CovertAction Bulletin

Trump Calls For Land War: U.S. Hands Off Venezuela

At the final Cabinet meeting of 2025, Donald Trump said that the strikes on fishing boats in the Caribbean would continue, and that “We're going to start doing those strikes on land, too” - signaling that a ground invasion of Venezuela and possibly other countries may be imminent.

On this episode, we review the lies the U.S. government has been putting forward about where drugs are coming from and why the U.S. has wanted to overthrow the Venezuelan government for decades - for access to its rich oil resources, to open up new markets for U.S. goods, and to send a message to other countries charting their own independent and socialist paths that imperialist hegemony can’t be challenged.

The time for a united movement against this war, which could also spread to Colombia and beyond, is now. And that movement must be independent of both major parties so it doesn’t repeat the mistakes of some in the 2000s by quieting down or compromising itself to appease the Democrats, and so it doesn’t get sidetracked into “America First” isolationism on the right. We also discuss some of the overt - and covert - ways that mouthpieces of imperialism will try to dissuade people from taking part in such a movement.

December 6th will be a national day of action against war in Venezuela. Find a demonstration near you at https://www.answercoalition.org/venezuela, or add yours to the list.

Trump Calls for Lawmakers to be Hanged

On November 20th, a group of six Democratic Senators and Representatives released a video addressing American servicemembers, reminding them that they can and must refuse illegal orders that are given to them. The video comes as the Trump administration continues deploying the National Guard to cities around the country - and a day before a judge ruled that the National Guard deployment in Washington, DC was illegal. In the video, Representatives Chris Deluzio, Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan along with Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin say in part, “the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have labeled them the “Seditious Six” and called for them to be hanged. Now, the Pentagon has opened an investigation into Mark Kelly because of the video, creating the possibility that the retired Navy Captain could be recalled and face charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Elissa Slotkin is a former CIA analyst, and the rest have military backgrounds. Kelly is the only one who served long enough to retire, receive a pension and continue to be subject to the UCMJ. The FBI has also announced an investigation into all six.

The video and the responses of criminal investigation and even death threats reflect a severe disagreement within the ruling class on how to go forward as basic parts of the social contract are destroyed and trust in social institutions withers.

Epstein and Empire: What Will the Files Say?

Over 20,000 documents related to the Estate of Jeffrey Epstein have been released by the House Oversight Committee, and an unknown number more may be coming as the House of Representatives voted 427-1 on Tuesday for their release.. Donald Trump has flipflopped on whether he’d sign the bill if it passes the Senate and comes across his desk. First, he called Republicans who supported the release like Marjorie Taylor Greene and bill sponsor Thomas Massie “RINOs” - Republicans in Name Only. Then on Sunday and Monday, he signaled that he’d sign the bill if it came across his desk.

Whether the full files are ever released or not, the information we already have tells us a lot about Epstein and his connections.  Worth around $600 million when he died in prison in 2019, the sex offender who made his money as a financial advisor to the elite also influenced and interacted with people at the highest levels of government and business. In his emails and texts, he discussed opportunities and prospects in Ukraine, Israel, Syria, and even in Mongolia, sharing a document calling it China’s Ukraine. His connections and friendships with many in the upper echelons of society point to a real ruling-class conspiracy where the wealthy overlook heinous crimes in favor of maintaining their status.

Mamdani’s Win and the Movement’s Next Steps

Over two million New Yorkers voted in the mayoral elections, which saw Zohran Mamdani win with more than one million votes himself. It’s the highest voter turnout seen in the race since 1969, when John Lindsay won re-election after switching from the Republican to Liberal Party. In 2025, the popularity of Mamdani’s campaign and the mass voter turnout was a clear result of widespread disillusionment with the entirety of the political and economic system.

The Mamdani campaign spoke to what New Yorkers - and workers across the country - need, and that’s what made it immensely popular. Free buses, city-run grocery stores with price controls, and being able to afford your rent aren’t radical demands, especially in the wealthiest city in the country. New York politicians were unwilling and unable to meet basic needs and demands, but continued funding the NYPD’s nearly $11 billion budget.

