Candace Owens DESTROYED BY HER OWN FANS, We’re Going to War with Venezuela Over Oil, & Today’s News
PDS Published 12/17/2025
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Trump just committed an act of war!
That’s what you have many saying after he ordered a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers going in and out of Venezuela.
With him writing last night on Truth Social that:
“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping…the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”[]
With the post then continuing to say:
“Today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY.”
And there is just a lot to unpack in that post, so I will start with this blockade and the responses to it.
Because Trump’s order could seriously hurt Venezuela’s economy, which heavily relies on oil exports, primarily to China.[]
And so you had Venezuelan officials slamming this, with the country’s Vice President releasing a statement saying:
"Venezuela, in national unity, condemns Donald Trump's military threat and will defend its rights to free trade, navigability, free development, sovereignty and national independence.”[]
You also had politicians stateside condemning the move, with Rep. Joaquin Castro writing:[]
“A naval blockade is unquestionably an act of war. A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want. On Thursday, the House will vote on [a] resolution directing the President to end hostilities with Venezuela. Every member of the House of Representatives will have the opportunity to decide if they support sending Americans into yet another regime change war.”
Trump’s choice to label Maduro’s government as a foreign terrorist organization has also sparked some confusion because he actually already gave that designation to Cartel de los Soles, arguing that it is headed by Maduro and people in his government.[]
So it is unclear if he was just referencing that or if he is declaring a new terrorist group.
But as Axios explained, giving that label to the government specifically would create “more of a pretext for direct military action” in the country, and pave a way for “U.S. personnel to sanction, stop, or seize any vessel carrying Venezuelan oil.”[]
Then, you also have tons of people questioning Trump’s claims that Venezuela “stole” U.S. oil, land, and assets.
Right, tons of outlets saying this is just an incorrect assertion.
But reports largely agree that Trump seems to be referencing Venezuela's choice to nationalize its oil industry a few decades ago.[]
And while experts have argued that Venezuela’s natural resources do not belong to the US,
You still had people in Trump’s administration, like Stephen Miller, arguing that:
“American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”[]
As for American companies still in Venezuela, well, the only one left is Chevron, right, it is the only one continuing to operate after decades of changes, and has a special license from the government to operate there. []
And Chevron so far is suggesting it is not impacted by Trump’s order, with a spokesperson saying:
“Chevron’s operations in Venezuela continue without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government. Any questions about the security situation in Venezuela should be directed to the appropriate authorities in the U.S. government.”
And this all comes as Trump has been spending months building pressure against Maduro.
Right, Trump has threatened strikes in Venezuela, the military has conducted multiple airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean often near Venezuela, and those have killed nearly 100 people and many argue the attacks are illegal.[]
There has also been an increase in U.S. aircrafts in the region.
And while the official, on-paper motive that the administration has given for these strikes is a drug crackdown, many believe that the real goal of this pressure campaign is a regime change in Venezuela. []
And just yesterday, in that wild Vanity Fair piece on Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, she told the outlet that Trump:[]
“wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”
So you have had U.S. senators like Chris Murphy seeing that quote and arguing:
“So not a war on the cartels. It’s regime change. Either way, totally illegal and nonsensical.”[]
But I would love to know your thoughts as this continues to play out and escalate.
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Trump’s new travel restrictions and bans are here and this time, he’s added another 20 countries to the list.
Right, the new iteration of this policy is going into effect January 1st and fully bans travel from 5 new countries including Syria and South Sudan as well as for people with documents issued by the Palestinian Authority. []
We’ve also got some new restrictions for individuals from 15 additional countries - mostly focused on Africa.
And this brings the total number of countries with restrictions up to nearly 40 - which means that the Trump administration has either banned or restricted travel from nearly 20% of the countries in the world. []
But this is more than a geographic expansion as well - this new policy applies to spouses, children, siblings, and parents of US citizens as well as international students and even Afghan Special Immigrant visas. []
Which were set up for people who had helped the US military and government during the war in Afghanistan.
With the announcement reading,
“It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security and public safety, incite hate crimes, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.” []
Now, we knew this was coming - or at least, something like this.
Right, after 2 National Guard troops were shot and one of them died, the Trump administration immediately squeezed the fist even tighter on immigration.
Saying it was in the name of security because the shooter in that case was a man from Afghanistan who was granted quick entry to the US for his work with CIA-backed units during the war.
In the days following the shooting, Team Trump paused all asylum decisions for migrants currently in the country, reviewed the green cards of people who came from 19 countries in the Middle East and Africa, indefinitely halted immigration applications filed by Afghan nationals, and barred Afghans from entering the country.
