Day 1 of Trump's Presidency... and all the days that follow

[AuCo]

There's been so much noise on this thread lately. Even this, imho anyway!

[Mike]

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rizzoto's friends don't take drugs, ergo drug cartels and narco states are blameless.

[Jaak]

[Jaak]

[Rizotto]

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rizzoto's friends don't take drugs, ergo drug cartels and narco states are blameless.

Do YOU and your friends take drugs? How many people in your social circle are drug addicts on the verge of overdosing?

[Rizotto]

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

... and was Trump forced to silence Epstein's victims by claiming the Epstein case was a hoax?

[Mike]

Posted by Rizotto (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rizzoto's friends don't take drugs, ergo drug cartels and narco states are blameless.

Do YOU and your friends take drugs? How many people in your social circle are drug addicts on the verge of overdosing?

There's a way out of this dude! You don't have to keep twisting yourself into pretzels to make drug cartels and narco states into sympathetic figures. You can admit that illegal drugs are evil, the cartels are evil, the narco state leaders are evil ..and still condemn any potential war initiated by the US on Venezuela. Those 2 things can be true at the same time.

I get it.. you're in a perfect Trump-deranged hell of your own making atm and you don't want to ruin it by saying anything reasonable, but it would be far easier to cut loose of this argument and try hating Trump in some other less irrational ways.. ways that don't require you to defend mass murdering psychopaths I mean. No one will mistake you for a Trump supporter if you do, except for maybe Bojancan.

[BMJ]

Trump EXPOSES Britain: The Secret Plot to Block Ukraine Peace

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6E9KkvAsSrw

Promethean Updates
Dec 11, 2025

Summary:
00:00 The Midweek Update - Trump EXPOSES Britain: The Secret Plot to Block Ukraine Peace - December 10, 2025
02:13 Trump vs. The Crown: Two Incompatible Worldviews
07:02 Russia's Verdict: 'Trump Gets It'
08:38 The 2028 Trap: Targeting Vance

In this episode, Susan Kokinda discusses President Trump's recent national security strategy, which marks a significant departure from over a century of British-influenced American foreign policy.

The episode delves into the geopolitical friction between the U.S. and the UK, particularly regarding their strategies toward Russia and Ukraine.

Susan Kokinda underscores the broader clash of worldviews between American sovereignty and British-led internationalism, highlighting the latest developments including reactions from Russia and European elites.

The episode also examines the opposition Trump faces from both within the U.S. political establishment and British geopolitical strategists, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining political support to ensure the success of Trump's transformative policies.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Rizotto (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rizzoto's friends don't take drugs, ergo drug cartels and narco states are blameless.

Do YOU and your friends take drugs? How many people in your social circle are drug addicts on the verge of overdosing?

There's a way out of this dude! You don't have to keep twisting yourself into pretzels to make drug cartels and narco states into sympathetic figures. You can admit that illegal drugs are evil, the cartels are evil, the narco state leaders are evil ..and still condemn any potential war initiated by the US on Venezuela. Those 2 things can be true at the same time.