The right wing - including establishment Democrats like his opponent Andrew Cuomo, who was endorsed by the likes of Elon Musk and Donald Trump - and the far right have been whipped into a frenzy. Trump himself claims it’s a choice between “communism and common sense.” The Washington Post claims Mamdani won because “supporters of the free market” just haven’t convinced working people about the benefits of capitalism.

Now Mamdani is starting his transition plan, and soon will be a democratic socialist in charge of the municipal government at the heart of Western capitalism. From the influence of Wall Street money to the gentrification of property owners to the brutality of the NYPD itself, he will face a mountain of contradictions that only a mass movement can truly address.

Tariffs and Tensions: Is Trump Really Shifting on China?

After almost a year of an escalating trade war, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea last week. While official statements from both sides framed the summit as a positive move forward in a period of growing political, economic and military tensions on the international scale, it may also mark a distinct change in the U.S. approach. The Trump administration had imposed extremely high tariffs on Chinese exports to the US this year. China then imposed its own retaliatory tariffs.

But despite Trump’s triumphalist language around the meeting, the U.S. continues to place economic restrictions on China. It will restrict China’s access to NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell generation of chips, despite CEO Jensen Huang saying last week he hoped to be able to sell the chips in China. And the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this week about Trump’s tariffs against Chinese and other international goods, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled over two months ago, on August 29th, that the President overreached his executive power in imposing the tariffs by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Ultimately - and despite a perhaps temporary lowering of temperatures - the trade war is far from over and may spill into other significant geopolitical areas.

Feeding the Crisis: SNAP Under Siege in the Shutdown

Funding for SNAP, the federal Supplemental Food Assistance Program, is set to expire on November 1st due to the ongoing government shutdown that’s about to hit the one-month mark. A banner on the Department of Agriculture’s website blames Senate Democrats, immigrants and trans people for the crisis, but also says, “Bottom line, the well has run dry.” At the same time, the USDA said last week that it would not use contingency funds already allocated for such an emergency.

The bottom line is that 42 million people in 22 million households across the country - about 12% of the U.S. population - will lose some or all of their access to food over the weekend. Food banks and pantries as well as neighborhood mutual aid groups already struggling with the cutbacks of the shutdown and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill are in deep crisis mode finding ways to keep their neighbors, towns and cities fed.

An additional 6.7 million women and children who rely on WIC, the Women Infants and Children nutrition program, could find that additional support cut off as well. And the possible shutdown of Head Start programs could drive tens of thousands of families further into crisis and despair as 140 of those programs that were relying on funding in November won’t get it.

This is straight out of the Project 2025 playbook, further highlighted by the fact that Donald Trump has gone out of his way to get ICE agents and other federal law enforcement paid during the shutdown. 

A General Strike Can Change Everything

Millions of people in over 2,700 cities and towns took part in No Kings Day protests across the country on October 18th. Organizers estimate that seven million took part, two million more than the same actions in June. From the streets of big cities to the squares and streetcorners of smaller towns, this was one of the biggest days of protest in U.S. history and highlights the vast unpopularity of the Trump administration’s pro-billionaire and anti-worker policies as the government remains shut down and social programs continue to be cut but ICE raids won’t stop terrorizing our communities.

Signs, banners, chants and speeches on Saturday brought forward the call for a general strike as a way to defeat the ultra-right’s agenda and to do more - to win back the rights we’ve lost and win rights we desperately need. Even Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said at a rally, “If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can the same today!”

A general strike involving workers, students and all people from across society could change the course of events, directly challenge the Trump regime’s ruthless and racist attacks, and even set the stage for a revolution. What would it look like and how would we get there? We’ll talk about all that today.

But first, last week we talked about how the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was opening the door for renewed US military action against the Venezuelan revolution and government of Nicolás Maduro. Just a few days later, the Trump administration then said that it had authorized additional strikes on Venezuela, including on land, after it had already attacked six Venezuelan boats in international waters. Trump also announced that he has approved CIA covert actions in the country. While it’s long been known that the CIA has been a tool in attempting to overthrow Venezuela’s revolution under both Chávez and Maduro, the announcement of the use of CIA operations for regime change is unprecedented.