And that’s after Trump promised to, quote, “permanently pause migration from all third world countries.”
And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took it a step further and recommended to Trump, quote, “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.” []
As you can imagine, there’s been some ardent support here - with Gene Hamilton, the president of America First Legal, saying on X,
“This is common sense: if you don’t know who someone is, or if there are risks associated with their presence in the United States, you shouldn’t let them in.” []
But this whole thing has also prompted a bit of backlash and concern - with some people highlighting the ramifications this could have for immigrants already here in the US.
Right, we saw panic across the country earlier this month as citizenship ceremonies were canceled. []
Not to mention that the US is set to co-host the 2026 World Cup and several of the participating countries are on Trump’s travel restriction list - including Senegal, Haiti, and Iran.
Even with the athletes receiving an exception, that means fans of these teams are going to be facing some serious hoops to jump through if they can come here at all.
And many critics are calling this just the latest manifestation of Trump and his administration’s disdain for immigrants - with one former White House immigration official under the Obama and Biden administrations saying,
“We shouldn’t be surprised that President Trump is continuing to push our immigration system back toward an era when the United States enforced racial quotas. He has consistently singled out certain nationalities as scapegoats, and immigration law grants him too much discretion to discriminate based on his preferences.” []
But I would love to know your thoughts about this whole thing.
Where do you land on the idea of restricting immigration like this?
Let me know in those comments down below.
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The fated meeting between Candice Owens and Erika Kirk finally happened.
And the outcome was completely unsurprising, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining.
Now before we dig into what was said, I do wanna note something interesting we learned about how this all fell into place.
Because apparently, the former Fox host Megyn Kelly had been working behind the scenes to coordinate this meeting. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 12:07 - 12:16] Caption: [Megyn Kelly:] “I really fully believe God’s role for me here is to possibly play a role in getting this whole thing to a better place.”
[Clip, 58:11 - 58:19] Caption: [Candice Owens:] “ I do think that she has kept it very even. She has not been hysterical and ‘it’s demonic! It’s evil! How dare Candice!’ And I appreciated that.”
With Kelly blasting critics who are upset with her for not condemning people like Owens and Tucker Carlson since the whole MAGA civil war broke out.
Though she also made clear that she does not believe the conspiracy theories about Kirk’s assassination.
Saying she just hates the “petty internet people” who want her and Owens to have a public catfight.
[Clip, 07:51 - 08:06] Caption: “She and I actually have only gotten closer over the past couple of months as people try to make me attack her. So fuck off, okay? I have no obligation to you to hate the people you hate or try to bring down the people you want brought down.”
So yeah, if Candice Owens is Nazi Germany and Erika Kirk is the Soviet Union, then Megyn Kelly is Switzerland.
And I guess then the Jews are still just the Jews on both ends of this metaphor, which really says something about how durable anti-Semitism is.
But anyway, let’s get to the conversation itself, which supposedly lasted more than four hours and at first appeared to go pretty well.
With both Owens and Kirk calling it very productive, and Owens adding that they “agreed much more” than she expected and “tensions were thawed.” [Post and Post]
But when Owens did her first podcast since the meeting yesterday, a very different picture emerged. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 16:16 - 16:32; Clip, 17:14 - 17:18, 17:26 - 17:31, 18:02 - 18:07, 18:54 - 18:59, 19:09 - 19:28, 20:38 - 20:41] Caption: “I said, one of the reasons why I really want to sit down is because I want to walk out of here and feel confident saying to my audience, hey, there’s stuff going on behind the scenes, but Tyler Robinson shot Charlie Kirk. … And at this point they elected to call the lawyer. … What I got from the lawyer did not make me feel that Tyler Robinson shot Charlie Kirk. … he said that they have nothing but the affidavit. … They will not know what investigators have discovered — this is what the lawyer told me — until May. … The text messages that don’t have a date, that don’t sound real — that’s overwhelming? That to me sounds really fake and gay. … I don’t believe that Tyler Robinson pulled the trigger.”
So despite Erika’s formidable effort to cure Owens’s brain rot, the patient is still terminal.
I mean, it’s almost as if conspiracy theories are irrational, deeply rooted convictions that can’t be simply dispelled through four hours of logical argumentation.
Like, I’m sorry, but did y’all watch Bugonia? How could you really think this was going to work?
But anyway, Tyler Robinson isn’t the only point that Owens refused to budge on after the discussion.
Because she apparently still believes that people inside Turning Point USA, though not necessarily Erika herself, had something to do with Kirk’s assassination.
