Venezuela Through Mike's Eyes
Johnson Sees God and the Devil in Everything - Except the Man Bombing Venezuela
Under Johnson’s speakership, the chances of Congress being balancing check on the executive branch are zero. Johnson, a radical Christian, has long abandoned his constitutional role in the house and to the Constitution.
Mike Johnson has been dining out on his “constitutional expertise” for twenty years. The man is practically wearing a tricorn hat in his LinkedIn photo. Before he got to Congress, he spent two decades litigating “high profile constitutional law cases” - which mostly meant suing to keep gay couples from marrying and defending theme parks shaped like Noah’s Ark. He chaired the House Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government, a title so on-the-nose it’s practically self-parody.
After the 2020 election, The New York Times anointed him “the most important architect” of the Electoral College objections. Johnson was the compromised legal mind who convinced three-quarters of House Republicans to challenge Biden’s victory using his pet theory of “constitutional infirmity” - the argument that state officials modifying COVID-era voting procedures without checking with state legislators had violated the sacred text. Never mind that the whole thing was rubbish and the Supreme Court tossed it without ceremony. Johnson had found his brand: constitutional martinet, defender of the founding document, the guy who reads the Federalist Papers for pleasure.
So naturally, when Donald Trump bombed Venezuela, kidnapped its president, and announced America would be running the joint for the foreseeable future—all without bothering to tell Congress—Johnson was absolutely outraged by this flagrant violation of constitutional war powers. Just kidding! He called it “decisive and justified” and promised briefings would happen “when Congress returns next week.” You know, after the bombs had already fallen, after Delta Force had already snatched Maduro from his palace, after Trump had already declared himself the interim viceroy of Caracas.
The constitutional expert, it turns out, has highly selective memory about which bits of the Constitution actually matter.
On January 3rd, while most of America was still nursing New Year’s hangovers, Trump ordered a full-scale military strike on Venezuela. Not a targeted drone strike. Not a covert special ops snatch-and-grab. A full-on bombing campaign with warships, low-flying aircraft, explosions ringing out over the capital, the works. The objective: capture President Nicolás Maduro, bring him to New York, and charge him with drug trafficking. Mission accomplished! Maduro and his wife are now guests of the American justice system at a federal jail in Brooklyn. Trump announced the U.S. would “run” Venezuela until there’s a “safe, proper and judicious transition” - which is Trump-speak for “indefinitely.”
Oh, and Congress? Didn’t know a thing about it until it was already happening. The Gang of 8—the bipartisan group of congressional leaders who are supposed to be briefed on sensitive intelligence operations—learned about the invasion from DoD (or is it DoW??) staff after the operation had begun. Trump had explicitly decided not to tell them in advance because, in his words, “Congress has a tendency to leak.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio, making the rounds on Sunday shows, offered the same defense: advance notification would have “endangered the mission.” This is the constitutional equivalent of asking forgiveness rather than permission, except forgiveness isn’t on offer and permission was actually required by law.
Here’s the thing about the Constitution, Mike: it’s pretty clear on this point. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress—not the president—the power to declare war. The founders weren’t being coy about this. They’d just finished fighting a revolution against a monarch who could drag entire nations into war on a whim. They were rather keen on making sure the American president couldn’t do the same. The War Powers Resolution of 1973, passed after Vietnam when Congress finally got tired of presidents lying about wars, requires advance consultation with Congress before military action. It specifically mandates notifying the Gang of 8 before sensitive operations. These aren’t guidelines. They’re the law.
Trump violated every single provision. He told no one (except we now know - he consulted executives from the oil industry). He consulted no one. He admitted he didn’t tell Congress because they’d leak—as if the constitutional requirement for congressional authorization is merely a courtesy that can be waived for operational security. And Mike Johnson, constitutional scholar extraordinaire? Complete silence on the constitutional questions. No hand-wringing about separation of powers. No lengthy discourse on Article II limitations. Just a statement praising Trump’s “decisive” action and a vague promise that Congress would get briefed eventually, like children being told how the vacation went after the parents return home.
This isn’t a surprise invasion that no one saw coming, either. Trump has been escalating military action in the Caribbean for months, bombing suspected drug boats, killing over 115 people in what he claims is a war on narco-trafficking. Members of Congress have been watching this train barrel down the tracks and frantically pulling the emergency brake. In December—just weeks ago—Congress voted on two separate war powers resolutions designed to prevent exactly this scenario. Rep. Gregory Meeks introduced H. Con. Res. 61, which would have required congressional authorization before military action against any designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere. It failed 210-216, with Republicans voting overwhelmingly against it. Another resolution, H. Con. Res. 64, specifically addressed Venezuela. It failed even more narrowly, 211-213.
Mike Johnson voted no on both. So did nearly every House Republican. They had the chance to assert Congress’s constitutional war powers. They chose Trump’s imperial presidency instead. And then, shockingly, Trump did exactly what these resolutions were designed to prevent. He invaded Venezuela without congressional authorization, without advance notice, without any pretense of constitutional process. Who could have possibly predicted this?
A CBS News poll from November found that 70% of Americans opposed military action in Venezuela. Seventy-five percent said Trump would need congressional approval for such an operation. Most Americans didn’t even consider Venezuela a major threat. So Trump invaded anyway. And Johnson cheered him on. This is representation in the same way Fyre Festival was a luxury music event. The American people said no. Their elected representatives in Congress were kept in the dark. Trump decided he’d rather govern like a Latin American caudillo than bother with constitutional niceties. And the Speaker of the House—the man charged with defending the institutional prerogatives of the legislative branch—couldn’t even muster a mild objection.
Johnson was elevated to the speakership in October 2023 after the MAGA wing of the party took a blowtorch to Kevin McCarthy. Johnson had served barely seven years in Congress—among the shortest tenures of any Speaker in modern history. He’d never chaired a major committee, never held senior leadership, never done much of anything except vote the right way and maintain perfect loyalty to Trump. He got the job precisely because he was unthreatening. A pliable figure who would never assert institutional authority against Dear Leader. And he has governed exactly as advertised. This article continues after the paywall.
