Why Socialism Never Works - A Warning From Venezuela - Daniel Di Martino

22:50Daniel Di Martino:I'll say I also want things to be cheaper. I mean, I think housing is unaffordable in New York City, certainly. That has affected me. I mean, I'm not a homeowner. I mean, I'm affected by the same problems that these people complain about. And I think it's the same problem all throughout the West, especially in the Anglosphere with housing and other issues. The question is, how do we make it affordable? And the answer to that is not we're going to build government housing because none of the people who really are voting for Mandani, I think, or for socialists all over the world really want to live in government housing.

23:23Daniel Di Martino:Have you looked at government housing anywhere in the world? This is the U.S. This is not a Venezuelan problem. Go to the public housing projects in Manhattan or in the Bronx or Brooklyn. It's not a nice place to live. It's the solution to just tell landlords how much they can charge for rent. Well, then they won't build new housing, right? So if you want to build more housing, what is the issue? Why aren't there more apartment projects being built? Because the government prohibits it. It's the government standing in the way. I also want, you know, cheaper rent. I also want cheaper groceries. I want cheaper everything.

23:55Daniel Di Martino:I want everybody to be wealthy. Imagine if we could have a system. Venezuela could have achieved this, by the way. Like in the UAE, very low taxes, a very small government, an oil petro state, right? Venezuela could have been that. And how are the citizens of the UAE living? They're living like multimillionaires. and then they bring in so many immigrants. I'm not saying that we need to imitate everything that the UAE does, right? But what I'm saying is that Venezuela could have been that extremely wealthy country, much wealthier than any Western country. It's such a profound point because the one thing and what really antagonizes me about the left is that Venezuela was their poster boy.

24:37It was their poster boy. You know, they were talking about socialism, Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, all the big players of the left eulogizing Venezuela and saying, this is the socialist dream. Yet when it fell apart, when our people were starving, they were dying, nine million of us left. They just walked away and they've never mentioned it since. That's right.

25:04Daniel Di Martino:Now they say, what happened in Venezuela can happen here. That's not what we want. We want to be like the Nordic countries, right? And then you see the democratic sources of America visiting Cuba, visiting Venezuela, meeting with their leaders, because that's what they really want. And they're just lying to the regular people who vote for them that, you know, we want to be like Norway or something. Right. When in Norway, they pay for all their stuff with a 20 percent plus sales tax. I mean, what is the VAT in the UK right now? Twenty percent. Twenty percent. I mean, how do you think you fund these public programs?

25:36Daniel Di Martino:What's the payroll tax? Much higher. Here, combined employer and employee is 15 percent. In Spain, I know, it's over 30%. It's the poor and the middle class who pay for all those welfare things because they're not going to move from your country. They're trapped. The rich will move. It's very simple. They're moving to Dubai. They're moving to Singapore. If they start taxing them here, they'll move out of the United States. Yes. So. So my my my entire problem is that I fear that young people, especially in the West, are being lied to by these leaders who actually do support the Maduro regime and Chavez, just like you're saying Jeremy Corbyn is one of them and other leaders, even here in the United States.

26:16Daniel Di Martino:Bernie Sanders, you mentioned, Soran Mamdani has still a tweet up saying that he thinks the elections in Venezuela are not so shabby. The elections are rigged in Venezuela. If you think the elections are not so Chavez, because in my opinion, you want to rig them. There's people like Gregory Meeks in the U.S. Congress. He went to the funeral of Hugo Chavez. These are people who are sitting members of Congress. Bernie Sanders said that the American dream was more achievable in Venezuela. It's never been more achievable in Venezuela, even when it was good, okay? Like, no. Bernie Sanders said that bread lines are a good thing in Nicaragua, it means people want to buy stuff.

26:52Daniel Di Martino:You know, well, maybe they think about the bagel lines here in New York City and they think that's a good thing. I don't know. So I do think that there are evil people at the top who support these dictatorships.

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28:10We've spoken about the economic realities of it. Well, what's it like growing up under an oppressive regime. What happens to you when you criticize Javis? Or if you're a journalist, I've got my stories from my family, but we'd love to hear yours.

