J
erome Powell could hardly be more different from Nicolas Maduro. Despite having just been summoned by the US Department of Justice over an obscure case involving renovation work at the headquarters of the Federal Reserve (Fed, the US central bank), the cautious head of the monetary institution faces no risk of ending up in prison like Venezuela's ousted dictator, who was abducted in Caracas on the night of January 2 by American special forces on Donald Trump's orders.
Because each has become an obstacle to two of the president's obsessions – interest rates in Powell's case and Venezuelan oil in Maduro's – both illustrate the systematized abuse of power that now prevails in Washington.
The primacy of force over the law imposes itself everywhere. Since returning to the White House, the interventionist president has stepped up military strikes around the world. The same leader has also deployed the National Guard to patrol major US cities governed by Democrats – starting with the federal capital – even in the absence of significant unrest.
In October 2025, the president did not rule out requisitioning "the Army, Navy, Air Force, [and the] Marines" on US soil. "I can send anybody I wanted," he has often repeated, "and I'd be allowed to do whatever I want."
