What Trump Wants in Venezuela | The Ezra Klein Show

What is America doing in Venezuela? On Jan. 3, the Trump administration launched an operation that ended with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, who is now in New York City on narcoterrorism and weapons charges. “We’re going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place,” Trump said. Mr. Trump’s policy here is strange for a number of reasons: The U.S. is suffering from a fentanyl crisis, but Venezuela is not known as a fentanyl producer. Venezuela’s oil reserves are not the path to geopolitical power that they might have been in the 1970s. Mr. Maduro was a brutal and corrupt dictator, but Mr. Trump has left his No. 2 in charge. And Mr. Trump ran for office promising fewer foreign entanglements — not more. So why Venezuela, and why now? That’s the question we look at in this conversation. Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has profiled Stephen Miller and has been following the U.S. military’s drug boat strikes in the Caribbean, as well as the Trump administration’s evolving agenda in Latin America. He’s also the author of the book “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis.” 0:00 Intro 2:03 Why Venezuela “loomed large” for Trump 7:03 Is this about oil? 10:27 What Stephen Miller and Marco Rubio want 19:08 Is this about drugs? 24:39 Is this about creating a spectacle? 29:48 What could go wrong? 35:53 This feels out of the 1980s 41:46 Who is running Venezuela now? 46:40 The parallels with Iraq 52:03 What happened to MAGA isolationism? 56:42 Is Trump just trying to change the narrative? 59:24 Book recommendations Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jonathan-blitzer.html Watch more on @EzraKleinShow Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html Thumbnail photo credit: Matt Cardy/Getty Images