Hemingway: Trump’s Actions Might Be Best Understood As Ways To Avoid A Regime-Change War In Venezuela
FOX News contributor Mollie Hemingway discussed the seizure of a sanctioned ship of Iranian oil and President Donald Trump’s Venezuela policy on Thursday’s “Special Report.”
BRET BAIER, HOST: Mollie, as far as the goals here, after the seizing of the ship, which was a sanctioned ship of Iranian oil that the U.S. seized and now is controlling, it seems like there may be more of that, but describing what this is, this action, has been interesting to listen to the administration. MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, THE FEDERALIST: Yeah, I believe President Trump is a bit of a throwback president to previous presidents of the country that followed a Monroe Doctrine, a focus on issues in our own hemisphere. President Trump seems to be very concerned about issues in our hemisphere, in Venezuela being a big problem. This seizing of the boat, which was a stateless vessel, claimed to be flying under a Guyana flag but was actually not registered there. That is, stateless vessels do not have legal protection, and it was carrying Maduro’s oil. So it’s an aggressive action, but it’s an action that makes sense in this Trump framework of caring about Venezuela, its hostility to our country, its state-sponsored drug cartels. But what we heard from Caroline Leavitt today, too, that was interesting was that President Trump is not interested in a boots-on-the-ground, regime-change war. Some of these actions might be best understood as ways to avoid that type of conflict while applying economic pressure.
