The United States executed a dramatic seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a move announced by President Trump that marks a clear escalation in Washington’s campaign to choke off illicit oil flows and hit the regime where it lives — its oil revenue. The vessel, identified as the tanker Skipper, was taken in the Caribbean and the administration has signaled this is not an isolated action but part of a broader pressure strategy.
This administration has backed its rhetoric with concrete tools: new tariffs on countries that import Venezuelan oil, a significant naval and military posture in the Caribbean, and tighter targeting of the narco-state apparatus that props up Nicolás Maduro. Those policies reflect an unmistakable maximum-pressure approach that aims to squeeze Maduro’s financial lifelines while calling out his government’s criminal entanglements.
The facts on the ground make the strategy politically and morally defensible: Maduro’s rule is sustained by corrupt oil deals and trafficking networks that have devastated the Venezuelan people and spilled chaos across the hemisphere. After years of misrule and kleptocracy, American pressure is intended not to punish ordinary Venezuelans but to dismantle the revenue streams that bankroll repression and transnational crime.
Unsurprisingly, regime allies have rushed to condemn Washington; Russia offered public solidarity to Maduro while Caracas decried the seizure as “international piracy.” Those predictable protests should not obscure the reality that Venezuela’s regime has become a regional menace, and those who enable it are now choosing their side in a geopolitical contest.
On Fox’s Gutfeld!, Greg Gutfeld captured the mood on the right by arguing that criticism should fall on the regime, not on the president who is trying to clean up the mess left by years of weak policy. Pundits on the right are framing this as a long-overdue assertion of American will — a signal that the United States will no longer quietly tolerate narco-authoritarian regimes siphoning wealth and threatening our neighbors.
There are risks to any pressure campaign, and prudence demands careful calibration to avoid unnecessary escalation, but resolve matters more when dealing with kleptocrats and cartels. A nation that refuses to defend its interests and stand with oppressed peoples only invites worse chaos; measured force and economic pressure are tools to restore order and accountability in a region that has suffered for too long.
