Jim Hanson, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, laid it out plainly on Jesse Watters Primetime: Nicolás Maduro is hunting for a soft landing and any scrap of international refuge he can buy as U.S. pressure tightens. Hanson’s frontline perspective matters because this isn’t abstract geopolitics — it’s a narco-authoritarian regime scrambling as its lifelines are cut and the clock runs out.
The Trump administration has moved from talk to action, stepping up seizures and sanctioning Maduro’s inner circle while choking off the shadow fleet that props up his oil revenue. That strategy — hitting the regime’s cash flow and logistics — is how you force change without needlessly sacrificing American lives, and it’s working to put Maduro on the defensive.
Washington has backed those economic tools with unmistakable military deterrence, deploying the carrier Gerald R. Ford and a heavy strike group into the Caribbean to back up policy with credible force. A posture like that sends a message to Moscow and Tehran as much as it does to Caracas: the United States will not let narcotraffickers and anti-American regimes use the Western Hemisphere as a staging ground.
Unsurprisingly, Maduro is answering with chest-beating mobilizations and mass exercises, calling up hundreds of thousands of troops and rattling sabers to scare off interventionists. That scripted bluster is dangerous, but it’s also revealing — regimes that shout the loudest are often the most vulnerable when their economy and supply lines are stripped bare.
Of course, the global chessboard complicates things: Moscow immediately offered Maduro “solidarity,” reminding us that this is also a showdown with Russia’s influence in the region. That’s why America must be calm, resolute, and clear-eyed — we should welcome diplomatic risks for the sake of national security, but never let foreign backers create a veto over defending our hemisphere.
Patriots should cheer a strategy that pairs smart economic warfare with credible military deterrence. The alternative — appeasement or endless negotiations while drug cartels and tyrants grow bolder — is simply unacceptable to those who value border security, law and order, and the safety of American families.
Jim Hanson’s warning about Maduro hunting a soft landing should be a call to keep up the pressure: squeeze the money, isolate the regime, and be ready to finish the job if Maduro thinks exile is his best bargain. No one should be naive about the costs of regime change, but neither should we cower while a narco-state exports violence and chaos toward our shores.
