Rubio has maintained direct contact with Venezuela's Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, with officials privately describing him as Venezuela's "viceroy." The U.S. Treasury receives revenue from most Venezuelan exports and gradually releases funds back through private banks, while Rubio's team determines how the money can be spent and controls sanctions exemptions for companies seeking to operate in the country.

Rubio has also helped reshape Venezuela's oil sector, prioritized access for U.S. companies, pressured Caracas to distance itself from American adversaries, and weighs in on major government appointments.

Rodríguez has followed nearly every major U.S. demand, including approving the extradition of Maduro ally Alex Saab and cooperating with a U.S. operation that killed Tren de Aragua leader Niño Guerrero.

Washington's influence extends to Venezuela's public messaging. After the Venezuelan foreign minister criticized U.S. strikes on Iran, the Trump administration demanded the statement be removed and warned Caracas against publicly supporting U.S. adversaries. The post was deleted hours later.

Rubio describes the U.S. plan for Venezuela in three phases: economic recovery, stabilization, and an eventual democratic transition.

Rubio and Rodríguez exchange messages in Spanish on WhatsApp, trading gossip, birthday greetings and selfies.

President Trump has privately joked about sending Rubio to permanently lead Venezuela and has repeatedly suggested the country could eventually become the 51st U.S. state. But as one reality increasingly emerges, Rubio does not need to move to Caracas to wield power there—he is already effectively running Venezuela from Washington.

Maggot Hagerman has covered me incorrectly for ten years. Her book is a joke! 90% of it is Fake News. She has made a living off her bad reporting, and will pay the price when our Multi Billion Dollar Lawsuit against The Failing New York Times gets to Court, which should not be that long.

I don’t mind bad press, if they are right. I do mind Fake Reporting, like what’s in her boring book, and like she’s done for eleven years, with only one aim in mind, to have Trump lose Elections but, as I sit in the Oval Office and ponder, that hasn’t worked out too well. Maggot is a loser! If she ever wrote the true story about me, it would actually be quite boring, but loaded with lots of SUCCESS.

Also, I just finished a perfect physical at Walter Reed, I do it every six months, and I requested another Cognitive Test, the only President to do so, three times, and I aced them all — Got every question right. Few people in Washington, D.C., could do so, including Maggot and her flunky associate, Jonathan Swan. I would be willing to bet they couldn’t get 50% of the questions right.

Anyway, don’t buy their book, it’s garbage!

Russia is too big and too responsible to start a Third World War.

Then there is Europe. European politicians have all kinds of crazy ideas in their heads.

We will never start a Third World War. We never started one. Remember history. But when it was started against us, we responded until the end.

History, unfortunately, has a bad habit of repeating itself. In a little bit modernized way, but repeating itself.

Of course, we would like not to see any situations like it was in the mid-1930s of the previous century. But lots of things very much alike are happening right now.

What we see—the process of militarized Europe and the process of creating an enemy in our face—of course, disturbs us.

Is there, for Europeans, on European soil, any greater evil than Russia? No.

So this is a brainwashing of European taxpayers. They are being 100% brainwashed.

We are portrayed as absolute evil. The theory that they are all in danger is being pushed relentlessly.

If something endangers the idea of the existence of the Russian state, then nuclear weapons will be used.

Otherwise, they will not. Everything else is pure speculation.

On one side, there is Russia. On the other side, there is Ukraine, plus a number of European countries and the United States, supplying Ukraine with millions of tons of weapons.

It is no longer an operation. It is a full-scale war.

The heads of two state-owned enterprises and deputy officials responsible for security are among those under investigation.

"The specific individuals involved are known, and the state's position is that each of them must be held accountable," Zelensky said, stressing that wartime decisions and inaction can directly cost lives.

The SBU and Prosecutor General's Office will also examine similar defense enterprises across Ukraine, while the government plans to strengthen internal oversight of Ukroboronprom's dozens of companies and their directors to prevent another such disaster.

We Finns are cool, calm, and collected.

In the short term, there will be hybrid tests. In the long term, we need to prepare for the Russian threat.

The Finnish message is, "Prepare for the worst in order to avoid it." If that fails, take a sauna and an ice bath, and you’ll be just fine.

This week Israeli intelligence tipped off our side that there was a very specific plot that was designed to take out President Trump. This is pretty serious.

I think it's important for Americans to understand that what the Iranians are saying and doing is nothing that they haven't been doing for 47 years.

This is a longstanding "Death to America" chant that they've had. They really haven't changed. I hope they will. I'd love to believe they could.

If anyone, and I mean if anyone, could get them to a place of making a change about their evil behavior, it's President Trump.