Why did Trump take Venezuela's money?

And this bring us back to the bizarre spectacle of this economically desperate country helping to fund Mr Trump’s inauguration festivities. Like Joe Kennedy II, the Trump organisers can plead that if Venezuela wants to spend its money on making life better for its much richer northern neighbour, who are they to say no? Well, in both cases, the US should have said no: While the aid is transparent, the symbolism of a rich country taking money from a poor neighbour with millions of suffering people is hardly attractive. And it is particularly bizarre that even as US policy toward Mexico has greatly increased the chances of an anti-American Chávez-type character becoming president there, officials are providing positive publicity to a government that is a caricature of disastrous governance. More…