28:24Daniel Di Martino:Well, I'll tell you, growing up, I had a great family, very loving family, but that suffered tremendously. I think that what's interesting about my story is that it's not exceptional. I grew up in a middle-class family. My parents owned a gas station in Venezuela. And we used to make maybe $1 ,000 to$3 ,000 a month in the early 2000s. That's pretty good, especially for Venezuela in the early 2000s, you know, before the inflation we've had adjusted. By 2016, when I left, we were making$100 a month. That is the reality we faced. We had cars, you know, I went to a good school. We lived in our own apartment.

29:04Daniel Di Martino:That was our property. And then we didn't have electricity. And then we didn't have water. And then we had to line up for food. And when we didn't have electricity and we didn't have water, I had to carry up five floors, the water jug on my shoulder as a teenager. You know, good workout. But it's going from a first world country to a third world country. That is what's so painful because all other socialist countries were never so rich as Venezuela. Think about the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire was a terrible place to live. the poorest empire in Europe. Think about China before Mao. Even before Mao, China was a desolate, terrible place to live.

29:46Daniel Di Martino:Think about Cuba. Cuba was maybe the most okay-ish, but it's still much poorer than Venezuela was. Eastern Europe ravaged by World War II. I mean, how many problems did Eastern Europe have before Soviet socialism? Venezuela was a rich and democratic country, and it became poor because of socialism and became authoritarian because of socialism. And that is why the case of Venezuela is so important for all of us in the West, because it is what could happen to us. Well, one of the questions that one of the challenges that some people might put to you, and I genuinely am curious to hear your response because I don't know.

30:20But the talking point from a lot of people who are supportive of regimes of this kind is actually it's all the gringos fault. Right. And I remember this was the narrative about the Soviet Union where I grew up. which is, well, if it wasn't for the evil Americans, our brilliant experiment. And actually, it's funny because towards the end of the Soviet Union, nobody in the Soviet Union said this anymore. Because we knew that this was bullshit, because the whole system is terrible. But that is a talking point that a lot of the supporters of these regimes still wheel out. If it wasn't for the Americans, if the Americans hadn't put the blockade on QB, if the Americans hadn't interfered in Venezuela, So if only they'd allowed Venezuela to do what it wanted to do in the way that it wanted to do it, everything would be fine.

31:08Is that true?

31:09Daniel Di Martino:No. And, you know, it's funny because the regime tried to brainwash the population about this. The great enemy was the United States, which Chavez called the empire. They put graffiti in the streets with an evil Uncle Sam with devilish horns and a tail. Gringo, go home. And I'm like, which gringos? There are no gringos here. But nobody bought it, really. I mean, now people really like the United States. People joke about the U.S. and say, oh, how was the empire when you come back? Are you an imperialist too? That's how we were called. So if really the United States is to blame, how can the socialists explain that the people of Venezuela like the United States and don't think so?

31:53Daniel Di Martino:Are we all brainwashed? Is that why we all left? We're all brainwashed, right? Are the people inside that haven't left also brainwashed? Because if anything, they have less access to the media. How could they? If anything, it's the regime brainwashing us. You asked me about growing up in Venezuela. The media was so censored that when I was 12 years old, before it was even allowed, I opened a Twitter account back when it was called Twitter. I then had to like re-upload my ID, you know, the whole process because I opened it as a minor. I opened that to read the news because I couldn't get it from TV or from, you know, the newspapers, because they began to be all censored.

32:29Daniel Di Martino:So the situation is very dire. It is not because of foreign sanctions or the U.S. And the best example to, I think, counter this narrative is actually another country that is sanctioned by the U.S. and that is Iran. If Venezuela is sanctioned, oil dependent, you know, authoritarian, corrupt, how come Iran doesn't have hyperinflation and millions of refugees fleeing? Iran, in many ways, is less free than Venezuela. If you're a woman, you have to wear a hijab. It's suppressive in a social and political way that Venezuela is not. So why aren't millions crossing the border into Turkey? They could do it.

33:07Daniel Di Martino:Two other countries. Aserbaean. There's so many Aserian-Iranians. They would feel very well culturally in Aserbaean, a very long border. They don't because in Iran, it might be all these horrible things. It's not a good regime at all. But Iran is not a socialist country. In Iran, you can't feed your family and live. In Venezuela, you cannot. And you cannot, not because sanctions are stronger on Venezuela. They're much stronger on Iran. You can't even send a piece of mail to Iran from the United States. To Venezuela, you can send cash, you can send food. There are companies based in South Florida that send food door to door in Caracas.

