Check out this week’s blog post by IP attorney, author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
This year has begun with a bang, literally. Lots of government-sanctioned violence and gunfire. I’m talking U.S. Government-sanctioned violence and gunfire, and that excludes all the Government-sanctioned gunfire within the borders of the country (but let’s not forget what’s going on domestically).
We started with a military action that abducted the head of a country in Venezuela: Spies, drones, and blowtorches: How the US captured Maduro. The abduction of Maduro was just the start of things to come. Who knew?
The pace of U.S. military involvement in violence is picking up! The U.S. offered intelligence assistance for Mexican authorities to take action against a cartel boss that, in turn, resulted in shootings and additional killings in Mexico: Mexican military kills cartel boss ‘El Mencho’ in US-backed raid | Reuters. It’s easy to be cynical and not believe the U.S.’s claim that it provided only intel support. Given what occurred, it’s just as believable that U.S. DEA or other agency or military assets were on the ground to assist the Mexican authorities.
The U.S. has also intensified a blockade of Cuba: A New U.S. Blockade Is Strangling Cuba – The New York Times. The U.S. action, which sounds similar to one of Iran’s stated objectives, is aimed at regime change. The U.S. has deployed U.S. Coast Guard vessels to enforce the current blockade. Trump has raised the prospect of the U.S. engaging in a “friendly takeover” of Cuba: Trump raises prospect of ‘friendly takeover’ of Cuba, says Rubio in talks | Reuters.
Now, we’re engaged in hostilities with Iran after having obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities last summer. We must obliterate them again because . . . we were lied to then (remember having been lied to about those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq years ago? Remember having been lied to about . . . never mind, lying is par for the course when the U.S. seeks to start wars).
After a few days of bombing our Criminal-in-Chief has said that “Just about everything’s been knocked out:” Trump says ‘everything’s been knocked out’ in Iran but offers no clear plan for war. Nevertheless, we’ll keep bombing all those previously obliterated targets that don’t exist. In retaliation, Iran has struck countries that it sees as assisting the U.S./Israel attacks and has stretched the war zone to the whole of the region and beyond. Perhaps not to be outdone, the U.S. reported the sinking of an Iranian navy vessel in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka: US submarine sinks Iranian warship as war expands | AP News.
And, perhaps while you were absorbed by the news related to what’s going on in Iran and that region of the world, the U.S. has special forces working with Ecuadorean authorities to combat drug traffickers there: US, Ecuadorean forces take action in Ecuador to combat drug trafficking | Reuters.
During the first 70 days of 2026, the U.S. has engaged in more international military “adventures” than many countries would enter into in a decade. We seem to have a bloodthirsty administration intent on satisfying the Criminal-in-Chief’s desire to project his false macho image by using the military to project U.S. power.
Given this Criminal-in-Chief’s transactional way of doing everything, the only question is how many people, regardless of nationality, will have to die in the name of the Trump family’s ultimate financial gain? Neither Trump nor those at the top of this administration have anyone in harm’s way.
For those in the U.S. who think the U.S. is always the white-hatted good guys, think again. How much pain and suffering are innocent people around the world enduring because of our Criminal-in-Chief? How many more lives in the Middle East, South America, Asia and the U.S. will be lost or made more difficult because of his need to use and project power?
While the Criminal-in-Chief and his minions will point fingers at countries around the world as bad guys or dangerous or an imminent threat to the security of the United States, it’s practically impossible to identify another of our adversaries that has engaged in the kind of behavior the U.S. has engaged in around the world. It begs the question: Are we the white hats or the black hats?
There are some real truths here as we see hostile U.S. military activity expanding geographically: No one in the Trump family will serve in uniform and be in harm’s way. Trump and his family will never get a knock at the door informing them about the loss of a loved one. They will never feel the pain of the ultimate loss and sacrifice that his decisions cause. Trump and his family will profit from his bullying of others.
Americans need to stop seeing themselves as the white-hatted good guys of the world and get real. At best, we wear the gray hats because we are also involved in so much global violence.
About the Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector, and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.