(Ret.) Col Chris Wyatt - Ramaphosa continues to taunt Trump - despite Maduro raid

In his latest interview with Chris Steyn, US Intelligence Analyst retired Colonel Chris Wyatt gives the assurance that the US is not likely to invade South Africa. However, he has some words of warning for President Cyril Ramaphosa - who doubled down today on his condemnation of the US invasion of Venezuela. ”(President Nicolás ) Maduro was given multiple opportunities to exit the stage… But he ratched up the pressure. He became arrogant and obstinate. And I can look around the world and see only a couple of other leaders doing the same sort of thing, being arrogant and obstinate in the face of the Bear, in the face of danger, imminent danger that might be coming your way: (Colombian President) Gustavo Petro, whose term is coming to an end, and a certain politician in a certain part of Southern Africa doing the same thing. Not wise moves…” Col Wyatt further warns that the Maduro raid “ought to send a very clear message to people who conspire with Iranian cell phone companies to funnel money to terrorists that murdered American Service members, five lawsuits…anti-terrorism in the United States against MTN, and for countries that allow their helicopters to be shipped to warlords in Libya, and for countries that allow their citizens to become mercenaries to murder Ukrainians. That ought to be a clear message to someone like that…” Col Wyatt also looks into the geopolitical future of Iran, Cuba, and Greenland in the wake of the latest dramatic developments..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interviews.Chris Steyn (00:01.959)United States President Donald Trump seems to be on a mission to remake the world order. I speak to US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt. Morning, Colonel.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:16.408)Good morning Chris wow gosh we have t quit meeting like this; every time I turn around something monumental has happened; wow the year started with a bang literally, didn't it?Chris Steyn (00:27.165)Well, is Venezuela just the first domino to fall, or what is President Trump's end game?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:34.936)While the media is gleefully jumping on this topic around the world and saying, next is Greenland and Cuba and Iran. Well, Iran has always been on that Bingo List. That's always been a target for the United States since 1979. Quite frankly, it's always shocked me that we haven't gone in and overthrown this regime. You know, a few years ago when Obama was in office, people rose up and the government slaughtered protesters while Obama did nothing and the U.S. did nothing. But Iran is on the verge of collapsing itself with demonstrations and in major cities throughout the country, popular resistance rising to the regime. But it's quite a powerful regime from a standpoint of internal policing. So I don't know that it's going to fall, but it might get a push from the United States. So it could be a domino.Cuba itself is on the verge of collapse. It no longer has Venezuela to prop it up for the entire Cold War. The Soviet Union kept the Cubans from starving to death and armed and equipped them and backed them at international fora. And then when Russia stopped supplying them after the Soviet Union ended, Venezuela became their patron. Well, Venezuela is no longer there to provide them with that resource. So, Cuba will likely descend into chaos possibly in the next couple of years. The people are unhappy there. They've always been unhappy. But of course, they're yapping like the little dog barking at the neighbour trying to get his attention, the Chihuahua barking at the big pit bull. And are there other dominoes? Well, Greenland is one the press is talking about, but I wouldn't hold my breath on Greenland. This is just, in my view, in Trump’s…He’s trying to get the Danes to do their job and protect Greenland and protect the Arctic sea lanes, which they've been negligent at. I find it hilarious too to see the Danes talk about, it's up to the people. It's our sovereign territory. No, you're colonisers. That's not part of Denmark. You might have missed it, but Denmark is further away from Greenland than the United States is. It's in our backyard. It's kind of like St. Pierre McGill, the last French colonial outpost in North America off the coast of Canada. This is the last Danish. colonial outpost, colonial power. The Vikings are still holding onto Greenland, even though there's almost no Vikings there. Yeah, I think that quite frankly that it might be the first of many dominoes. And by the way, I guess we shouldn't neglect this since this is a South African news programme. What about South Africa? Boy, I'll tell you, it's good news for South Africa that contrary to the rantings of many of its politicians and its legacy media,Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (02:53.976)South Africa doesn't matter to the United States. It's not being targeted by the United States. There's no aggressive action except excluding South Africa from the G20 this year. What’s been done to South Africa? nothing. All the abusive, aggressive behaviour has been coming from South Africa's politicians. And we saw it yet again today as Cyril Ramaphosa doubled down and says, we categorically reject the United States, what it did in Venezuela. Well, good luck with that. You're a sovereign state, but actions have consequences.Chris Steyn (03:20.445)Well, it has not only been President Cyril Ramaphosa who has condemned and slammed President Trump's strike; others have as well, although some have apologised and retracted. What did you make of the rest of them?