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The President's Daily Brief
December 31st, 2025: CIA Carries Out Drone Strike Inside Venezuela & Russian Society Is Starting to Fall Apart
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Plus, Saudi Arabia bombs a Yemeni port city after a weapons shipment from the uae, exposing a deepening rift between the two key Gulf allies. And in today's back of the brief, a 21 year old Texas man faces terrorism charges for allegedly supplying bomb making materials to isis. But first, today's PDB spotlight. The US has now confirmed that it carried out a strike inside Venezuela, reportedly destroying a port facility or dock facility linked to drug trafficking. This was according to what details are currently available, and there's not many of them. Not a conventional military operation. According to an exclusive report from cnn, the strike was not conducted by the US Military at all, but by the Central Intelligence Agency. Sources familiar with the operation confirmed that the CIA carried out the COVID drone attack targeting a remote port facility along Venezuela's coast. U.S. officials believe the facility was being used by the gang Trent or TDA to store drugs and then load them onto boats for export to America's shores. No one was reportedly present at the site at the time of this strike, according to the sources, and no casualties were reported. The facility itself and the boats associated with it were again reportedly destroyed. Now, using the intelligence community, meaning the CIA instead of military forces, does signal a different kind of operation. The US Military's legal authority in Venezuela has largely been limited to counter narcotic actions at sea, not strikes on land inside the country. The CIA, however, operates under a different set of authorities than the US Military authorities. The Trump administration has expanded and leaned on as it increasingly cast Venezuela linked trafficking networks as a national security threat rather than purely a criminal one. So in that context, the CIA strike looks less like a one off and more like a perhaps test case deliberately contained. Quiet. Well, quiet until the president talked about it, and structured in a way that allows Washington to see what follows follows from Caracas as much as what was destroyed. And so far, what's followed is strikingly muted. Venezuela has not publicly acknowledged the strike, even as it has routinely denounced US Interdictions and seizures and maritime pressure as violations of its sovereignty. Regional governments have also remained notably silent despite public resistance to any overt US Military action tied to Venezuela. Now that silence matters, particularly given the broader campaign unfolding under Operation Southern Spear. That campaign, as we've long discussed here on the pdb, centers on Washington's expanding counternarcotics buildup across the Caribbean, although the larger context appears to be the removal of Maduro. After all, it's hard to paint this as just a counternarcotics or narco terrorism operation after President Trump posted on social media that pressure won't let up until Venezuela returns the oil and land that it stole from the US over the past several months, the Trump administration has dramatically expanded US Naval patrols, aerial surveillance and maritime interdictions across the region. As you're aware, US Forces have been striking boats along known smuggling routes in international waters and imposing a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela. This week, that tally grew after US Forces struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific that the military said was engaged in drug smuggling, killing two people and bringing the total number of boat strikes to at least 30. With at least one hundred and seven deaths reported since September by the Trump administration. The White House has framed those actions as counter narcotics. But senior administration officials have also made clear that the campaign is being viewed through a wider lens. Washington has repeatedly described Venezuela not simply as a failed state, but as a hub for what it calls narco terrorism, explicitly linking Venezuelan drug trafficking networks to the Maduro regime. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has compared Venezuela's drug traffickers to Al Qaeda, signaling that the tools and logic of counterterrorism are increasingly being applied to criminal networks in the region. Seen through that framework, the CIA strike appears less about the destruction of a dock or small warehouse and more about testing a model, one that blends covert action and strategic ambiguity. We'll provide updates as more details become available. Alright. Coming up next, new reporting shows Russia's war is straining society at home. While Saudi airstrikes in Yemen expose a growing rift with the uae. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. 