33:42Daniel Di Martino:You give them your family member's address. You can travel. I don't recommend that you might get kidnapped by the regime. But there's no limitation. The limitation is on the Maduro regime itself, and that is a good limitation. You should sanction criminals, people who violate human rights, take their properties. Even buildings in New York City were owned by Maduro regime affiliates in Miami, too. So I think it's just a scapegoat. They always blame someone else. The Cubans have done this as well. The Cuban regime say, you know, it's all because of the embargo. If capitalism is so bad, why do you want to trade with us?

34:17Daniel Di Martino:If trade is bad, why do you want to trade with capitalist countries? America was the main buyer of Venezuelan oil throughout all of Chavez's term. Then how did inflation go up? How did all these things happen without sanctions? Sanctions in a real serious way against the oil industry that's owned by the government only began in 2019 under Trump, who, by the way, Biden lifted them. Why hasn't Venezuela recovered? If it's the oil price, the oil price recovered a long time ago. Venezuela never recovered. When the oil price goes down, do you see refugees fleeing Dubai? and other oil-dependent nations?

34:53Daniel Di Martino:Are they crossing the desert seeking food and a better life? No, because it has nothing to do with the oil dependence. It has nothing to do with corruption. It has nothing to do with sanctions and everything to do with socialist policies. And Daniel, so we'll go back to the story of Venezuela. Chavez has been this authoritarian leader, a larger-than-life figure, hugely charismatic, but he developed stomach cancer. He becomes desperately sick. He dies. And then Nicolás Maduro comes in. And there's people going, well, it can't get any worse, can it? Well, Maduro, the thing is, he didn't do anything different from what Chávez did.

35:35Daniel Di Martino:Maduro continued the same policies of nationalizations, press controls, printing money. And things just became worse naturally as they always were going to. A lot of people have tried to rehabilitate Chávez and then say, no, this is all because of Maduro. Chavez was an international criminal drug dealer, the guy who started it all. Chavez is the one who put Maduro in charge himself, too. None of these are saints or good people. And what happened is, think about it, the government owned the electricity, the water sector, the oil sector. And the longer it passes without doing maintenance to, say, electric facilities or water facilities, the more likely something bad's going to happen to them.

36:20Daniel Di Martino:In Venezuela, we saw, even during Chavez, explosions of refineries. The main refineries, El Palito and Amoy, exploded. That's why there's no gasoline. They exploded because they didn't do maintenance. The water and the electric facilities, explosions too because of lack of maintenance. And every time something's happened, you know what Chavez and Mallory would say? Oh, it's Marco Rubio that hacked our system from Florida, from Miami. Imagine now that he's Secretary of State, right? They really are paranoid or try to portray themselves as paranoid. They know it's all their fault. It's all a lie to deceive Westerners that, oh, it's all our fault and they play into this guilt.

37:00Daniel Di Martino:When in reality, they just want to stay in power forever. They're not even Marxists, I actually think, anymore. I actually think they know socialism is bad. They know socialism makes people poor. But that's why they implement it. Because keeping people poor and dependent on the government is how they stay in power and continue their drug trafficking operation. And so with that in mind, and I'm glad that you touched on the narco-trafficking thing, because that's one aspect of the regime. He's been critical of many aspects of the regime. But that's one aspect that Trump has been hypercritical on.

37:36So let's talk about that.

37:37Daniel Di Martino:Yes. So the Maduro regime is what's called a cartel, the cartel of the sons. investigations, these all began, I mean, these investigations have been ongoing for over 10 years independently at the Department of Justice. And one of the things Chavez did in the early 2000s is that most countries have cooperation agreements with the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, to stop drug trafficking. South America is a big source of drug trafficking. Why? Because it's mostly produced in Colombia. That's where the U.S. opened military bases there and really fought it hard under the Uribe presidency.

38:08Daniel Di Martino:And then now under Petro, obviously, it's all gone overboard. But Chavez stopped the cooperation with the U.S. government. And that was purposeful. That's because they thought that that was actually their best revenue source. They destroyed the oil industry, so they ran out of oil to steal. What they didn't destroy, because it's not government-owned, is the drug trafficking industry. And so the generals of the Venezuelan military, this is part of how they remain in power, the military is the cartel. And the military knows that if Venezuela were to become a democratic country, obviously, generals cannot be drug kingpins, no matter who comes to power in an election.

