Lindsey Graham's Threats

I was in China with a pretty packed schedule so I did not keep up with a lot of Latin America news recently. Looking at U.S. policy toward Venezuela suggests that the Trump administration has not come up with anything new. I noticed that Lindsey Graham is making a big deal about needing to threaten invasion.

“Trump said rightly, Maduro’s not the legitimate leader of Venezuela. The entire region supports the Trump approach, that Guaidó is the legitimate leader,” Graham said on Fox News Sunday. “I would do exactly what Reagan did. I would give Cuba the ultimatum to get out of Venezuela. If they don’t, I would let the Venezuelan military know, you’ve got to choose between democracy and Maduro. And if you choose Maduro and Cuba, we’re coming after you. This is in our backyard.”

This is classic Trump and I assume Graham is doing it on his behalf. Trump loves ultimatums and threats--he wants to scare the Venezuelan military into overthrowing Nicolás Maduro. The problem is that Trump keeps doing this over and over. He's been doing it for months and it hasn't worked. Unable to think of something else, he just repeats himself.

Meanwhile, negotiations are underway and hopefully have some substance. The string of threats with nothing behind him will only marginalize the Trump administration, which at this point is not showing it has anything to offer.