I get it.. you're in a perfect Trump-deranged hell of your own making atm and you don't want to ruin it by saying anything reasonable, but it would be far easier to cut loose of this argument and try hating Trump in some other less irrational ways.. ways that don't require you to defend mass murdering psychopaths I mean. No one will mistake you for a Trump supporter if you do, except for maybe Bojancan.

~~~

1) Mike, the problem is that Venezuela isn't actually a 'narco state'. This is another invented PR excuse — like WMD! — for a regime change war, like Libya, Iraq, etc etc etc. Whatever this military adventure is about, it's not about drugs.

2) And the bombed boats weren't 'smuggling drugs' to the US. They had a range of about 60 miles. When they were blown out of the water, they had another 1500 miles to go.

3) I'm wondering if TDS might best be redefined as the kind of 'derangement' that makes sincere people believe that Trump has somehow held true to all his election promises!

4) And Rizotto isn't a dude.

[BMJ]

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
DD Geopolitics

🇺🇸🇻🇪🇮🇷 BREAKING: The United States just carried out a full military seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, and Washington is now claiming the vessel was linked to Iran’s IRGC and Hezbollah.

Attorney General Pam Bondi says the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Coast Guard, and the Department of War executed a federal seizure warrant on the Guyana-flagged M/T SKIPPER, a tanker long under U.S. Treasury sanctions.

At 6:00 a.m., two MH-60 Seahawks dropped U.S. Special Forces onto the ship, along with 10 Marines and 10 Coast Guard personnel.
The takeover was described as “safe,” but the legal justification is already under scrutiny.

When Iran seized a tanker in international waters last year, CENTCOM called it a “blatant violation of international law” that “undermines freedom of navigation and free commerce.”
(Their own press release literally says this.)

Yet today, U.S. forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Caribbean near Venezuelan territorial waters, using heliborne special operators to enforce unilateral U.S. sanctions that neither Venezuela nor the region recognizes.

If Iran does it: “Illegal seizure in international waters.”

If the United States does it: “A successful law-enforcement operation.”

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1998897812277547502

The White House speaks out on seized oil tanker

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=w6ISCJuFzts

Sky News Australia
Dec 12, 2025
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirms the US has seized an oil tanker off Venezuela's coast that previously transported oil to designated foreign terror organisations, notably bound for Iran.

This action marks a new strategy by the Trump administration, emphasising domestic issues, particularly the fight against illegal drug trafficking that has claimed numerous American lives.

The Department of Justice obtained a warrant to seize the vessel based on its link to black market oil transactions for the IRGC.

“It’s a sanctioned shadow vessel known for carrying black market sanctioned oil to the IRGC,” Ms Leavitt said.

[Mike]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by Rizotto (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

Posted by AuCo (here)
"... But why did they chose to take those drugs in the first place?

No one is forced to take drugs... "

Same goes with no kids are forced to have sex chat with an adult.

It all makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rizzoto's friends don't take drugs, ergo drug cartels and narco states are blameless.

Do YOU and your friends take drugs? How many people in your social circle are drug addicts on the verge of overdosing?

There's a way out of this dude! You don't have to keep twisting yourself into pretzels to make drug cartels and narco states into sympathetic figures. You can admit that illegal drugs are evil, the cartels are evil, the narco state leaders are evil ..and still condemn any potential war initiated by the US on Venezuela. Those 2 things can be true at the same time.

I get it.. you're in a perfect Trump-deranged hell of your own making atm and you don't want to ruin it by saying anything reasonable, but it would be far easier to cut loose of this argument and try hating Trump in some other less irrational ways.. ways that don't require you to defend mass murdering psychopaths I mean. No one will mistake you for a Trump supporter if you do, except for maybe Bojancan.

~~~

1) Mike, the problem is that Venezuela isn't actually a 'narco state'. This is another invented PR excuse — like WMD! — for a regime change war, like Libya, Iraq, etc etc etc. Whatever this military adventure is about, it's not about drugs.

2) And the bombed boats weren't 'smuggling drugs' to the US. They had a range of about 60 miles. When they were blown out of the water, they had another 1500 miles to go.

3) I'm wondering if TDS might best be redefined as the kind of 'derangement' that makes sincere people believe that Trump has somehow held true to all his election promises!

4) And Rizotto isn't a dude.

Rizoto is Rizota? Apologies

I agree it may not be about drugs exclusively (or at all), but I would dispute the narco state thing. I have almost every reason to believe that's what it is. I'm not married to the idea, and would update my thinking if presented with some relevant info. But atm the evidence for this seems overwhelming. I've heard all kinds of arguments against the US invading (I don't want to invade Venezuela either for the record!) but I've never heard anyone dispute the narco state thing. I'd be interested in hearing more about this.

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

And you're not off topic!

[norman]

Posted by Mike (here)

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

And you're not off topic!

Yea, the heart pain I feel, is that there are quite a few reading and writing here who DO love Marxist utopia and their lottery wish for an excusive 'elite' triumph and freedom of a depopulated fresh start where nothing changes about reality but escape and a (black)magical sense of "waw, we actually got away with it because we were evolutionary clever and that means we were right and deserve it".

[onawah]

Trump Administration Sides With Bayer in Seeking Supreme Court Ruling on Roundup Fight
December 02, 2025
The New Lede
by Carey Gillam
https://organicconsumers.org/trump-a...roundup-fight/

(This looks like an example of Trump falling short, and the following from Jimmy Dore shows Trump's support is falling due to economic concerns. It's no wonder--Trump is not a magician and look at the mess he inherited. Nothing is simple these days....)