Nobel Peace Prize Paves Way for War With Venezuela

Donald Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, as he boasted he should for supposedly being the “peace President” - a claim we’ve debunked numerous times on this show. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that the Nobel Committee “places politics over peace” - which actually does have some truth to it, like a broken clock does twice a day. The award was instead given to María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan “opposition” leader hell-bent on overthrowing the government of Nicolás Maduro. Her party, Vente Venezuela, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Israeli Likud party, and in 2019 she posted on X that “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel.”

In Gaza, Palestinians celebrated in the streets upon hearing the news of the ceasefire, and are beginning to return to the north. While they are finding their homes largely reduced to rubble, they are vowing to rebuild and reestablish their lives in their homeland. As the remaining Israeli captives are being traded for thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, hundreds of whom were held in Israel for much longer than two years, the ceasefire deal also calls for Israel to allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza daily.

The ceasefire was won first and foremost by the resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people, and by the solidarity movement across the world that did not let Palestine out of the spotlight for the past two years. But Israel is already going back on some of the terms, killing at least five Palestinians in Shujaiya on Tuesday who were going to check on their homes. The occupying forces also announced they will not actually allow for the aid that it agreed to as part of the ceasefire to be let into Gaza.

This situation is quickly developing, and what happens next may also open a new phase in the solidarity movement, and we’ll get into many of the questions about how the movement should go forward and what these changes mean.

Gaza to Portland: A System in Crisis

The Israeli government has waged the latest campaign of its effort to wipe out and destroy the Palestinian people entirely for over two years now, with the full financial, diplomatic and military backing of the United States government. Using a conservative estimate of 66,600 deaths, the toll from Gaza since October 7, 2023, represents 14% of all conflicts worldwide in that time period according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. As the Trump administration puts forward a supposed deal and applies massive pressure to the Palestinian resistance to accept it, protests around the world have taken the streets in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack Lebanon as members of the Israeli cabinet urge Netanyahu to increase the terror even further.

And in the United States, the Trump administration renewed its consideration of using the Insurrection Act after multiple judges have issued rulings fully or temporarily blocking his deployments of National Guard troops to cities like Portland. Over the past two weeks, the Trump administration has intensified its domestic deployment of military and federal forces, waging what many are calling Trump’s “war from within.”

In Portland, the White House sought to federalize the Oregon National Guard under the pretext of protecting federal property. That move was blocked by a Trump-appointed federal judge, who declared, “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law,” warning that the administration’s arguments risk “blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.” In response, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accused Judge Immergut of staging a “legal insurrection,” and Trump has since pressed ahead with alternative avenues to deploy the National Guard to Portland.

The multiple global crises all point to a system in crisis, where social constructs and agreements that have held the the national and global order together have been so fractured that they cannot hold.

U.S. on Edge: Trump Prepares Domestic Military Crackdown

At a gathering of senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday, Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signaled that they’re preparing to imminently expand the scope and size of the U.S. military, both inside and outside the United States. Trump made it clear that he knows sentiment against not only him but the entire capitalist system is growing - as are the movements of organized people in resistance. He said Tuesday, “Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”

That August Executive Order, combined with another in September declaring “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization and a National Security Directive that targets those anti-capitalist and progressive views all come as ICE is ramping up its own militarized terror in Chicago, the National Guard is set to deploy to Portland, OR, and Trump threatens to cut funding from New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral election.

Trump also said Tuesday that the government should deploy the military and National Guard into American cities for training: “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, National Guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor.” Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois has called on Trump to stop, but not put forward any plan on how to make that happen outside of asking Illinois residents to post what they see on social media. A New York Times / Siena College poll released Tuesday shows that 53% of registered voters think Trump has gone too far by sending the National Guard into U.S. cities.

The fast-moving rise of authoritarianism in the United States is a sign of a system in crisis. If it wasn’t clear before, it should be now that the Trump administration has declared an open war on workers and oppressed people across the country and the world.