[Clip, 10:20 - 10:23; Clip, 11:10 - 11:24; Clip, 43:05 - 43:10] Caption: “I still didn’t feel good about the conversation that I had with Terryl, and I can’t ignore my gut. … And I don’t trust Tyler Bowyer, and that is never going to change. Similarly with Rob McCoy, he makes my skin crawl. I can’t explain it. I look at him and he’s a bad person, and nobody can make me feel one way or the other about that. … I believe that Charlie was betrayed by people that are close to him.”
Also, she doubled down on her now infamous Egyptian planes theory, which is still a little vague on the details, but …
[Clip, 34:00 - 34:10, 34:25 - 34:36; Clip, 42:51 - 42:54] Caption: “Because I am certain that these Egyptian planes are incredibly shady and that they were in fact tracking Turning Point USA Faith broader events. Of course, Charlie was at some of them. Erika was at some of them. … There is overwhelming evidence that these planes regularly fly in and out of Israel. And I’m going to present that evidence tomorrow. I say that strongly. … We are dangerously close to something.”
So yeah, that’s where things stand now, which doesn’t seem to be much different from where they were before, but if you look at the comments on her video, Owens’s fans apparently feel betrayed.
With them saying stuff like: “Huge let down with this closed door meeting... telling your audience to ‘trust you’ doesn't sit well with me since all YOU've been doing this whole time was demand transparency.” [Quote]
“Vibe is so off. Just talking, no investigating, just bullshit and trying to gaslight us. wow im shocked.” [Quote same link]
“Erika got what she wanted and all the hard work and credibility to get truth and justice for Charlie got shot (pun intended). Sad day. Very sad day. Disappointed. Wish Candace didn’t take Erika’s bait by doing this interview privately. Erika just wanted to see what cards Candace was holding over her and TPUSA’s heads. And now this whole narrative becomes all HEARSAY.” [Quote same link]
And the top comments were almost all like that, just a ton of disappointment, anger, confusion, suspicion.
[Clip, 58:40 - 58:43] Caption: “But all around definitely a productive conversation.”
So now, as for Erika, she said she’s turning her attention to AmericaFest, a TPUSA event featuring Trump officials and right-wing influencers.
Which is kind of funny, because one of the scheduled speakers is Tucker Carlson, who just said this to Theo Von last week. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 05:12 - 05:20; Clip, 07:45 - 08:02, 08:24 - 08:36, Original source] Caption: [Tucker Carlson:] “I don’t understand the official story at all.” [Theo Von:] “Of the assassination?” [Tucker Carlson:] “I don’t. I don’t. I don’t understand it. … Candice said that Egyptian-registered aircraft were following Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, around for a number of years in different places in the world. That’s one of the weirdest things that I’ve ever heard, and I just want to say that that is factually true. … And also her claim that there were kind of a disproportionately large number of foreign-registered cell phones at the event, that’s also true. So what does that add up to? I don’t know.”
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4 House Republicans have broken ranks and joined Democrats to force a vote on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies established during the pandemic. []
Right, we’re talking about the subsidies that were at the center of the longest government shutdown in history.
Which are set to expire at the end of the year and will leave millions of Americans paying more for health insurance.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to even have a vote on extending them, also shooting down Republican-proposed alternatives.
So while House GOP leaders were planning a vote on Johnson’s health care bill, Democrats were circulating a discharge petition.
Which can force a vote over the House leadership’s objections if the majority of the representatives sign on.
And today, with Pennsylvania Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie as well as Mike Lawler of New York signing on, that petition tipped over the edge.
With Lawler saying:
“To me, the clean three-year extension is not ideal. But doing nothing is not an answer.”
And Fitzpatrick adding:
“Things are very expensive right now. Health care is very expensive. Anything we can do to lower the cost, we ought to do.”
And with all that, we could be seeing a vote on this as early as next month.
Though, notably, the Senate – which agreed to vote on an extension as part of the deal to end the shutdown – has already rejected it .
Also shooting down a Republican plan to redirect subsidies to individual accounts that can be used to pay for out-of-pocket health care costs. []
But still, this whole thing may be setting the stage for the next phase in the health care battle - which is something that Republican leaders have desperately been trying to avoid.
Right, with the another government funding vote needed at the end of January and the midterm elections.
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Americans have never been more dissatisfied with Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.
At least, that’s according to the latest poll, which shows that only thirty-six percent of people approve of his efforts.
The only other time a president scored so low in the six years this poll has been asking the question was back in 2022 – when Joe Biden was at the helm.
At the time, Republicans held a sixteen-point advantage when it came to the question of which party was perceived as being better able to deal with the economy.