38:50Daniel Di Martino:And that's why they will never give him power peacefully. It's another discussion that we can talk about. But the point is, they became a cartel. They don't mainly produce the drugs there. It's mostly from Colombia, from FARC, ELN, these other military groups. They bring it through Venezuela. and because Venezuela is a narco state, the government itself endorses this. They use government planes to transport drugs. They use all the state infrastructure to do it. Nicolás Maduro's nephews were captured by the DEA in Haiti with kilos of cocaine. They were brought here. They went to trial. They were declared guilty and then Biden pardoned them and sent them back.

39:29What?

39:30Daniel Di Martino:Oh yeah, this happened a few years ago under Biden. It was also part of an exchange for American prisoners and he released the nephews. the nephews of the dictator. I mean, this is how high up it is. I mean, how close do you want to get? It's his own family. So that is why they do it, because it's a big source of revenue. It's a way to create a clientele of people in power that have the weapons to remain in power. And how much cocaine, do we know how much cocaine is being trafficked from Venezuela to the United States? So my understanding is that it's about 20 % of the cocaine that gets to the United States comes from Venezuela.

40:06Daniel Di Martino:It's not a majority. but it's a huge portion. But, I mean, I don't know how credible it is, the amount. But it really comes from Colombia. That's where it's produced. And then Venezuela helps with the transportation. Part of it also goes to Europe. It's not all to the United States. It goes through the islands of the Caribbean, sometimes on flights, sometimes on boats, like the boats we've seen that's taken in the Caribbean. And then ultimately also through Mexico, right? Well, these boats that have been destroyed by U.S. strikes, are they narco boats? What do we know about them? I am certain that they are.

40:43Daniel Di Martino:I have no... So one of the things is, right now there's a very lively discussion in the United States over whether this is legal, whether this is good, whether these people need to be brought to trial. Look, I can tell you, at least me personally, as a Venezuelan, I fully support the Trump administration's strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean. and the overwhelming majority of Venezuelans, even post on their personal social media, jokes about it. They love it. They're like, another one bites the dust. Because this is part of what keeps the regime in power. Now, are the strikes going to overthrow Maduro by themselves, striking votes?

41:19Daniel Di Martino:No. More would need to be done. But is it a good thing because these people are evil and have destroyed our country? Yes. Ask 10 people to define capitalism and you'll probably get 10 different answers. It's a word that gets thrown around constantly, but how many people actually know what it means? That's why I've been watching the free online course from Hillsdale College called Understanding Capitalism. In seven lectures, it breaks down not just what capitalism is, but also why it works. I found the course does an incredible job of making complex concepts like the market economy understandable.

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42:38One more time, that's hillsdale.edu slash trigger. Well, there was something strange I found because, look, this episode might go out a fair while after the events that we're discussing. and by this point it might all be legal or illegal or, you know, whatever. But I just thought it was quite weird the way the media covered it because they were like, well, one of the people who was hit, you know, was a fisherman. And you're going, well, drug cartels will use fishermen to drive boats.

43:04Daniel Di Martino:No, no, wait. That person who was, by the way, Colombian, that fisherman, was a convicted armed trafficker in Colombia. Right. Are you telling me that he reformed himself, went to a drug trafficking route to fish? Right. That sounds fishy. That sounds fishy. But even if that isn't the case, I mean, just because there was one fisherman on a boat doesn't mean it's not a narco boat. I mean, drug cartels probably don't have boat training camps. They just get a guy who has a boat or who knows how to. Do you know what I mean? It's kind of silly. Now, you might say, well, Daniel, but is death really the solution, right?

43:38Daniel Di Martino:I'm going to tell you why this is the appropriate strategy. It is the appropriate strategy because the drug trafficking in Latin America, and especially in Venezuela and Colombia, it is tied to terrorism. how do you think FARC and ELN, the terrorist designated groups by the United States, not even talking about the Cartel of the Sons yet? Sorry, Daniel. There's a lot of people who won't know what FARC is and won't know what ELN is. So let's just give us a bit of background and then come back to the point. Yeah, the FARC and ELN are Colombian militias that occupy large portions of Colombia, do bomb attacks, kidnap people.

44:12Daniel Di Martino:They have kidnapped even presidential candidates in Colombia and they extort businesses in the region. and they are funded through drug trafficking. Or do you think Hezbollah even gets funding too? Hezbollah also receives money from drug trafficking. That terrorist groups have found out that the most profitable way to make money is drug trafficking and not communal activity. It's like the mob did the alcohol and the prostitution and all these things together. It's the same thing that terrorists do. So when you strike the drug trafficking, you strike the funding source of terrorism. That's really, really interesting.