"Bayer, the beleaguered maker of Roundup herbicide, has garnered the support of the US Department of Justice in its court battle to turn back a tide of litigation brought by people claiming the company failed to warn them of cancer risks associated with the weed killers.

In a Dec. 1 filing with the US Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, appointed by the Trump administration in April, told the court that it should take up an appeal from Bayer that the company hopes could help it quash ongoing lawsuits inherited when it bought Monsanto in 2018.

Bayer, which maintains its glyphosate herbicides do not cause cancer, argues that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which governs the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States, preempts “failure-to-warn” claims against the company. Because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved labels with no cancer warning, failure-to-warn claims should be barred, the company maintains.

Multiple courts have rejected Bayer’s argument, including two appellate courts, ruling that FIFRA does not preempt failure-to-warn claims, though one appellate court – the Third Circuit Court of Appeals- has sided with Bayer.

A similar effort by Bayer to get the high court to weigh in on the preemption issue was rejected in 2022 after the Biden administration’s Solicitor General asked the high court not to hear Bayer’s appeal on the same issue, saying that “FIFRA does not preempt” such claims.

“Although some aspects of EPA-approved labeling may preempt particular state-law requirements, EPA’s approval of labeling that does not warn about particular chronic risks does not by itself preempt a state-law requirement to provide such warnings,” then-Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in the 2022 brief to the Supreme Court. The agricultural industry reacted with outrage at the time, saying Prelogar’s position posed “great risks” to the regulatory system and global food systems.

In contrast, Sauer’s brief to the court this week was closely aligned with Bayer’s arguments, saying the Third Circuit ruling favoring Bayer’s position on preemption “correctly allows EPA to determine on a nationwide basis what warnings must appear on a particular pesticide’s label to avoid an unreasonable risk to human health.” He said given conflicting court rulings on the issue, review by the Supreme Court “is now warranted…”

Sauer also echoed Bayer’s language on Roundup safety: “After careful scientific review and an assessment of hundreds of thousands of public comments, EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic in humans, and the agency has repeatedly approved Roundup labels that did not contain cancer warnings,” the Solicitor General wrote in his brief.

Bayer has paid out more than $11 billion in jury verdicts and settlements but continues to face tens of thousands of lawsuits from people alleging they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma from use of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides sold by the company. It has told investors for the last few years that getting the Supreme Court to rule in its favor on the preemption issue is a key goal.

Bayer celebrated the support from the administration, issuing a statement on Tuesday saying a positive ruling from the Supreme Court “could help bring the company closer to closure” in the Roundup litigation.

“The support of the US Government is an important step and good news for US farmers, who need regulatory clarity,” Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said in a statement. “The stakes could not be higher as the misapplication of federal law jeopardizes the availability of innovative tools for farmers and investments in the broader US economy.”

Bayer said a ruling from the Supreme Court on the preemption issue could impact other industries as well.

“It is time for the US legal system to establish that companies cannot be punished under state laws for complying with federal label requirements,” Bayer said.

Kelly Ryerson, co-executive director of American Regeneration and a leading lobbyist in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that the Trump administration says it supports, was furious at the Justice Department move.

“MAHA voters chose this administration because they were tired of watching captured regulators sign off on chemicals that are poisoning their families, not because they wanted Washington to hand pesticide giants a liability shield,” Ryerson said.

“President Trump specifically promised to address the harms from pesticides. This move to support the Supreme Court in hearing Bayer’s case for federal preemption of state laws that protect our safety could not stray further from that promise he made to American citizens,” she added.

The Roundup litigation began in 2015 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, reviewed years of independent research on glyphosate and Roundup, and found the weed killer to be a “probable human carcinogen.”

Alongside its path through the courts, Bayer has also been pushing for new state and federal legislation that would effectively preempt lawsuits based on failure-to-warn claims.

Author

Carey Gillam

Carey Gillam is the editor-in-chief of The New Lede and a veteran investigative journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering US news, including 17 years as a senior correspondent with Reuters international news service (1998-2015). She is the author of “Whitewash - The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science,” an expose of Monsanto’s corporate corruption of agriculture. The book won the coveted Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists in 2018. Her second book, a narrative legal thriller titled The Monsanto Papers, was released March 2, 2021.

She also has contributed chapters for a text book about environmental journalism and a book about pesticide use in Africa.


Gillam testified as an invited expert before the European Parliament in 2017 about her research, and was a featured speaker at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France in 2019. She also has been a keynote and/or panel speaker at events and universities throughout North America, Australia, The Netherlands, Brussels, and France.