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Welcome back to the PDB. I wanted to take a look at some great reporting from the Washington Post, which gained unusual access inside Russia. Post reporters spoke with Russian soldiers and volunteers and officials as the war grinds towards its fourth year. It shows that in many ways Russian society is starting to fall apart. Not in a dramatic collapse, but not all at once, but in ways that are becoming increasingly difficult for the Kremlin to control or even to conceal. One wounded soldier, a young man named Fyodor, had lost his lower leg to a mine. Just days earlier. He said something simple and revealing, telling a reporter, quote, I would never have signed a contract if I'd known what it's like out there, our television is lying to us. End quote. That line gets at the heart of the problem facing the Kremlin. According to Western intelligence estimates, more than a million Russian fighters have been killed or wounded since the invasion began. Many of those losses came in slow, grinding battles for marginal gains, territory that offers little strategic value but enormous human cost. Inside Russia, there's no honest public accounting for that toll. Casualties are downplayed, losses are abstracted, and frustration has no legitimate outlet. That pressure doesn't dissipate, it builds. You can see it most clearly in Russia's border regions in cities like Belgorod, where drone attacks are routine. Air defense units race through civilian streets, and volunteer networks work around the clock to supply troops with food and clothing and equipment, often filling gaps left by the state. And there's growing resentment. Volunteers and residents there describe a widening divide between the regions absorbing the war's impact and the major cities, particularly Moscow, where daily life feels largely untouched. The sense is that those paying the price are increasingly invisible to those far from the front. Russian sociologists even have a term for this now. They call it warring Russia. It refers to roughly 20% of the population soldiers, their families, defense industry workers, and patriotic volunteers who see the war as existential and unavoidable. The rest of the country falls somewhere between passive loyalty, quiet opposition, or withdrawal into private life. That split creates strain. Wars become harder to sustain when the burden is unevenly shared and openly felt by only a small minority. The Kremlin understands that risk, and it's responding in a familiar way by spending heavily to buy loyalty and stability. Returning soldiers receive generous compensation packages, pensions, free transportation, tax benefits, guaranteed employment, education opportunities for their children, even free land. In some regions, veterans are elevated, socially and politically presented as the moral core of the nation. In fact, researchers studying Russian survey data have found that in some economically depressed regions, reported life satisfaction has actually increased during the war, largely because military spending and defense production have injected money into those local economies. Now that effect is real, and it helps explain why the system hasn't cracked outright. But it's also fragile, because beneath the benefits and public praise is a growing concern that the Kremlin rarely acknowledges openly what happens when large numbers of traumatized soldiers return home for good? Many are dealing with severe post traumatic stress. Some were recruited directly from prisons in exchange for their freedom. And in several cases, already returning fighters have gone on to commit violent crimes. Even Kremlin insiders quietly admit that regional leaders expect serious social problems ahead and that they'll be responsible for managing them. At the Same time, repression inside Russia is widening. Initially, the crackdown focused on liberal activists and journalists and opposition figures. But as we've previously reported here on the pdb, even staunchly pro war voices are being targeted. Ultra nationalist military bloggers, once a backbone of online support for Putin's invasion, have been labeled foreign agents or extremists after criticizing corruption or incompetence within the system. Loyalty, it turns out, only extends so far. And increasingly the state is focusing on the young. In St. Petersburg, 218 year old street musicians were arrested after performing anti war songs. Their official charge was minor, but the real issue was that they reminded people of a normal, open public life that no longer exists. When music becomes a threat, you could argue that it's a sign the system feels insecure. Now, it's important to say this clearly. Prolonged war places immense strain on any society. Obviously, Ukraine is almost certainly experiencing many of these same pressures. Exhaustion, trauma, social disruption. The difference is that Ukraine didn't choose this war. Russia did all right. Turning to the Gulf, a long simmering dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE boiled over as Saudi warplanes struck Yemen's port city of Makala, targeting what the kingdom described as weapons shipments sent to separatist forces with Emirati backing. Riyadh says the strike focused on a shipment that arrived from an Emirati port and was bound for the Southern Transitional Council, or the stc, which is a UAE backed separatist faction that has made rapid territorial gains in eastern Yemen in recent days. Saudi officials describe the shipment as a, quote, imminent threat. As for the stc, it has sought to establish an independent South Yemen. And though it opposes the Iranian backed Houthis, it's repeatedly found itself in clashes with Saudi backed Yemeni government forces fracturing the anti Houthi coalition. And so for Saudi Arabia, this was not just about a single weapons shipment or limited tactical strike. The deeper concern is that the UAE backed separatist advances are edging closer to the kingdom's borders, something that Riyadh has labeled a national security red line. The confrontation now risks opening a new front in Yemen's long running war, not between the Saudi led coalition and the Iranian back Houthis, but among forces that have nominally been fighting on the same side. This week's flare up also lays bare how far relations between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have drifted after years of quiet divergence over oil policy and regional influence and control of key Red Sea routes as two countries that once coordinated closely have increasingly pursued competing strategies across the region. In a statement from the Saudi Press