44:42Another thing I was going to ask you is, one of the things that I think is probably under-discussed, is the extent to which Venezuela is working with hostile regimes to the United States.

44:55Daniel Di Martino:Absolutely. So Chavez became very good friends with Mahmoud al-Madinejad when he was president of Iran. Iranians are still very good allies of the current regime. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping. I mean, Russia and China gave him billions and billions of loans, and then they forget. That's all to prop them up. Because for these regimes, having Venezuela there is both a platform to attack the United States, but also to bother the United States. They know that the drug trafficking kills Americans and harms the West. Why not support them? They know that Maduro and Chavez before him funded communist parties in other countries, including Petro in Colombia, including Podemos in Spain, by the way, the far left party there that is in power.

45:43Daniel Di Martino:So it is a very cost-effective way to just fight an asymmetric war against the West. And yeah, so I would say it is a big problem. I don't know if you remember when they tried to kidnap the Iranian citizen here in New York City, these armed assassins. The objective was kidnapping, but the other option was assassination. The plan was actually to take her to Caracas, not to Iran directly. was much closer. That's because the Iranian regime cooperates with the majority. Their first lady and the president of Iran came recently to Venezuela. It was a really funny video. She came in a full black burka.

46:24Daniel Di Martino:And then when she was coming off the plane, Venezuela put the Star Wars song as she was coming down. Because that's exactly what it is. And that's the tragedy of Venezuela is that it's become completely corrupted. That it's essentially now a vessel for the Iranian regime, but it's also got links to China as well. Well, absolutely. The Chinese supported Chavez with loans. They're still present. I mean, part of how the oil is extracted today in Venezuela is Iranian, Chinese, and Russian companies because the Maduro regime wasn't able to do it themselves. So they're like, hey, let's bring you all of it.

47:00Daniel Di Martino:So it's really funny when the far leftists in the United States and other countries say that, oh, this is the United States that wants to overthrow Maduro because of the oil. the oil is being taken by Russia, by China, and by Iran. What are you talking about? Where do you think the Venezuelan gasoline comes from now? It comes from Iran. Take the oil there, bring the gasoline back. The Iranians, I mean, those are the imperialist countries that interfered in Venezuela. It's Cuba that did. Venezuelans wanted to have peaceful, free relations with the United States, like it used to be. The refineries all along Texas used to be designed to bring Venezuelan heavy oil and refine it there.

47:41Daniel Di Martino:That's what they're designed to do. And if anything, the majority regime has destroyed oil production. Venezuela used to produce three and a half to four million barrels a day. It produces less than a million, about half a million. And it represents a very real security threat to the United States. Because I was talking to one of my cousins and he was saying that there's Hezbollah training camps on the island of Margarita. You see now people in burqas, you see a lot of Islamists in Venezuela. And look, people, you might understand that Muslims are immigrating to rich countries because it's a better place to live.

48:21Daniel Di Martino:Nobody's immigrating to Venezuela because it's a better place to live. How did they show up there? Because they all were for Iran. That's really simple. It's because of the Hezbollah training camps. Not only that, but the other terrorist organizations I mentioned earlier, FARC and ELN, sought refuge from the U.S. involvement in Colombia inside Venezuela. Chavez protected them. He even has in one of his State of Union addresses saying that FARC and ELN are not terrorist groups. They're just misunderstood people. And not only do they represent a terrorist threat externally to the United States, Venezuela, And I'm ashamed to say this.

48:58It actually pains me and upsets me to say this. We represent a threat to the United States internally with gangs like El Tren de Aragua.

49:07Daniel Di Martino:Absolutely. So Venezuela then after 2020 became a different, greater threat to America and the world. Because now not only was it the drugs, which also increased, but it's also the migration of hundreds of thousands of people, well, millions all over the world, of course. And among them, really dangerous gang members. that you really didn't need to be a genius to identify them. So one of the examples is this woman who crossed the southern border under Biden. She was not sneaking in. She was let in by Border Patrol. She was checked. You just had to see her picture to know that she shouldn't have been allowed, okay?

