Trump Wants A War More Than He Wants The Truth

Venezuela as a distraction from the one scandal he cannot bury

By Dr. John Petrone

We Saw This Coming

I told you this was coming.
For months we have talked in this space about one simple pattern. When the pressure builds around the Epstein files, Donald Trump reaches for something bigger and louder to drown it out. He does not argue the facts. He does not clear the air. He reaches for spectacle.

Now, right on cue, with calls growing to release the Epstein files, Trump is standing on the tarmac saying he has already made up his mind about Venezuela. He will not say what he plans to do. He leans into mystery. He hints at something dramatic. He wants the world to stare at warships and carriers and Marines, not at what is locked away in those files.

This is not strength. This is fear that needs a bigger stage.

Trump Needs A Crisis To Hide A Confession

Listen to what he is doing with his words.
He says he cannot say what his decision will be. He talks about options. He lets anonymous officials whisper about forces that are ready to strike and respond. He has the Pentagon posture for action while he plays coy about what comes next.

That is not careful diplomacy. That is a show. It is a cliffhanger script written for cable news.

At the same time, his allies double the bounty on Nicolas Maduro. They roll out dramatic language about narco states and global cartels. They describe a vast network of criminals and traffickers that only American firepower can stop.

It is the same pattern we have seen over and over.
Create a villain. Inflate the threat. Wrap it in the language of drugs and crime and national security. Then insist that any questions, any doubts, any demands for transparency are unpatriotic.

And just offstage, the Epstein files sit in the dark.

This is what scared people do when they cannot answer questions honestly. They try to give the country something else to fear, something that feels large enough to push everything else off the front page.

Operation Southern Spear And The Politics Of Intimidation

Look at what is actually in motion near Venezuela.
You have a massive carrier strike group in the Caribbean. You have destroyers, cruisers, submarines, Marines on amphibious ships, helicopters, Ospreys, advanced jets, drones, and special operations assets. You have live fire drills near another country’s coastline. You have thousands of United States service members positioned in a way that every nation in the region understands as a threat.

And we are told this is just a counter narcotics mission.
We are told all of this is simply about speed boats with drugs.

If you believe that, you have not been paying attention to the last twenty years of American foreign policy.

You do not need the most advanced carrier on the planet to chase drug runners. You do not need this scale of deployment to track a cartel. You do not need to create an armada simply to send a law enforcement message.

You build this kind of presence when you want the world to feel the possibility of war in the air.

Trump is not just sending a signal to Caracas. He is sending a signal to us. He is telling the American public that he can still push the world to the brink and that anyone who questions him is standing in the way of security.

And he is counting on the fact that once people see jets taking off from a carrier deck, they will stop asking why the Epstein files are still hidden.

The Epstein Files Are The Thing He Cannot Bomb

Here is the core truth.
Trump can send ships to sea. He can move Marines. He can order precision strikes. He can wrap himself in flags and salute as aircraft lift off.

What he cannot do is blow up his own history.
He cannot erase the guest lists, the flight logs, the emails, the calls, the meetings, the favors, the secrets that other powerful people would rather never see the light of day.

He cannot bomb a paper trail.
He cannot drone strike evidence.

He knows that once those files are fully released, we will learn not just about Epstein, but about the people who enabled him, protected him, used him, and were used by him. We will see who got special treatment. We will see who got phone calls. We will see who got protection that no ordinary citizen would ever receive.

That is the scandal that haunts this presidency. Not a single scandal. A system of protection for the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable.

So he is doing what he knows best. He is trying to bury that truth under the sound of incoming fire.

The Human Cost Of Another Distraction War

There is another side to this that we cannot ignore.
Every time a president plays these games, real people pay the price.

If this escalates, it will not be Trump’s kids who stand on a flight deck. It will not be his donors who land on a hostile beach. It will not be the pundits who cheer this on who will sit in a hot metal hull and wait for the order to move toward shore.

It will be working class kids. It will be young men and women from families who already carry the weight of every other war this country has started in the last two generations.

And on the other side of those weapons are Venezuelan families who are already living through economic collapse, repression, and fear. They are not chess pieces. They are not props in an American drama about a president who is desperate to change the subject.

If Trump turns this deployment into a full strike or a drawn out confrontation, it will be another example of powerful people using other human beings as expendable cover for their own secrets.

We have seen this movie. Iraq. Afghanistan. Libya.
The script changes. The weapons improve. The ending is always the same for people on the ground.

We cannot allow another war of distraction. Not in our name.

We Saw The Pattern. We Will Not Pretend We Did Not.

For my regular readers, none of this is a surprise.
We talked about this months ago. We walked through the likely scenarios. We said that when the drip of revelations around Epstein turned into a steady stream, Trump would reach for a foreign crisis in our own hemisphere.

Now we are watching that exact play unfold, in real time, on the waters off Venezuela.

So we have a choice.
We can pretend this is just about drugs and crime and noble American resolve.
Or we can name it for what it is. A desperate attempt to change the subject before the public demands full sunlight on the Epstein files and on the people who have fought their release at every turn.

How We Fight Back

We do not have carriers or submarines. We do not control fleets or strike groups. But we have tools that matter, and we need to use them with discipline and courage.

• First, we keep the focus on the Epstein files. Every time this administration talks about Venezuela, we respond with one question. Why are the Epstein files still sealed. We ask it in every conversation, every call to an office, every town hall, every interview. We do not let them change the subject.

• Second, we demand that Democrats and any Republican with a spine tie any debate about Venezuela to full transparency on Epstein. No more clean votes. No more separate debates. If Trump wants war powers, then Congress should insist on sunlight first. No exceptions.

• Third, we contact our members of Congress and tell them clearly that we will not support any escalation in Venezuela that is not debated openly, grounded in actual evidence, and fully separated from this president’s personal interest in burying the Epstein story. We tell them we are watching their votes and we will remember.

• Fourth, we stand with veterans and military families who are already speaking out. They know what it means when politicians talk tough from safe distance while other people risk everything. Support the groups who are organizing against another reckless war. Share their statements. Invite them to speak in your community.

• Fifth, we amplify independent journalism that insists on following the money and the paper trail around both Venezuela and Epstein. We do not need more cheerleading. We need relentless investigation. When you find reporters and outlets doing that work, subscribe, share, and send them tips.

• Finally, we talk to each other. In schools, workplaces, churches, union halls, veterans groups, family text chains. We explain the pattern. We name the distraction. We connect the dots for people who are too busy or too exhausted to track every breaking story.

The most dangerous thing for an administration that depends on chaos and confusion is an informed public that refuses to forget.

Trump is trying to turn the Caribbean into a stage.
We can refuse to be his audience.
We can insist that the real show takes place in a courtroom, in a hearing room, and in the full light of day with every Epstein record on the table.

Release all of the Epstein Files!