Agency, Riyadh said vessels arriving in Mokalla disabled their tracking systems before unloading weapons and combat vehicles in support of the stc. Saudi aircraft then carried out what the kingdom described as a limited airstrike, targeting the offloaded material. As of now, there are no reports of casualties. But the UAE rejected the accusation that it shipped weapons, saying the vehicles were instead intended for Emirati forces operating in Yemen and insisting Saudi Arabia had prior knowledge of the shipment. Abu Dhabi then called for, quote, restraint and wisdom and urged greater coordination to prevent further escalation. But just hours later, the Emirati Defense Ministry announced it would withdraw its remaining troops from Yemen, citing recent developments and concerns about the safety of counterterrorism operations. And while the UAE had largely drawn down its forces years earlier, the movement, a period aimed at easing a standoff that was rapidly intensifying, it remains unclear whether the STC will relinquish territory that it seized with Emirati backing. Inside Yemen, the response and impact was immediate. Anti Houthi forces aligned with Saudi Arabia, but not with the separatists, declared a state of emergency, ended cooperation with the UAE and imposed temporary closures of border crossings, airports and seaports under their control. That breakdown now puts added pressure on Yemen's fragile presidential Leadership Council. That's the Saudi backed body meant to hold together the country's divided anti Houthi factions, raising questions about whether it can survive the split. For now, the UAE troop withdrawal may cool tensions. The deeper question, though is whether Abu Dhabi will continue to politically or militarily back the stc. All right, coming up in today's Back of the Brief, your regular reminder that the ISIS threat is a global issue as a Texas man is accused of trying to help the group. We'll have the details. Hey, Mike Baker here with a message from our friends at Birch Gold Group. Now, did you know, here's some interesting news. 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That's why I urge you to consider diversifying into gold with the Birch Gold Group. Text PDB to 989-898 right now to claim your free information kit on gold. Again, that's PDB to 989898 protect your future Today with Birch Gold. I usually ask potential criminals to have a seat, but now I'm asking you to join me, Chris Hansen for my new series have a Seat with Chris Hansen. Guests each week are fascinating personalities who are grabbing headlines, making waves or changing our lives for the better. Have a Seat with Chris Hansen. Available wherever you get your podcast. In today's Back of The brief, a 21 year old Texas man didn't just consume ISIS propaganda, he acted on it, allegedly delivering bomb making materials and money to undercover officers that he believed were helping the terror group carry out attacks. It started the way that many terrorism investigations now do, and that would be online. In mid October, an undercover New York City Police Department employee working as part of a broader national counterterrorism effort flagged a social media account that federal authorities believe belonged to John Michael Garza Jr. After noticing repeated engagement with pro ISIS content. Investigators say Garza wasn't just browsing, he followed extremist accounts, interacted with their material, and used private messages to express support for the terror group. That online activity quickly escalated over the following two months. Prosecutors alleged that Garza sent official ISIS propaganda to the undercover officer, including videos of suicide bombings and step by step, instructions for building explosive devices. Federal officials say those exchanges marked a shift from ideological sympathy to terror preparation. During that same period, Gaza also allegedly sent small amounts of cryptocurrency, believing the funds would be used to purchase firearms and support ISIS operations. Investigators say the transfers were not incidental, but part of a broader effort to materially assist the terror group and advance its mission. That trajectory ended on 22 December, according to a federal criminal complaint. Garza was arrested shortly after meeting with an undercover FBI agent and he referred to as a ISIS brother. Garza allegedly handed over bomb making components to the agent, explained how to mix the chemicals, and provided detailed instructions for assembling a shrapnel packed device recommending the addition of nails to maximize casualties. Federal officials say the evidence shows Garza believed he was directly supporting ISIS and intended to help carry out violent attacks. If convicted of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Attorney General Bam Bondi said the case reflects the Trump administration's approach to disrupting terrorist threats before they turn deadly. She said, quote, isis's poisonous ideology must be ripped out, root and stem. Anyone who tries to commit violence on ISIS's behalf will be found, arrested and prosecuted, end quote. FBI Director Cash Patel said the charges underscore ongoing efforts to stop terror plots before they reach the public, calling the case an example of how investigators work to disrupt extremist activity at its earliest stages. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Wednesday, 31st December. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out at PDB@the first tv.com and the entire team at the President's Daily Brief wishes you a very safe and happy and successful 2026. It's been an amazing year, and we very much appreciate you being a part of the PDB community. Thank you. I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. 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