49:42Daniel Di Martino:Facial tattoos everywhere. This woman was actually a child sex trafficker. And when she came to America, what she did was traffic girls into prostitution. Her nickname was Barbie. This is all in the New York Post. You can read it and see her photo. All the other cases in New York City of gang members and thieve bans, right? Shoplifting gangs. And that is little. They took over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. I mean, they have done so much. And they have even attempted to assassinate Venezuelan dissidents in other countries. Two Venezuelan dissidents were almost killed a couple of weeks ago in Colombia by an assassin group.

50:21Daniel Di Martino:They survived, thank God. They killed one in Chile. their goal is to, it's not that most Venezuelans or even a large, you know, or even a small or significant number are all criminals or whatever coming into the US, but that the Venezuelan regime uses the natural migration flow of people who flee them to infiltrate criminals and gang members. Well, this is what I was going to ask you, because there was one thing that we didn't have in the Soviet Union because it was an authoritarian, maybe even totalitarian regime. We did not have criminal gangs that were roaming, kidnapping people, trafficking drugs.

51:01If you want to talk about the benefits of totalitarianism, crime tends to be really under control. As far as I understand, in China, there are no huge gangs that are doing any of this stuff. So how does a country with an authoritarian socialist regime end up having such a strong presence of organized crime?

51:20Daniel Di Martino:That is such a good observation on your right. Cuba also doesn't have a major crime problem. Venezuela is unique among these socialist nations in that it allowed crime to fester. And I think it was a political strategy. So if you see the charts of all the independent groups of the crime rate, homicide rate, kidnapping numbers, everything of Venezuela, Chavez got selected and sworn into office, linear increase up. Caracas became one of the cities with the highest homicide rates on the planet. and that was all during my lifetime. It became so dangerous that when I went to parties as a teenager in friends' homes, we would stay overnight because we didn't want to be picked up or do or leave in the dark.

52:04Daniel Di Martino:My own family in the early 2000s were kidnapped in the beach at home. They stole everything. They took our cars. They took our belongings. And so this became commonplace. I have friends who, some of them got robbed two times a day. It became a joke at this point. It's like, really? And like when they come, like they already stole my phone, I can't give it to you. So we became used to the crime. That was one of the greatest life, quality of life improvements for me coming to America was being at peace in the street, not thinking that a man in a motorcycle was going to come next to me in the sidewalk and then point a gun at me and say, give me everything you have and then kill me perhaps.

52:44Yeah, we know how you feel coming from London.

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54:44Daniel Di Martino:I think it's more nefarious. I think that the other authoritarian regimes chose to just quash crime and Maduro and Chavez chose not to. Inside Venezuela, the purpose of the gangs was to repress protests. They used these armed groups so that when there were large protests, they would send them. It's called colectivos, collectives. And there were coming more recycles, dressed in red, and then they would shoot some people, kidnap others, torture them, and defuse the protest that way. And then say, oh, that wasn't the police. It was them with Russian weapons, by the way. I mean, how else do you get weapons in a country where weapons are illegal, right?

55:23Daniel Di Martino:Well, the weapons are illegal for law-abiding citizens, not for the gang members and the collectives. So that's how it all began. And then these gangs also grew on themselves, right? They control the prisons, which are totally packed with people. You know, part of what President Trump has said about the gangs is that Maduro released the people from the prisons. Actually, the problem is that people just didn't go to prison in the first place. The prisons are actually the place where criminals thrive. They have chicken inside the prisons. They have banks. They bring in people from outside. There are several good documentaries of people who go into the prisons, Americans and others.

55:58Daniel Di Martino:So I think it was a political strategy at the beginning, internal. And then when they saw that people were coming to the United States through the border, they were like, we can exploit this. So the gang members came with them. Do you think that there's going to be some kind of military action in Venezuela involving the U.S.? I hope so. You know, right now, what we're only seeing is striking the boats. Trump has hinted at striking inside Venezuela, the land. Look, why do I say I hope so? Because it's really the only way we see this regime end. This regime will not end because they feel pressure from sanctions.

56:41Daniel Di Martino:As much as I support it because I don't think they should get to enjoy the financial benefits of what they stole. It's the just thing to do to sanction the regime. If you want to see a prosperous Venezuela where millions of people are fleeing, where criminals aren't going to other countries, where we're actually exporting oil instead of exporting people, the only way is for Maduro not to be in power and Venezuela become a free country again. And I think it's such a good point, Daniel, and what people don't understand, because Venezuela isn't the focus of most people's attention, is this is not sustainable, either for Venezuela or actually for the United States, and something really does need to be done.

