President's Televised Address

[TheBigA]

The concept of anti-Americanism is much exaggerated, mostly by extreme leftists like those in FARC in Colombia and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru.

What political party is currently running the government in Venezuela?

https://www.firstpost.com/world/venezuela-us-tensions-maduro-and-wife-arrested-and-taken-to-new-york-delcy-rodriguez-takes-charge-13965622-13965622.html

Yesterday, about 8 million Venezuelan expatriate economic refugees from Chile to Miami and Houston were celebrating and congratulating Trump.

Absolutely. Venezuelan Americans look forward to the day they can visit their homeland. I posted coverage of that earlier.

But right now, back in Venezuela, the entire government and military are all Maduro appointees. Nobody in Venezuela is interested in a return to colonialism. That is not the way to win over the people there. Rubio knows this. His boss doesn't.

 

[JJSPC]

Perhaps Citgo Petroleum Corporation will return to American ownership since the the Venezuelan company PDVSA who is controlling it is pretty much in shambles. And once upon a time Citgo ran radio commercials, So there's a connection to broadcasting for this post. 🙂

 

[TheBigA]

Perhaps Citgo Petroleum Corporation will return to American ownership since the the Venezuelan company PDVSA who is controlling it is pretty much in shambles. And once upon a time Citgo ran radio commercials, So there's a connection to broadcasting for this post. 🙂

In fact, those commercials were voiced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who at the time represented the Venezuelan government.

 

[JJSPC]

In fact, those commercials were voiced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who at the time represented the Venezuelan government.

Interesting. I was thinking of the ones in the 70's when it was still an independent American company.

 

[TheBigA]

Interesting. I was thinking of the ones in the 70's when it was still an independent American company.

Here is an update for you:

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2025-09-15/citgo-parent-auction-nears-final-stages-as-sale-hearing-kicks-off

 

[Larry]

The concept of anti-Americanism is much exaggerated, mostly by extreme leftists like those in FARC in Colombia and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru

International tourism was very down in 2025, especially from Canada “Anti-Americanism” is one way to describe the primary cause of this decline in tourism, “Anti-Trump” is another way to describe the cause.

 

[Don CT]

International tourism was very down in 2025, especially from Canada “Anti-Americanism” is one way to describe the primary cause of this decline in tourism, “Anti-Trump” is another way to describe the cause.

Being Anti American and anti American Government are not the same.

 

[CTListener]

Being Anti American and anti American Government are not the same.

And getting people to understand that is getting almost as hard as explaining the difference among anti-Israeli, anti-Israel government, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic.

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

The concept of anti-Americanism is much exaggerated, mostly by extreme leftists like those in FARC in Colombia and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru. I have worked in radio in every nation in Spanish speaking Latin America except Cuba over the last 60 years (and continue in more than one) and have never witnessed "anti-Americanism" personally nor seen manifestations of it except in far, far leftist movements.

The intent seems to be to have the original owners of petroleum production facilities and holders of drilling rights to have their "deals" restored if they rebuild the nearly totally destroyed facilities that still remain.

The foreign oil companies paid huge rights to Venezuela, and that was why the country was so prosperous up until the socialist dictatorship got into power.

You are making up history and exaggerating attitudes and sentiments. Yesterday, about 8 million Venezuelan expatriate economic refugees from Chile to Miami and Houston were celebrating and congratulating Trump.

So you're going for "everything will be sunshine and rainbows" or - to borrow a phrase from an earlier war I mentioned - "we'll be greeted as liberators."

I noticed that in your enthusiasm to bring back the "rightful owners" of Venezuela's oil (NOT the Venezuelan people, apparently), you completely failed to answer the question being asked by liberals and conservatives alike:

Now what?

 

[Moose Jaw McGee]

The concept of anti-Americanism is much exaggerated, mostly by extreme leftists like those in FARC in Colombia and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru. I have worked in radio in every nation in Spanish speaking Latin America except Cuba over the last 60 years (and continue in more than one) and have never witnessed "anti-Americanism" personally nor seen manifestations of it except in far, far leftist movements.

The intent seems to be to have the original owners of petroleum production facilities and holders of drilling rights to have their "deals" restored if they rebuild the nearly totally destroyed facilities that still remain.

The foreign oil companies paid huge rights to Venezuela, and that was why the country was so prosperous up until the socialist dictatorship got into power.

You are making up history and exaggerating attitudes and sentiments. Yesterday, about 8 million Venezuelan expatriate economic refugees from Chile to Miami and Houston were celebrating and congratulating Trump.

Agree with you that anti-Americanism is over exaggerated by the American left. I’ve travelled through much of Latin America and never encountered any anti-American sentiment. As a matter of fact, in many of the poorer parts of those countries they welcome Americans with open arms and see them as a light of hope and help. Cubans and Cuban-Americans are now saying how about Cuba next.

