COMMENTARY It makes sense President Trump considers Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Venezuelan dictator Delcy Rodr铆guez "terrific." Both exalt the sort of lying and cruelty he does.
It all makes sense now.
For days I鈥檇 been racking my brain to figure out why President Donald Trump would call acting Venezuelan dictator Delcy Rodr铆guez 鈥渁 terrific person鈥� 鈥� when she heads a regime responsible for the worst humanitarian crisis in modern South American history, brutality the U.N. has labeled crimes against humanity and the brazen theft of a 2024 presidential election.
Many have suggested it鈥檚 simply because Trump is sucking up to Rodr铆guez, to ensure she hands over Venezuela鈥檚 vast oil reserves after the U.S. hauled the despot she鈥檚 replaced, Nicol谩s Maduro, to a New York jail cell this month to face drug-trafficking charges.
But that didn鈥檛 really explain it. This is, I reminded myself, Trump 鈥� a man who harbors an affectionate envy for, and a bromance bond with, the iron-fisted Putins and Bolsonaros and Xis and Orb谩ns of the world.
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Then, last weekend, I listened to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem robotically disgorge one disgraceful lie after another about Alex Pretti, the protester her Customs and Border Protection agents had just executed on a Minneapolis street with 10 shots to the back as he was pinned down.
Noem branded Pretti as a 鈥渄omestic terrorist鈥� 鈥� the same tag she鈥檇 slapped on another Minneapolis protester, Renee Good, who was killed with a bullet to the head earlier this month by an officer of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, that Noem also oversees.
In both cases, Noem defended if not praised the trigger-happy cops in her charge, even as video evidence demolished her hair-trigger claims that Good and Pretti were would-be 鈥渁ssassins.鈥�
I thought: where before have I heard that kind of knee-jerk demonization of security-force victims? Where have I heard this sort of reflexive celebration of law-enforcement thuggery?
Oh yeah, I remembered: it was in Venezuela, back when Rodr铆guez herself was in charge of national police bodies like the Special Action Forces, or FAES 鈥� which rhymes with ICE 鈥� of rampant extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.
Where before had I heard the knee-jerk demonization of security-force victims Noem was disgorging in Minnesota? Oh yeah 鈥� from Rodr铆guez in Venezuela.
In a pre-programmed chorus that would make even Noem sound credible, Rodr铆guez and then President Maduro鈥檚 regime had called the FAES鈥� victims "terrorists," the U.N.鈥檚 reports "biased" and the police commandos "heroes."
鈥淟ong live the FAES!鈥� the dictatorship howled as the murder accusations poured in.
And it hit me: Trump Noem 鈥渢errific,鈥� too.
So of course he thinks Rodr铆guez is terrific.
Mafioso revolution
Rodr铆guez and Noem, in fact, share two qualities Trump adores: lying and cruelty.
Granted, Rodr铆guez uses them in service of a left-wing cause 鈥� the mafioso socialist revolution she now leads 鈥� while in Noem鈥檚 case they further the reactionary nativist ends of Trump鈥檚 MAGAgenda.
No matter. Trump sees in Rodr铆guez and instruments like the FAES what he admires in Noem and today's ICE: the utter 鈥� meaning utterly dishonest and ruthless 鈥� domination of anyone and anything that opposes you.
It鈥檚 the toxic trait Trump learned from his father, and it鈥檚 the one Rodr铆guez acquired while seeking vengeance for the death of her own dad, a Venezuelan socialist who died under prison torture 50 years ago.
It鈥檚 why Trump can call Rodr铆guez, who herself has been complicit in the sinister torture of hundreds of Venezuelan political prisoners, 鈥渁 terrific person.鈥�
And it's why he disparages and marginalizes Mar铆a Corina Machado, Venezuela鈥檚 democratic opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, even after she gave him her Nobel medal as thanks for removing Maduro.
But now it's led Trump to a crisis: just as even Rodr铆guez and Maduro had to bow to international pressure and disband the FAES in 2022, a growing number of Americans want to dissolve ICE after the Good and Pretti killings 鈥� not to mention the immigration arrest of a 5-year-old boy.
Last year, before ICE agents started acting like Cossacks instead of a constabulary, I criticized calls for abolishing the agency as another impractical 鈥渄efund the police鈥� movement.
And I would still remind folks that the federal government has the discretionary right to humanely 鈥� humanely 鈥� detain and deport undocumented migrants, as every federal government in the world does.
Still, no one could defend the ICE, or the larger immigration enforcement monstrosity, that we鈥檙e seeing right now.
Except, that is, 鈥渢errific鈥� people like Kristi Noem.
And Delcy Rodr铆guez.