57:23Daniel Di Martino:Indeed. I mean, we're all paying for what socialists need to Venezuela. We're paying it in higher gasoline prices because there are millions of barrels that are not being produced every day from Venezuela. World pain and in crime. I mean, how many people have been killed by gang members from Venezuela in the US? Every time I was seeing the news, like migrant crime, whatever, I was like, please let it not be Venezuelan. Please let it not be Venezuelan. They're like, Venezuelan. You know, like, oh, please, at least another Latin American nation. Please, come on. So that is not a coincidence. And so we're paying the price and we would all benefit so much if Venezuela became free, not just Venezuelans.

58:01Daniel Di Martino:So many people would go back to Venezuela, millions of people. And I think, you know, so much suffering has been done. People starving, so much lost human potential of valuable people that could be innovating and doing good things. It's the same thing with the Soviet Union when it was still a socialist dream. How many smart Russians were there? I mean, Russia has some of the smartest people in the world that couldn't fulfill their potential and innovate for all the world's benefit because of Soviet socialism. And a lot of them are here now and in Israel. Very true. Very, very true. But still, it was a loss of human potential.

58:38Of course. Same in China.

58:40Daniel Di Martino:Same in so many authoritarian countries. And I think President Trump has the opportunity not only to get a huge win on foreign policy, but to do the greatest foreign policy achievement of the U.S. perhaps in many decades. Well, here's the question, Daniel. And look, I think what you're saying, I totally get, particularly from your perspective. I also think, and I think you'd agree with me, over the last 20 years, regime change has got a bit of a bad rep, right? And partly, I think, for very good reasons, which is one of the things I think Americans have discovered that, you know, I always try to explain this to our American friends.

59:16It's like not everyone in the world is American. So even if you remove the evil guy at the top, they don't necessarily end up in a, you you know, social democracy or liberal democracy or democracy at all. So, for example, you know, I think there was a few people who were a little bit too enthusiastic when the Ukraine war, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and they were like, oh, we just need to get rid of Putin. And I was like, well, I agree with you that what's happening is bad and I'm super pro-Ukraine. You remove Putin, I'm not sure you're going to get something better. So if you're saying, well, it would be better to remove Maduro, I totally get the sentiment.

59:50But make the case to me that he's not going to be replaced by Nicolas Paduro and he's even worse.

59:58Daniel Di Martino:That's very important. And obviously, during the last 20 years, I mean, because of the Iraq war, which was a massive mistake, a trillion dollar mistake, that's a big problem. But people forget that there have been many successful use of forces in US foreign policy in the past, even in Latin America, that led to great prosperity. Tell us about that. Panama, for example. Panama, actually, is one of the richest countries in Latin America after the U.S. deposed Manuel Noriega. Granada. In Granada, they celebrate Thanksgiving on the day of the U.S. intervention in Granada. Took one day. Now, Granada is an island.

1:00:31Daniel Di Martino:It's much smaller. Panama had the Panama Canal. I understand it's not the same, but what I'm trying to say is that it can be successful, and it has been successful in recent period, in the 80s. So what happens in Venezuela is also similar in that we have a democratically elected government. We have an active opposition, something Cuba doesn't have, unfortunately. And so we have who, people, you know, a democratic alternative that has massive popular support. And we have a regime that totally depends on drug trafficking. We don't have a country with ethnical religious division, right? We're not going to have an Iraq Shiite versus Muslim war.

1:01:10Daniel Di Martino:We're not going to have, you know, these ethnic genocides, right, that happen in Africa. It's a very different situation. And we don't need troops on the ground either, right? That would be a massive mistake because it would be very costly, right? The U.S. is simply not capable of doing that in Venezuela, which is a very large country, larger than Iraq, too. So what President Trump could do is actually strike at the military facilities of the regime and even strike at some of the major regime members such that Maduro gets the message, I need to leave because my life is at risk. And where would he live?

1:01:45Daniel Di Martino:The same faith that Bashar al-Assad had. He will go to Russia, probably. I don't think he wants to go to Cuba. It's too poor. So in China, you know, he probably doesn't want to be in Asia, so he'll probably end up in Russia. And before we move on to our substat where people get to ask their questions to you, Daniel, what would you say to young people who are toying with socialism, who are frustrated, who are angry, who think to themselves, capitalism isn't working for me. We're in the hands of corporations. How bad can socialism be? If you don't want somebody that you hate in the government running your life, like, for example, Donald Trump, then you shouldn't give the government the power that socialist regimes do.