 

[TheBigA]

Agree with you that anti-Americanism is over exaggerated by the American left. I’ve travelled through much of Latin America and never encountered any anti-American sentiment.

They USED to like us, especially in poorer countries, because we sent them money. The current president shut that all down in February.

USAID is going away. Here's what it's been doing in South America

The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver a major blow to efforts including humanitarian assistance in Colombia, conservation efforts in Brazil and coca eradication in Peru — South American countries that have been a priority for the support.

apnews.com

So what happens now that the money has been cut off? Should we just send troops instead?

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

So what happens now that the money has been cut off? Should we just send troops instead?

USAID would be quite useful in this situation, but even if it were still around, I doubt much humanitarian aid would come out of this administration. It is worth noting that the only people outside of his administration that were told in advance about the operation were the oil companies. Not Congressional leaders, but oil companies. He's repeatedly said that we're going to work on getting the oil infrastructure patched up and start making money off of it as soon as possible - only adding "for the good of the Venezuelan people" as an afterthought.

Yet as several observers have pointed out, we don't really NEED Venezuela's oil flowing ASAP. The US is producing more oil than ever, worldwide supply is strong, and the price per barrel is low enough that throwing a bunch of money to extract Venezuela's heavy, sour crude wouldn't exactly be a "black gold rush" for American oil companies.

And no doubt some have noticed how quickly the narrative switched away from "we've got to stop all these drug boats bringing fentanyl into America." The shifting stories, conflicting reports about what the purpose of this invasion was, the fact that (aside from the man and his wife) the Maduro regime is still in power, and Trump's insistence that we're just going to "run" the country for awhile tells me - again - that they haven't the foggiest idea what comes next, and maybe never had a plan in the first place.

 

[TheBigA]

The network late night shows were back live Monday night. The hosts had a lot of news to catch up on.

Jimmy Kimmel mocks Trump for Kennedy Center ratings, Maduro capture

Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air and scrambling to catch up on all the "crazy stuff" President Donald Trump did while he was gone.

www.usatoday.com

Late-Night Takes on Trump/Venezuela, Kennedy Center Ratings & More

Here's what Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart had to say about Trump, Venezuela, Kennedy Center ratings, and more.

bleedingcool.com

 

[TheBigA]

Reviving this thread for the State of the Union. As we know in radio, longer doesn't mean better. The ratings show that's true.

About 28 million watched, which is down 12% from last year:

Trump’s 2026 State of the Union Ratings: How Did it Compare With Biden & Obama?

We break down the stats.

www.yahoo.com

Donald Trump’s State Of The Union Drew Around 28 Million Viewers Across Major Networks, Per Early Nielsen Data

The early data suggested a drop from 2025, but final figures will not come until Thursday.

deadline.com

What I'd really like to see is a graph of how many people tuned out as he went off script.

People used to think Clinton was verbose. This guy breaks the record.

 

[landtuna]

The president announced on Tuesday that he will do a live primetime televised address to the nation on Wednesday at 9PM.

Sorry. I had more important things to do.....like trim my nails. No lies there.

 

[Bongwater]

If I wanted to hear a liar, I'd put on the audiobook version of The Autobiography of Joe Isuzu.

 

[cc333]

People used to think Clinton was verbose. This guy breaks the record.

Not only that, he actually broke his own record, which he set last year.

Pull quote from CNN (source):

Trump’s speech clocked in at about an hour and 47 minutes, breaking the record for length set by his address to Congress last year.

I was listening to the news while running some errands, and someone came on (it was some political analyst, didn't catch his name) and said he listened to the address, and as he was trying to fact check, he said in astonishment that couldn't find anything resembling a fact (in his opinion).

And this person is the President Of The United States? That, as much as it pains me to say, is a fact.

c

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

What I'd really like to see is a graph of how many people tuned out as he went off script.

People used to think Clinton was verbose. This guy breaks the record.

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that his people are trying very hard to hide the ratings from him.

As for being verbose, I don't know if that's really accurate. The speech went long (IMO) because he spent so much time introducing various members of the audience (as often happens in these) and also pausing for applause (which also is a regular feature), but the post-speech analysis I've seen is that this was likely by design. His people did a pretty good job of having him stick to the program and not veer off course with "the weave" as much.

And that in and of itself is deeply concerning. If the President of the United States needs to be stage-managed and cajoled into sticking to a script when the world (down from last year by double digits) is watching? Yikes.

 

[CTListener]

Fidel Castro was notorious for giving speeches that lasted much longer than Trump's, often longer than Bruce Springsteen concerts. I don't speak Spanish, and I've never seen a full English transcript of any of those speeches. Can anyone (David?) tell me how they compared to Trump's in content, style, coherence, etc.?

 

[Jim1348]

Here is a video from John Stossel rating President Trump.