Gillam writes regularly for The Guardian. Her work has additionally been published in The New York Times, Huffington Post, Time, and other outlets.

In 2022, Gillam helped launch The New Lede as a journalism initiative of the Environmental Working Group.
Gillam is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. "

*********************
Trump’s Poll Numbers Are CRATERING & He Doesn’t Care!
The Jimmy Dore Show
1.72M subscribers
Dec 11, 2025

"Jimmy breaks down new polling data showing Donald Trump’s approval among young voters collapsing, arguing that Trump’s refusal to address economic pain is driving his numbers into a “deep dark black hole.” He contrasts Trump’s message—obsessing over foreign policy, boasting about the economy, and contradicting himself on affordability—with voters’ real concerns about rent, healthcare, wages, and inflation.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss how candidates like Zohran Mamdani succeeded by listening to working-class neighborhoods that had previously shifted toward Trump, focusing on affordability rather than culture-war distractions. Throughout the segment, Jimmy accuses both parties of gaslighting the public, insisting that Trump’s economic denialism is now dragging down the GOP heading into the midterms."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=izz8CTthnW4

[rgray222]

Posted by norman (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

And you're not off topic!

Yea, the heart pain I feel, is that there are quite a few reading and writing here who DO love Marxist utopia and their lottery wish for an excusive 'elite' triumph and freedom of a depopulated fresh start where nothing changes about reality but escape and a (black)magical sense of "waw, we actually got away with it because we were evolutionary clever and that means we were right and deserve it".

Thomas Sowell, a true treasure to humanity

[jaybee]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

{snipped}

2) And the bombed boats weren't 'smuggling drugs' to the US. They had a range of about 60 miles. When they were blown out of the water, they had another 1500 miles to go.

This seems like a point to consider so I had a think.... :-)

Couldn't they (the fast, smaller boats) be delivering to a larger vessel and be just one of the stages...of the smuggling process....?

Or delivering the shipment to another country/location between Venezuela and America....

[jaybee]

Posted by Mike (here)

{snipped}

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

I tend to take a 'glass half full' approach to Trump as well....

Shutting the Southern Border and stopping the invasion was a fundamental, basic operation to literally save the American Republic....

Another huge achievement of the Trump Administration, IMO....was bringing RFK Jr into government and the creation of MAHA...looking at all aspects of health but also tackling childhood vaccination problems...

[Mike]

Posted by jaybee (here)

Posted by Mike (here)

{snipped}

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

I tend to take a 'glass half full' approach to Trump as well....

Shutting the Southern Border and stopping the invasion was a fundamental, basic operation to literally save the American Republic....

Another huge achievement of the Trump Administration, IMO....was bringing RFK Jr into government and the creation of MAHA...looking at all aspects of health but also tackling childhood vaccination problems...

re RFK, yeah for sure.

Trump will be 80 early next year. 80! The guy hardly sleeps at all, his diet is atrocious, and his normal day is about 50x busier than the busiest day any of us has ever had in our entire lives. He is an absolute freak of nature. His energy is remarkable. He's not just a unique politician, he's an exceptionally unique human being. I don't think anyone on earth could do what he does. Hate him or love him, you have to admit he's absolutely remarkable in this way.

He is constantly battling; he is constantly under fire (sometimes literally). Whether it's hostile countries or a hostile American press, there is never a moment when he's not taking slings and arrows. There are zero breaks. Most men, even exceptional ones, would wilt in the face of just a fraction of what this man has dealt with (and continues to deal with). He went up against the machine, took everything they had to give him, and won. That makes him exactly one of one. He is wholly unique, and I think history will remember him this way.

We have short memories. When I started out here on Avalon, if a president just mentioned the "deep state" once in public he'd have been lauded as a hero. Things like that were unheard of! And if someone told us then that not only would there be someone in 2025 speaking openly about such things, but going head to head with the globalists, we wouldn't have believed it. In this way Trump is a victim of his success and brazenness. He's normalized all the things we used to talk about, almost single-handedly. We take him for granted now. Just look at the job he's done on the MSM. If that were the only feather in his cap, he'd be a legend. But it's not. They tried to impeach him multiple times, bankrupt him, throw him in jail, take him off the ballot, and kill him. And on top of that, almost all of our mainstream institutions were aggressively against him, but he still won. If you don't admire this man, there is something wrong with you.

