Trump and Venezuela

[Omegstrat6]

The horrendous killing of US citizen, Renee Good, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and the reaction of Trump and cronies like Vance and Neom who spin a narrative completely at odds with the video evidence available surely prove that the current US administration is as much a threat to American citizens and their freedoms as it is to global stability, Europe and ourselves. That quote from Orwell's 1984 about the Party getting people to ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears and instead to swallow the authorised version of events has subsequently appeared everywhere.

Trump has indeed successfully curbed immigration with around 69,000 illegal immigrants having been arrested by ICE in 2025 and attempted crossings well down but the devil is in the detail. Trump promised to target and get rid of the "worst of the worst"; the murders, the rapists, the criminals. His administration initially said it had identified some 435,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions not in custody, some 13,000 of whom they said were guilty of murder, 16,000 of ***ual assault, yet ICE have only managed to arrest under 1,000 of the former and under 2,000 of the latter. Of the 69,000 arrested so far, around 26% have criminal convictions and 26% have pending convictions so that half of this number-whilst being illegal immigrants-do not fit the dangerous profile that the Trump administration and the Right are selling. ICE has also arrested and detained more than 170 US citizens. Moreover, none of this has appeared to improve the lives of most Americans in terms of standards of living, access to housing, education or healthcare as Trump promised It would. Yes, some dangerous illegal immigrants have been (quite rightly) removed but this is a drop in the ocean and plenty more dangerous people remain who pose threats and the vast majority of these are US citizens.

It isn't that illegal immigration is not a problem in the US, of course it is, but the issue is two-fold. Firstly, Trump and the Right paint a blatantly false picture of all of these immigrants being dangerous criminals, murderers or rapists when the truth is that the majority simply want to work and create better lives for themselves and the second is the manner in which ICE operates. Thankfully, the vast majority of our own law enforcement officers are not armed and we do not have a gun culture in the UK but the parallels between what is happening in the US and what could potentially happen here if Farage, for example, gets in are surely clear.

Trump has appointed sycophants like Vance, Bundy, Neom, Miller, Patel and others to positions of power in order to help protect and retain his own position and crush any opposition or dissenting voices. He labels Renee Good a "domestic terrorist" whilst pardoning the "heroes" of the Jan 6th attack on the Capitol, he kidnaps and arrests one head of state who has links to drug gangs whilst pardoning another, he talks of isolationism but acts like an imperialist, he talks tough but consistently gives in to Putin over Ukraine and then makes advances on an Allied country over Greenland. Until America properly wakes up and this POTUS is gone, the UK surely has to further strengthen its links with Europe because Trump cannot be trusted and poses a threat to us politically, economically and to our national security.

I get why Starmer-who must clearly know by now what Trump is like -is unwilling to forcefully condemn him and treats him with kid gloves because we are overly dependent on the US for our security and trade and if the Orange One has a tantrum and pulls out of NATO and threatens trade sanctions/ tariffs then it won't be just Ukraine that suffers. Other European leaders clearly think the same. But if Trump is untrustworthy, then we need to look elsewhere. In the US, commentator Jon Stewart has already pointed that the UK and other European nations are now considering strengthening trade ties with China. Not because they trust China or like the regime but because Trump's actions are giving them little alternative. I'm beginning to see that viewpoint.

[On Balance]

The horrendous killing of US citizen, Renee Good, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and the reaction of Trump and cronies like Vance and Neom who spin a narrative completely at odds with the video evidence available surely prove that the current US administration is as much a threat to American citizens and their freedoms as it is to global stability, Europe and ourselves. That quote from Orwell's 1984 about the Party getting people to ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears and instead to swallow the authorised version of events has subsequently appeared everywhere.

Trump has indeed successfully curbed immigration with around 69,000 illegal immigrants having been arrested by ICE in 2025 and attempted crossings well down but the devil is in the detail. Trump promised to target and get rid of the "worst of the worst"; the murders, the rapists, the criminals. His administration initially said it had identified some 435,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions not in custody, some 13,000 of whom they said were guilty of murder, 16,000 of ***ual assault, yet ICE have only managed to arrest under 1,000 of the former and under 2,000 of the latter. Of the 69,000 arrested so far, around 26% have criminal convictions and 26% have pending convictions so that half of this number-whilst being illegal immigrants-do not fit the dangerous profile that the Trump administration and the Right are selling. ICE has also arrested and detained more than 170 US citizens. Moreover, none of this has appeared to improve the lives of most Americans in terms of standards of living, access to housing, education or healthcare as Trump promised It would. Yes, some dangerous illegal immigrants have been (quite rightly) removed but this is a drop in the ocean and plenty more dangerous people remain who pose threats and the vast majority of these are US citizens.

It isn't that illegal immigration is not a problem in the US, of course it is, but the issue is two-fold. Firstly, Trump and the Right paint a blatantly false picture of all of these immigrants being dangerous criminals, murderers or rapists when the truth is that the majority simply want to work and create better lives for themselves and the second is the manner in which ICE operates. Thankfully, the vast majority of our own law enforcement officers are not armed and we do not have a gun culture in the UK but the parallels between what is happening in the US and what could potentially happen here if Farage, for example, gets in are surely clear.

Trump has appointed sycophants like Vance, Bundy, Neom, Miller, Patel and others to positions of power in order to help protect and retain his own position and crush any opposition or dissenting voices. He labels Renee Good a "domestic terrorist" whilst pardoning the "heroes" of the Jan 6th attack on the Capitol, he kidnaps and arrests one head of state who has links to drug gangs whilst pardoning another, he talks of isolationism but acts like an imperialist, he talks tough but consistently gives in to Putin over Ukraine and then makes advances on an Allied country over Greenland. Until America properly wakes up and this POTUS is gone, the UK surely has to further strengthen its links with Europe because Trump cannot be trusted and poses a threat to us politically, economically and to our national security.

I get why Starmer-who must clearly know by now what Trump is like -is unwilling to forcefully condemn him and treats him with kid gloves because we are overly dependent on the US for our security and trade and if the Orange One has a tantrum and pulls out of NATO and threatens trade sanctions/ tariffs then it won't be just Ukraine that suffers. Other European leaders clearly think the same. But if Trump is untrustworthy, then we need to look elsewhere. In the US, commentator Jon Stewart has already pointed that the UK and other European nations are now considering strengthening trade ties with China. Not because they trust China or like the regime but because Trump's actions are giving them little alternative. I'm beginning to see that viewpoint.

Again Omeg, you put into writing what many are thinking. There is nothing in what you write above that I or most others would disagree with.

Your last sentence in particular is interesting as I had not been aware of what Jon Stewart had said. I have actually had thoughts on whether it would be worth the UK/Europe looking for closer ties with China. That in itself is a scary thought, taking into account their human rights etc. However, this is what it might come to given the Trump regime and all that that has brought in the first 12 months of his current presidency.

As for the murder of Renee Good, Trump has her blood on his hands as he does have much Ukrainian blood too. America does have a domestic and international terrorist in their midst, and it is in the form of its current president.

I spoke this morning with a retired firearms police officer and he remarked that if he was in the shoes of the ICE officer he would be expecting to be on a murder charge in the foreseeable future. I think we can all see for ourselves that that officer was not in danger and the red mist came down.

The world is in a mess due to Putin and Trump and a few others. As has been said before, our domestic issues pale into insignificance given the global mess we are currently experiencing.