President Donald Trump earlier this month billed the crackdown in Venezuela on drugs, gangs attacking the United States and law enforcement — namely arresting accused leader Nicolas Maduro. But lately he seems to be busy with the country’s oil wealth.
And the American public seems to have noticed. A CBS News poll last week found that more Americans thought the administration’s goals in Venezuela would be oil (59% had “a lot” of goals about access to oil) or expanding U.S. power (51%) — more than drugs (38%), gang and terrorist attacks (37%) or law enforcement (31%).
That is very surprising. George W. It took years to catch on to the idea that the Bush administration had invaded Iraq under false pretenses (about weapons of mass destruction). Americans are already largely there when it comes to Venezuela.
Now, a second such foreign action could happen as early as 2026 – this time in Iran?
Iranians gather as they block a road during a protest in Tehran on January 9. – Khoshiran/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images
Trump has repeatedly launched military interventions in recent days to, in his words, “rescue” Iranian protesters targeted and killed by the regime.
But at home, Trump has a more selective view of protest and the sanctity of free speech — as last week in Minneapolis showed.
Trump, who attacked Iran’s nuclear program last year, has been protesting there for the past 10 days and has promised to protect protesters if necessary.
He said on January 2 that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States will come to their rescue.”
“We’re locked and loaded and ready to go,” he added on social media.
Trump echoed that with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week, saying: “I told them if they do something bad to these people, we’re going to hit them hard.”
According to US-based human rights groups, the death toll in the protests has reached 500. And Trump said Sunday night aboard Air Force One that his administration was studying the causes of death and would “make a decision” about how to proceed.
But the president’s record when it comes to the inseparability of protest and free speech is rather inconsistent — and often seems to depend largely on whether he agrees with the protesters’ message.
Federal agents gather near a vehicle with a bullet hole in the windshield after the driver was shot by a U.S. immigration agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. – Tim Evans/Reuters
Trump and his administration jumped to portray the woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis last week as a dangerous provocateur engaged in “domestic terrorism” — despite a lack of evidence that Renee Nicole Goode intentionally targeted the agent with her car. CNN has been unable to determine whether Goode was involved in a network of activists who sought to intervene as the immigration raids unfolded.
Social media has for months featured widely shared videos of federal agents being aggressive not only with their targets but also with ostensibly peaceful protesters, as CNN reported last month. We’ve seen similar scenes in recent days as protests have escalated in Minneapolis.
The New York Times asked Trump in an interview last week about aggressive tactics being used against protesters, and he seemed largely unfazed — repeatedly dodging the question.
“Well, I think ICE has been treated very badly,” he replied.
It’s a familiar dynamic with the president.
Protesters march down Pennsylvania Avenue during the second “No Kings” protest on October 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. – Nathan Howard/Getty Images/File
When millions protested him at “No Kings” rallies across the country in October, Trump and top Republicans previewed the demonstrations by repeatedly and baselessly denouncing Antifa, terrorist sympathizers and terrorists themselves. Some even predicted significant unrest – despite previous “no kings” protests showing much less violence.
And sure enough, recent protests have been almost entirely peaceful.
A month ago, Trump launched a federal crackdown on left-wing groups, baselessly accusing them of having something to do with Charlie Kirk’s murder. (This is despite the fact that the federal law enforcement suspect, Tyler Robinson, appears to have acted alone.)
Trump and some top administration officials have repeatedly suggested the potential need to scale back free speech protections.
Also this year, Trump has exaggerated violence at anti-ICE protests and other contexts to justify his domestic military deployments. Judges, including Republican-appointed ones, have repeatedly rejected those claims.
And earlier this year, he described some protests as “illegal” and targeted legal immigrants who expressed pro-Palestinian views for deportation.
Furthermore, Trump has also said that criticizing judges should be illegal (despite his own history of regularly criticizing judges). He has advocated decriminalizing flag burning and even suggested NFL players who don’t stand for the national anthem “shouldn’t be in the country.” He labeled the protests he disliked as “revolts”.
Trump’s former defense secretary said he advocated shooting protesters in the leg during his first term. And at the same time, as racial-justice protesters took to the streets across the country in 2020, Trump promoted a video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”
Finally, there are some old comments that are especially relevant today.
As Trump builds himself up as a potential savior for the protesters in Iran, he has repeatedly said that repression is something powerful countries do to their own citizens.
Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. – Fox News
Perhaps the most infamous example was when Trump was asked in 2017 about Russian President Vladimir Putin killing his enemies. (“You think our country is so innocent?” Trump said.)
But even more notable were Trump’s comments in 1990, before he first ran for president, about China’s handling of the Tiananmen Square protesters.
“When the students got to Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it up,” Trump told Playboy. “They were evil then, they were terrible, but they brought it down with force. It shows you the power of force. Our country is poorly understood right now.”
In the same interview, Trump cited the “demonstrations and sit-ins” in the Soviet Union and said then-President Mikhail Gorbachev “didn’t have a strong enough hand.”
Trump claimed during his 2016 campaign, when these comments resurfaced, that he was not advocating China’s crackdown on Tiananmen Square. But it’s just evidence that he often neglects to judge these things through a coherent, pro-civil liberties lens. His lens is instead regularly about power and he likes what the protesters are saying.
Which makes it a little hard to believe that his motivations in Iran are exactly what he says they are.
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