He saved the US by closing the borders. The country would not have survived 4 more years of mass immigration and ideological subversion. Not a chance. I'm sorry, if you don't understand that by now as an American you don't understand anything, and you likely never will. But for those Americans that do, how can you be anything but eternally grateful towards him for that??? Everything is downstream of immigration. We wouldn't even have the luxury of debating all the things we're supposedly pissed at him about if he hadn't saved the damn country in the first place. It's like being pissed at your Daddy because he offered you french fries instead of onion rings just after pulling you out of a burning home.

Sure there's some issues, but inflation is down, woke is on the run, illegals are being deported in mass numbers, our military is strong again, and we're almost single-handedly keeping the west alive and kicking. And free speech is back. All in less than a year! The guy has been absolutely brilliant.

[rgray222]

Posted by Jaak (here)

Trump authorized $4 billion in military assistance to Israel using emergency authorities, bypassing the standard congressional review process. This money was a transfer of military equipment, and it is not expected to be paid back.

Trump has approved $12 B in military equipment since his second term. This was financed by the US taxpayer, and Israel is expected to repay the costs over time. Trump, unlike other politicians, fully expects to be paid back. There has been a lot of false or incorrect (take your pick) reporting by many mainstream publications that said the $12 B was aid and not a sale, but that simply was not the truth.

Joe Biden freely gave money out to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine (one package alone valued at $95B) like it was actually going to make a difference with no intention of being repaid. The globalists and the progressives running the country when Biden "held" the office of president, were nothing less than warmongers, hellbent on global war and financial ruin for the USA.

[rgray222]

Posted by Mike (here)
I agree it may not be about drugs exclusively (or at all), but I would dispute the narco state thing. I have almost every reason to believe that's what it is. I'm not married to the idea, and would update my thinking if presented with some relevant info. But atm the evidence for this seems overwhelming. I've heard all kinds of arguments against the US invading (I don't want to invade Venezuela either for the record!) but I've never heard anyone dispute the narco state thing. I'd be interested in hearing more about this.

I can't speak for any other Trump supporters, but I of course know Trump hasn't kept all his promises (yet anyway). But complaining about what he hasn't done in favor of what he has done seems mostly cynical and ungrateful to me (at least if you're an American). If you're not American, and you don't like the US or Trump etc, fair play. But Trump has saved the country, just by shutting down the border. Forget everything else - this one act saved the country from sure destruction. And he's changed the entire culture, almost single-handedly from a woke/Marxist dystopia to something resembling what it should be (all in less than a year). So I'm not unaware of where he's come up short, but I still remain thrilled with the progress so far.

And you're not off topic!

Trump did say that the drug boats being destroyed were carrying drugs destined for the USA. No one is quite sure if that statement is true or if it was just more Trump blustering rhetoric, but there are some things we know for sure. These boats being destroyed are primarily used across short sea routes to nearby islands such as Trinidad and Tobago(11 km off the coast of Venezuela), which is a major regional hub for drug trafficking. These same drug boats are often used to deliver drugs to larger cargo vessels awaiting offshore. It would not surprise me that the oil tanker was used to carry drugs close to their final destination; they would offload the drugs before delivering oil.

It does appear that Trump's efforts are making a difference. Exactly how much remains to be seen. A quick search about fentanyl provides this info:
While the most lethal phase of the fentanyl crisis appears to be easing, fentanyl remains an extremely dangerous substance, and claims about it being "much less lethal" are misleading. Fatal overdoses involving fentanyl have declined significantly across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, with some states reporting drops of over 50% in overdose deaths. This decline is attributed to factors such as reduced potency of street fentanyl, increased availability of naloxone (Narcan), greater access to addiction treatment, and a shift in the drug market toward substances like xylazine and medetomidine, which are less immediately fatal but still highly harmful. The price of fentanyl has increased, and the availability of fentanyl is limited.

[onawah]

Agreed, but given just how much Trump has had to deal with, I think it's wise to keep a close eye on what goes down from now on. He may be brilliant, but he's not infallible.

Posted by Mike (here)

Sure there's some issues, but inflation is down, woke is on the run, illegals are being deported in mass numbers, our military is strong again, and we're almost single-handedly keeping the west alive and kicking. And free speech is back. All in less than a year! The guy has been absolutely brilliant.