Commentary by Stephen Macaulay
Let’s say for the sake of argument that Donald Trump has had enough of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and claims — without any evidence — that the amount of fentanyl coming over the border is a case of narco-terrorism. So he calls Gen. Dan “Raisin’” Caine to the Situation Room and tells him to fly to Ottawa to grab Carney.
Operation Maple Syrup.
What’s to stop him from doing this?
This is not a case of drawing an equivalency between Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Carney but to raise a point about what seems to be the policy and procedure that the Trump Administration is undertaking.
Let’s not put too much credence in the 2020 drug trafficking charges against Maduro that Pam Bondi is going to be pursuing.
Remember that former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted in US federal court in March 2024 for various felonies, including smuggling cocaine into the US — the federal prosecutors said 400 tons — and collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel.
Let’s break this down:
- Hernández
- 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S.
- Working with one of the largest drug cartels in the world
- Sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $8 million
On December 1, 2025, Donald Trump pardoned Hernández, blaming this all on Biden.
The Trump Administration is blowing up boats in the Caribbean that allegedly are carrying fentanyl but are apparently carrying cocaine. If these were specially engineered drug smuggling vessels, it would take 267 of them if each carried 1.5 tons to hit the 400-ton mark.
Trump says that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is under the direction of Maduro, which US intelligence agencies have disputed. (Perhaps Vladimir Putin told Trump of the link between Maduro and Tren de Aragua.)
And, again, Hernández was convicted in US court, in part, because of a link to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Trump gave Hernández a get-out-of-jail free card and he sent the Delta Force — supported by more than 150 military aircraft (including B-1 bombers) — and personnel from 20 different bases to grab Maduro and his wife.
None of this is to say that Maduro is a good guy.
But it is to say that it seems rather odd that Trump releases a convicted drug trafficker who was operating on a massive scale -- cocaine sold on the street is generally cut with substances like Levamisole, an animal dewormer, and as the average street purity of product is on the order of 40% to 60%, this means the 400 tons is increased some 40% to 60% -- and then initiates a major military maneuver to seize a “narcoterrorist” and his wife.
Now, he says, the US will be running Venezuela. That country has a lot of oil. Trump says that that’s American oil because US oil companies that established facilities there were ejected from the country. When? Oh, 2007.
And what isn’t mentioned is that Chevron still operates there.
The president has Article II powers that puts him in control of the military.
Congress is the only body that can declare war, but the US is not going to war with Venezuela, so that seems to be a moot point.
But one wonders: Are there any limits on the president’s powers or can he act at will?
Maybe by the time you read this Canada will be the 51st state.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.