The Trump administration’s latest offensive move against Venezuela, the seizure of a tanker carrying U.S.-sanctioned oil, has triggered predictable outrage from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. 

But behind the rhetorical fire, analysts say the regime has few practical ways to hit back without doing even more damage to itself.

Experts say that Maduro could target U.S. oil interests in Venezuela, but doing so would almost certainly inflict more pain on his own cash-starved regime than on the United States.

Maduro could also halt U.S.-chartered deportation flights, but again, would be harming his own interests, experts say. 

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"Venezuelans are just leaving the country because of the terrible conditions the regime has created," said Connor Pfeiffer, a Western Hemisphere analyst at FDD Action. "By having people come back, even if they're on U.S. charter deportation flights, it kind of counters that narrative."

Western oil firms have significantly decreased their presence in Venezuela, home to world’s largest proven oil reserves, in recent years due to sanctions. 

But U.S.-owned Chevron does still maintain a license to operate there, on the condition that the Maduro regime does not financially benefit from its operations. Instead, Chevron hands over to Maduro half of its oil production as payment, according to multiple reports.

"Chevron’s operations in Venezuela continue in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government," a Chevron spokesperson told Fox News Digital.  

Imports of Venezuelan crude have declined to roughly 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 150,000 bpd in recent months, below the nearly 300,000 bpd seen under the prior petroleum licensing regime under the Biden administration. Most of Venezuela’s exports are now routed to Asia, with the bulk ultimately landing in China through intermediaries, according to data from Kplr. 

Despite that flow of crude, analysts say the idea of Caracas striking back at Chevron is more potent as a talking point than as a viable policy option.

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Shutting down or seizing the company’s operations would instantly cut off one of the few lifelines still feeding Venezuela’s collapsing oil sector. It also would risk triggering a swift and politically difficult American response, including a full reinstatement of the sanctions relief the regime has quietly relied on.

Pfeiffer noted that the Maduro government has been "very supportive of Chevron continuing to operate" because the arrangement provides tens of thousands of barrels a day of oil with minimal investment from Venezuelan-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Other analysts say that reality sharply limits Maduro’s room to maneuver: any attack on Chevron would strike at his own revenue stream first.

Another theoretical lever — military or maritime escalation — is widely viewed as even less credible. Venezuela has taken delivery of small Iranian-built fast attack craft equipped with anti-ship missiles, a fact that has fueled speculation Maduro could threaten U.S. or allied vessels.

But Venezuela’s navy suffers from years of maintenance failures and lacks the ability to sustain operations against American forces deployed in the Caribbean. Any aggressive move at sea would almost certainly invite a U.S. military response the regime is in no position to absorb.

Diplomatically, Caracas could suspend remaining channels with Washington, or file legal challenges in U.S. courts or international forums. Yet previous efforts to contest sanctions-related seizures have gone nowhere, and Venezuela’s relationships in the hemisphere offer limited leverage. 

Regional bodies have little sway over U.S. sanctions law, and even supportive governments in Russia, China, or Iran are unlikely to intervene beyond issuing critical statements. Beijing, now the primary destination for Venezuelan crude, has economic interests at stake but few practical avenues to challenge U.S. enforcement actions.

Absent direct military strikes, cracking down on sanctioned oil exports is one of the most potent ways the U.S. can weaken the regime, according to Pfeiffer. 

"This is one of his main sources of revenue keeping the regime afloat."

The Democratic Party is a very old and venerable institution, and as such, it has a lot of rules, a lot of buffers, and yes, this thing of theirs, it has centers of power. You might even call them families.

Now, these families, so to speak, they aren’t at war with each other, at least not usually, but they do have their own interests and priorities, and sometimes conflicts do arise. To truly understand the party, and where it is going, you have to understand the Five Families that lead it.

So, let's take a look, one by one. Which crews are in ascendency? Which are in chaos? And what will it mean for the party as it seeks to take Congress and the White House, and put every agency in the country right in its back pocket?

Over the past several years, Nancy ‘The Gavel’ Pelosi has positioned the San Francisco family, once a fringe backwater, into the most powerful of the five. Not only did Pelosi whack the second-term ambitions of the party’s old boss, Joey ‘Naps’ Biden, but she hand-selected Frisco’s own Kamala ‘Cackles’ Harris to replace him.

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Old Lady Pelosi might not be speaker of the House anymore, but who do we find leading the presidential primary polling today in the party? Why, none other than Gavin "The Peacock" Newsom, another San Francisco treat, and a testament to its family’s outsized power. While the family has traditionally been the party’s most left-leaning, that title faces a challenge from the northern family.

The Minneapolis family, led by Tim ‘Whitey’ Walz — an extremely good earner as we are finding out every day — is one that is surpassing San Francisco’s legendary leftism. Ilhan "The Inlaw" Omar is the best example. Her political vision is one of reparations, whereby through legislation, or sometimes, you know,  just graft, money goes from native-born Americans to immigrant groups like Minnesota’s Somali community who will not assimilate.

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Key to the operation of the Minneapolis family is Mayor Jacob ‘The Kneeler’ Frey, even though he almost got knocked off in the recent election by one the very Somali politicians he regularly panders to. Frey’s main job is to exemplify for White Minnesotans and Americans at large why their culture should be abandoned and replaced by the blessings of third-world corruption. This family is small, for now, but very dangerous.

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There is no family with more history or more current political power in Washington than New York, and yet, it finds itself in chaos. Even with Chuckie ‘5 term’ Schumer in charge of Senate Democrats, and Hakeem ‘The Scheme’ Jeffries running the party in the House, it is the younger Capos making a move on that power.

Alexandria ‘The Face’ Ocasio-Cortez has assembled a socialist crew, headed up by recent Mayor-Elect Zohran ‘Smiley’ Mamdani, that is sweeping up elections left and right even as Schumer and Jeffries try to protect to their proteges like Dan ‘Rich Boy’ Goldman from primary defeats. One key point of tension is Israel, which always makes money for its partners, but rubs the up-and-comers the wrong way.

In normal times, Barack ‘Barry’ Obama would be the national boss of bosses as the former two-time president, but his grasp on the party seems to be waning these days. This is in large part because ‘Barry’s’ Chicago-style party traditionally masks its far-left ambitions with a face of moderation. This is exactly what Rahm ‘The Suit’ Emanuel is trying to be. The problem is that party voters don’t want a socialist in bankers’ clothing anymore, they just want a socialist.

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This is precisely why we see JB ‘Double Cheeseburger’ Pritzker making his move into national prominence by being a pebble in the shoe of President Donald Trump whenever and wherever he can. 

Despite the shifting winds in the party across the country, the South Carolina family, with its long-serving boss Jim ‘The Kingmaker’ Clyburn, still plays by the old-school rules, and is looking to expand its power.

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The Kingmaker wants his Palmetto State primary to take out Iowa and New Hampshire and become the party’s first in the nation, giving his family, perhaps the most moderate of the five now, an even bigger say in choosing the next capo dei capi to run for the White House on the party ticket.

Clyburn has checked the presidential ambitions of socialist Bernie ‘The Mittens’ Sanders several times now, but will he be able to hold off the next generation of Sandernistas? Only time, as they say, will tell.

Over the next two years, the Five Families will go to the mattresses to keep their stake in the national party. But only one will produce a presidential nominee with the chance to make American voters an offer they can’t refuse.