While the media spent the last six weeks arguing about pronouns and writing fan fiction about impeachment, the Trump administration pulled off one of the most significant nuclear nonproliferation operations in recent memory — removing all enriched uranium from a Maduro-controlled research reactor and shipping it to the United States for processing. You're welcome, planet Earth.
But sure, let's hear more about what Trump said on Truth Social. That's definitely more important than keeping weapons-grade nuclear material out of the hands of a socialist dictator.
The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration announced on May 8 that a multinational team successfully extracted 13.5 kilograms — roughly 30 pounds — of uranium enriched above the 20 percent threshold from Venezuela's RV-1 reactor. The entire operation took under six weeks. Six weeks to remove a nuclear proliferation threat from one of the most hostile regimes in the Western Hemisphere.
Let that sink in for a second. Nicolás Maduro is sitting on a collapsing economy, propping up his regime with Cuban intelligence officers and Russian arms deals, and he had enriched uranium just sitting in a research facility. Nothing to worry about, right? Just a brutal authoritarian with a persecution complex and fissile material. Totally fine.
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Except it's not fine, which is exactly why the Trump Energy Department moved on it. The uranium was transported to the United States for processing and reuse — meaning not only did we eliminate the threat, we're actually putting the material to productive use. That's the kind of efficiency you get when adults are running the show.
Now here's the part that should make your blood boil. This story got virtually zero coverage from the mainstream press. None. A sitting president's administration executes a flawless nuclear extraction operation from a hostile nation in under six weeks, and the networks couldn't be bothered to break away from their regularly scheduled programming of "Orange Man Bad."
Imagine if Obama had done this. We'd already have the Netflix documentary in pre-production. CNN would be running a twelve-part series called "The Caracas Extraction" with dramatic reenactments and Wolf Blitzer whispering into the camera about "a defining moment for American leadership."
But Trump did it, so it's buried on page nine.
The NNSA deserves credit here — this wasn't some bureaucratic paper-shuffling exercise. This was a real-world operation involving coordination across multiple nations to physically remove dangerous nuclear material from a country that has no business possessing it. The 20 percent enrichment threshold matters because above that level, uranium becomes significantly more useful for weapons development.
And Maduro just had it sitting there. In Venezuela. A country whose citizens are eating zoo animals to survive while their dictator does salsa dances on state television.
This is what competence looks like. No press conferences. No victory laps. No breathless cable news coverage. Just quiet, lethal efficiency from an administration that actually takes national security seriously.
Six weeks. All the enriched uranium. Out of Venezuela. Done. And now you know about it — no thanks to the media.