by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (USA) (ITALPRESS) – The Washington Post scoop on the lethal operations ordered in the Caribbean Sea is producing a political effect that until a few weeks ago seemed unthinkable: Congressional Republicans are tightening the circle on Donald Trump.
The daily investigation – according to which the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth would have given the order to “kill all” after a first failed attack against a boat of alleged Venezuelan drug dealers – prompted both the Chamber and the Senate, both by a majority GOP, to open parallel and bipartisan investigations. It is a strong and clear political signal.
The main reason is that Trump, every day approaching the November 2026 elections, is becoming a ballast for Republican hopes to confirm their seats. The economy is not improving and who voted Trump in the hope of a drop in the cost of life today expresses frustration. Prices in supermarkets and malls remain high and – above all – more and more Americans are realizing that Trump’s duties are not paying foreign countries, but themselves, in the form of waste on consumer products, from food to electronics.
The economic dissatisfaction brought down the consensus: the recent elections in early November beat the record in the detachment of votes between defeated democratic rulers and Republicans, with Trump at the lowest in the polls. In the GOP the fear of a democratic avalanche grows in a year, capable of overturning their parliamentary majority.
In this context, the Washington Post scoop came at the worst time for the White House. The fact that the newspaper returns, with its scoop, to honor that glorious test that with Watergate defened a popular president like Nixon – and after months in which the owner Jeff Bezos had put the museruola in confronting Trump – can be read as a free signal: even Bezos seems to have understood that Trump could be “the beginning of the end”, and that the newspaper can return to its original role as a mastiff guarding power.
Congress then acted immediately. The Chamber and Senate Armed Forces commissions announced “rigorous investigations” on the attacks of September 2, in which – according to reconstructions – a first strike against a alleged drug boat left two survivors, then killed by a second missile. Some jurists have defined this possibility, if confirmed, a potential war crime.
Democratic Senator Mark Kelly – who Trump and Hegseth had accused of dismissal of a video in which, with other legislators, he urged the U.S. military not to comply with illegal orders – told CNN: “If the information is accurate, it would seem to be a war crime.”.
Other experts recall that, not being formally a state of war between the United States and Venezuela, one could not speak of “war crime”, but it would be rather murder to all effects. And if Congress had to ensure that the order really started from Hegseth, the impeachment for the Secretary of Defense would be inevitable.
A huge risk for Trump, who might decide to sacrifice him before such a process becomes a real “general test” for a proceeding against the same president. Trump, for his part, on Air Force One has so far defended Hegseth: “He said it didn’t happen and I believe him. We will investigate.”.
But weakened by the economy, by the Epstein Files case and by falling polls, Trump might realize that he is becoming a ballast for the party. The joint vote of the two Chambers on the issue of Epstein documents – very rare event – was the first warning. The Hegseth investigation could become the second.
The fear, now widespread, is that the sum of inflation, duties, scandals and inconsistencies – even in foreign policy – may sink not only the White House, but all the party. For this reason, from Capitol Hill they filter clear signals: either Trump changes route – respecting Constitution and Congress – or they will be the same Republicans to intervene in order to avoid an electoral break in 2026.
The Hegseth case risks becoming the demarcation line: if Trump is forced to sacrifice him, a new phase will open in the GOP, with a president submissive to the will of the legislators of his party. If, instead, he will try to defend him in the dark, the confrontation with Congress will become inevitable. The last days of November may be remembered as the beginning of the reckoning between Trump and the Republican Party.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
