this person's attention away.
Other comments capture both the indignation in this action and also the long-running desire for retribution against liberals in power.
So, kidnapping leaders of other nations was always an option? ...can we do more of this please? Liberate Canada and Mexico maybe? No? Ah, alright...
I’d rather we do it to some shithead lefty governors
Sorry, best we can do is a place nobody gives a shit about.
Not one of you gave a shit about Venezuela until about 10 minutes ago. You know how I know? Because there wasn’t a single god damn mention of it in 2015, 2020, or 2024. But now MAGA is all about regime change in Venezuela?
What the fuck happened to you all.
Finally, one commenter has a theory about why we decided to take this action now. He is not about to be distracted: “Captured Maduro, but not a single person from Epstein list.”
One reply agrees: “Unfortunately for Maduro, he wasn’t involved with Epstein in any way.” Another poster did not appreciate the criticism, writing,“take the win, pedo faggot.”