Salon is an online, tabloid style, magazine and President Trump’s capture of Maduro is their latest journalist crime. Frequently, we at Victory Girls Blog enjoy taking on Amanda Marcotte. She is such a Lefty that she spins in circles. Today, we are going to focus on Andrew O’Hehir, Executive Editor, with his article “Venezuela: Our criminal president’s latest crime scene”. The subheading is: “A blatantly corrupt, anti-democratic and illegitimate president stages a criminal coup. He’s not named Maduro.” Isn’t Mr. O’Hehir clever? Not.

First of all, this Salon editor should at least be un peu honest. Trump is not corrupt, anti-democratic or illegitimate by legal standards. He did not stage a criminal coup. President Trump warned Mr. Maduro that time was running out and that Maduro should find a solution soon. Maduro kept lollygagging. It was time for him to go.

O’Hehir of Salon has these two paragraphs at the beginning of the article:

Maduro was bad news, I suppose, but almost certainly wouldn’t have ranked among the world’s top five most disagreeable despots. Far more to the point, Maduro and his actual or alleged misdeeds are almost entirely irrelevant right now. Any effort to “well, actually” the shameful, shocking and blatantly illegal actions of the U.S. government this weekend should choke on the big lump of obvious hypocrisy caught in its throat.

It’s no good pondering whether what just happened in Venezuela was a “war crime” or mumbling about how perhaps Congress should have been notified. There has to be an actual war before you can have war crimes, brothers and sisters. These were just straight-up crimes, committed by a criminal president and a criminal regime, and the entire world knows it. Whatever Maduro may or may not have done has now disappeared into the background noise of bad historical pretexts, along with Vladimir Putin’s claim that Ukraine was being run by Nazis.

That “I suppose” sounds so pretentious, especially when you don’t name these “disagreeable despot”. In our neighborhood, Maduro would make the top five. Let Europe and Asia handle their neighborhood and we will handle ours.

Maduro’s “actual or alleged misdeeds” are very relevant, especially as his defense attorneys try to defend them. Only Salon writers get to ignore them.

You don’t actually have to have a war to have a war crime, according to this legal analysis. Closing down the ports was for our National Security:

Hot take that'll make everyone mad: The US port attack in Venezuela wasn't a war crime. And no, this isn't partisan spin. It's US law. Here's what @CNN gave me 90 seconds to explain: 👇 pic.twitter.com/9BDLxpdJ8a

— Mike Lyons (@MAJMikeLyons) January 2, 2026

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The unprovoked American invasion of Venezuela, the apparent decapitation of its government and the abduction or kidnapping (or “arrest,” if we must) of Maduro and his wife are signs of both the Trump regime’s strength and its fatal weakness. That isn’t a contradiction, exactly. It’s more like an existential dilemma, both for our bewildered and benighted country and for the world.

We certainly didn’t invade Venezuela unprovoked. Certainly not the way our Southern Border was invaded. Of course, that didn’t bother anyone at Salon. We had the right to arrest Maduro and spouse for national security. For years we have had cartels, namely Maduro’s Cartel de los Soles interfering criminally in the United States. Check out this from Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

The Department of State intends to designate Cartel de los Soles as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), effective November 24, 2025. Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary. Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government. Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.

The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our national security interests and deny funding and resources to narco-terrorists.

Well done, Secretary Rubio. More from Secretary Rubio:

Unelected V.P. Delcy Rodriguez is still in Venezuela. The opposition party is not in Venezuela. This female anchor is a moron. Elections in 30 days? She is mad. Stabilize the country and stabilize the economy. Get some oil pumping and get some contracts.

No. American companies did not own the land or the oil but they owned the equipment, the processes and the technologies and that’s not small potatoes. Never discount our abilities.

Friends who lived in Venezuela in the early 90’s say it was a paradise. Family-friendly, sophisticated and fun. I think the people would like that again.

The United States had the right to apprehend Maduro and wife and we did it beautifully. Thank you to those amazing professionals who made it happen.

Featured Photo: The White House/Facebook/cropped/Public Domain