Now, that lead is gone, with Democrats ahead by four percentage points. []
And, beyond that, there have been major shifts in how Americans view the current economic situation in just the past six months.
Seventy percent, for example, say the cost of living in the area where they live is not very affordable or not affordable at all for the average family– up from forty-five percent in June.
And thirty-five percent say their personal financial situation has gotten worse in the past year – which isn’t that far off from the thirty-three percent that question got over the summer.
But, notably, there are also far fewer people who think their finances will improve in the coming year – with that number dropping from forty-eight to thirty-three percent. []
And, of course, with all of this, there are often notable differences along the lines of party, race, gender, and other factors.
For example, Republicans, white evangelical Christians, people who live in rural areas, and whites without degrees – especially white men – are all more likely to be optimistic about 2026.
But that’s not so much the case for Democrats, white women with college degrees, independents and Latinos. []
And with that, of course, the pessimists? They have their reasons.
And the latest data may just be giving more of them.
Right, the federal government released two major economic reports this week – a retail sales report and a jobs report – which had been delayed thanks to the government shutdown.
And while neither are proof of a spiraling economy, they have raised some eyebrows.
Retail sales, for instance, reportedly make up around two-thirds of the country’s economic activity – but from September to October there was virtually no growth.
Which is notable because that’s normally when analysts expect to start seeing a surge thanks to the upcoming holiday season.
And then, as far as jobs?
I mean, last week, the Federal Reserve went ahead and cut interest rates because of labor market concerns.
And notably, you had Fed Chair Jerome Powell saying that federal data might be overestimating job creation by up to 60,000 jobs a month.
Which is something to keep in mind when I tell you that the available data suggests the U.S. lost 105,000 jobs in October and only added 64,000 jobs in November – far fewer than the 119,000 jobs added in September.
And with that, the unemployment rate? It has reached its highest level in four years – which, I will say, is relatively low overall.
But you still have experts worrying this all might be a sign of weakness in the economy.
With the head of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab acknowledging to ABC News that this data needs to be taken with a grain of salt…
…but also saying that these numbers paint “a sobering picture of a job market that may officially be turning frigid after a prolonged cooling period.”
Of course, with that, the White House has emphasized the job growth that has taken place, writing on social media:
“THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
Also sharing a post from the Department of Homeland Security claiming “Deportations Deliver Jobs” and adding:
“Facts.”
And with that, the administration has pointed to a figure showing that 2 million new jobs this year have gone to workers born in the United States.
But economists say that number isn’t evidence that American-born workers are actually picking up jobs left by immigrants who have gone from the country.
Though, notably, it’s not just facts but Trump himself that’s getting in the way of the White House’s messaging.
Right, he’s called the affordability crisis a con job, a hoax, and a Democratic scam.
But last night, at a rally-style event in Eastern Pennsylvania, you had Vice President JD Vance standing in front of a sign that said “Lower Prices, Bigger Paychecks” and saying:
“I promise you there is no person more impatient to solve the affordability crisis than Donald J. Trump.” (32:18-32:25)
And with that, we saw him seemingly trying to strike a balance between agreeing with Trump’s claims about how great the economy is doing while also acknowledging that people are struggling.
For example, he conceded that “ there is so much more progress to be made” – saying twice that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
But he also said he agreed with Trump’s grading of the economy as an “A plus plus plus plus.”
And ultimately there seems to be at least two key strategies to try and make this make sense – or at least distract from it.
Right, one is blaming Biden.
Trump mentioned Biden 30 times during his speech on affordability last week.[]
And yesterday, you had Vance striking a similar tone at times
“Biden gave us the worst economy in the world lest we forget it. No ,we know, we know exactly what we were left with. We know exactly the consequences that it’s caused for so many of our great families all across Pennsylvania. (32:04-32:21)
And beyond that, Vance, like other Republicans, has called on voters to be patient, promising them they’ll be rewarded when the big beautiful bill kicks in – cutting taxes and stripping regulations.
“...you are going to have — and if this doesn’t turn out to be true, I’ll come back here, and you can all tell me I’m wrong, but I’m telling you, it’s going to be true — you are going to have, middle-class Americans, middle class Pennsylvanians, some of the best tax season in 2026 that you’ve ever had.” (26:00-26:16)
Although, with that, of course, there have been concerns that the benefits will be concentrated among the wealthy and powerful.
And to that point, while most everyday Americans are worried about the economy, two new surveys have shown that among executives and investors, confidence in the economy is at a four-year high.
But ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see where this economy keeps moving, and then what the impact of that is at the ballot box.
Right, we already saw voters swinging left in every major race in the off-cycle elections last month, and midterms are now less than a year away.
