Well, it’s official: the Department of Government Efficiency, which launched to great fanfare early in Trump’s term but which sputtered to a halt after the departure of Elon Musk, is no more. Reuters reported this weekend that the administration is now acknowledging that the government-slashing group “doesn’t exist” anymore, despite eight months more of designated time left on the clock.

As the Economist’s Mike Bird notes, DOGE exits the stage without leaving a dent in federal spending, which is tracking to end 2025 significantly above 2024 levels. But the DOGE bros can console themselves that they did manage to fire a random assortment of late-career bureaucrats, inflicting immeasurable brain drain on the federal government, and doom an unspeakable number of children and vulnerable people around the world to deaths of disease, thirst, and starvation via their cuts to USAID. Hell of a job, boys. Happy Monday.

Caribbean Twist

by William Kristol

As the Trump administration reportedly plans broader military action against Venezuela, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has arrived in Puerto Rico. Caine will be consulting with Southern Command senior officers and will be visiting some of the 15,000 troops currently in the region.

The New York Times explains, “General Caine’s visit comes as President Trump has approved several measures to pressure Venezuela and prepare for possible military action, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.”

So the Trump administration seems to be moving from blowing up small speedboats in the region that are allegedly transporting drugs, to more direct attempts to topple the Maduro government in Venezuela. As the Times points out, ”The U.S. Navy has routinely been positioning warships near Venezuela’s coast in locations far from the Caribbean’s main drug-smuggling routes.”

On Saturday, the Federal Aviation Administration warned of “worsening security situation and heightened military activity around Venezuela,” leading airlines to cancel flights to and from the country. Also on Saturday a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the president did not rule anything out regarding Venezuela. “President Trump is prepared to use every element of American power” against the Maduro regime, the official said.

There’s one problem: In our constitutional republic, the decision “to use every element of American power” is not supposed to be a decision left simply to the discretion of one man. If we’re intent on using every element of American power, Congress must authorize that use.

But Congress hasn’t authorized it. Congress has barely debated it. Senior officials haven’t briefed key congressional committees privately. Nor have they testified before Congress publicly. And neither the president nor his Cabinet has made a case for war to the American people.

Perhaps they should try making that case. Because while a broader war with Venezuela appears imminent, the public is not on board with it.

A new CBS News poll shows only 24 percent of respondents believing the Trump administration has clearly explained the U.S. position on military action against Venezuela; 76 percent don’t think there’s been a clear explanation. Only 30 percent of the American public favors military action against Venezuela; 70 percent of the American public would oppose it. And three in four Americans—including over half of Republicans—say Trump should get congressional approval before taking military action in Venezuela.

So Donald Trump is seeking to go to war without the authorization of Congress and without the support of the American people. Even leaving aside the dubious merits of the case for this war at this time, deciding to go to war without the support of lawmakers or the public is a recipe for disaster.

Nicolas Maduro is a dictator. We should pursue—as we have been pursuing through actions of our executive and legislative branches—political, diplomatic and economic means to try to help the Venezuelan people remove him. If the president now wants to make the case for the use of military force against him, he can do so.

He hasn’t. And it would be a total abdication of responsibility for Congress to sit by timidly as Trump unilaterally launches an illegal and unauthorized war of choice.