1:02:27Daniel Di Martino:Because that's what's going to happen. People that you don't like are going to be in power. And they're going to use the power that you gave to the government against you. And that is what we need to stop, right? And I bet that most of the people who support socialism really dislike President Trump. Well, who do you think is going to be in charge of your health care and the government health care? Who do you think is going to be in charge of your education and government education? So private property is actually a protection against governments you don't like, against people being involved in your life in ways you don't want them.

1:02:56Daniel Di Martino:And I want everybody to have affordable housing, affordable health care. Like I said earlier, I want people to be wealthy. And we're already much wealthier than we used to be. We just lack that perspective. We're wealthier than our grandparents were, than our parents were. immigrants find success in America in incredible ways. I have at least, and I know millions of others. So the answer to this is not to turn down everything. It's to understand what are the causes for the problems we suffer? Why are we not building enough housing? Why are groceries perhaps more expensive than they used to be?

1:03:28Daniel Di Martino:And then implement policies targeted to those areas. And so what do you think the policies are from a capitalist perspective? From a capitalist perspective, we need to really repeal a lot of zoning, parking requirements, all these government regulations and building. This is why Austin, Texas, builds housing more in absolute numbers than New York City, a city that is 10 times larger because there's less regulation. It's a liberal city. It's liberal people living there and moving there, but they just have less regulation, so they build more. California has begun understanding this, and they've changed their regulations because they know it's an existential threat.

1:04:05Daniel Di Martino:On other policies, on labor, for example, America is one of the countries that has the most licensing barriers to enter any profession. You need in most states more than a thousand hours of unpaid training and over thousands of dollars in courses to become a barber. You need a license in Washington, D.C. and other states and territories to become an interior designer. Is the government trying to protect us from the wrong paint inside our walls, in our homes? This makes no sense. It's about one in five to one in four professions in America need a government license. Look, I'm not saying we need to repeal licenses for doctors and lawyers, but we don't need to repeal most of the other licenses so that poor people who are the ones who can't enter the profession are able to, so that they're not stuck in low-paying jobs in fast food or doing something else.

1:04:52Daniel Di Martino:The solution is not to increase the minimum wage. The solution is to get better training. The solution is to increase productivity, lower taxes, simplify regulations, the tax code too. We have a great welfare cliff in this country, where if you make more than a certain amount of money, you actually are worse off because you lose your Medicaid, you lose your public housing vouchers. So we need to reform this tax and spending system so that the incentives are aligned for people to make more money, work and live better lives. Daniel, thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure.

1:05:25And it's obviously been particularly impactful for me. Thank you.

1:05:29Daniel Di Martino:I'm going to cry, mate. A little quiet. What's wrong with you? Not a real man. Can't deal with the suffering of your own people. Exactly. I mean, what happened to Venezuela is really, really sad. So I fully understand. Of course. And I'm only joking. Now you feel bad now, don't you? When they go from Venezuela. Well, I don't know if you remember, when we had an episode on the Soviet Union, I think I actually did cry. So I was only teasing you in a playful sort of way. No, of course, it's a very serious issue. Daniel, I thought you were a really, really special conversation. Thank you for coming on, man.

1:06:02It was great. We're going to head over to substack, triggerpod.co.uk, where Daniel's going to answer your questions. But before we do, what's the one thing we're not talking about that we really should be?

1:06:12Daniel Di Martino:I think we're not talking enough about the fact that the genders are politically polarized and that especially young women are the ones that are supporting socialist parties all over the world. It's not just an American thing. If you see the results of the elections in Germany, people are saying, oh, the youth are voting for the far right. Now, the young men were. The young women were voting for the far left. And I fear that that is happening here too. And I do fear what that's going to do to the genders, that's going to do to family formation. And really, that's what's going to do to the political future of the West.

1:06:48And we need to understand better why are certain groups of the population

1:06:52Daniel Di Martino:more attracted to socialist ideas than others. And that is not something that I fully understand yet. Perfect. Well, head on over to triggerpod.co.uk where Daniel's going to answer your questions. What needs to happen to Venezuela to restore it to a more democratic and presumably more prosperous state?

1:07:28We'll be right back.