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (03:40.172)Well, it's what I expect to see. I expect to Fikile Mbalula and Ronald Lamola and DIRCO say silly things… all say things to get attention. At one point, I presume that much of this was for domestic audience because it plays well with a certain segment of the voting population in South Africa in a desperate attempt to call back support for this failing political movement that has proven to be an abysmal political ruling party like most liberation movements. I thought that's what the purpose was for domestic consumption. And then another point, it seemed like part of it was to please their paymasters in Tehran and Beijing and Moscow. But now what they're doing is just drawing attention to themselves needlessly. This empty virtue signaling effort to, we demand that the UN Security Council immediately meet and take action. Really? There's five permanent Security Council members with a veto. That's gonna go nowhere.I really don't, you know, again, back to the famous words of Neil De Beer. When I met with him a few months before he passed last year, Neil and I were sitting there and I said, Neil, I'm trying to sort this out. You know, what are they up to? It doesn't make any sense. They're working against their own interests at a time when they should be quiet. They're boisterous. Every time they should speak up, they're quiet. They're acting against the interest of democracy and they're talking about how they stand with people. Are they just cutting their own throats or are they just that dumb? And he said, Chris. I know these people, they're just that dumb. Well, I don't know if it's that, it may be part of it, but certainly they're acting against their own interest. And as comical listeners hear our own policy, we stand with the people of Venezuela. Yeah, well, they're cheering in the streets for the removal of Maduro. So who exactly are you standing with? The tyrants and the political party and the socialists that have destroyed that country? Okay, we see where you're coming from.Chris Steyn (05:24.393)Colonel, do you know whether any link has been identified between South Africa and Venezuela drug traffickers?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (05:33.102)Well, that is a very interesting question, Chris, one that there's been a great deal of speculation about… for several years here. Now, I can't confirm anything… Most of the drug trafficking that would come from Latin America going to Africa transits through West Africa and on its way to Europe.… So the end destination, much of that drug traffic is Europe. Some drugs make it from Latin America to South Africa, whether Venezuela is the culprit or complicit in some fashion isn't something that's publicly available for the most part. But it seems reasonable given their pervasive role in drug trafficking, they would at least play some role in funneling some drugs to South Africa.Chris Steyn (06:16.681)So there has been so much speculation about all the possible agendas of President Donald Trump. What do you say? What is his strategy and his end game?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (06:26.84)WellColonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (06:30.286)That's again another good question. Boy, got me, you cornered me here with good questions today. There's many schools of thought when it comes to international relations. When we teach International Relations theory, we talk about liberalism and realism. And of course there's a…gentle philosophy called constructivism. And constructivism is the concept of ideas and norms and mores and how they're common. And that's the argument that goes in lockstep with the concept of liberalism, which believes in the value of multilateral institutions and State cooperation. But the problem is that there's been an effort for the past 30 years since the end of the Cold War to claw away at the sovereignty of sovereign states. It's comical to listen to Cyril Ramphosa talk about how we're a sovereign state, yet they subjugate themselves to the interests of rogue states like China and Iran and Russia.In addition, they talk about multilateral institutions. In order to be a participant in multilateral institution, you must surrender sovereignty, give sovereignty away, and you must obey the rules that someone else makes. And the perfect example of this mess is the European Union, where people have revolted in Europe over Brussels, well-paid, rich, Blue Light escort, fat cats living in Brussels, disconnected from farmers living in Bavaria or from sheep herders in Scotland, making decisions about how they should live their lives or how many fish they're allowed to catch or whether allowed to grow wheat or not, or what size the plugs are that go into the mains for their outlets. They're tired of it and they've been tired of it the outset. But Ramaphosa talks about sovereignty at the same time. He wants to surrender sovereignty to multilateral institutions. The bottom line is this, and it may hurt people's feelings, and I don't say this in malicious way, and I'm not saying it in a bossal way, but the reality is what it's always been. It has always been a world full of realism when it comes to international relations. We have sovereign states, but as Thucydides said in the On Peloponnesian War in the Malian Dialogue, the strong do what they want, the weak will suffer what they must. And unlike, or just like the Malians who are wiped out by the Athenians, destroyed, enslaved, taken away from the island and turned into a Greek colony, small states can yap all they want. Multilateral institutions have no value, no merit whatsoever, unless and until the big boys surrender their sovereignty. And the perfect example of this is the Paris Climate Accord.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (08:50.99)The Paris Climate Accord was signed by all these countries and it was supposed to lower emissions. That's a farce to begin with, but let's pretend that was actually something genuine. The United States under Barack Obama signed the treaty, but that has no bearing whatsoever. Presidents don't sign treaties. Treaties are signed by the Senate. They must be ratified by the Senate. Therefore, it was never ratified by Democratic-controlled or Republican-controlled Senate, and we were never a member of the Paris Climate Accord. Yet Trump has been pillared for leaving it. We were never in it. He just did it for grandstanding, saying we left but we were never in it. The thing about the Paris Climate Accord is China is a member. China now burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, polluting the planet. It is now the world's largest polluter with twice as much pollution as the United States, a country with nearly double its GDP and one fifth of its population. China is a major aggressor. China has ignored the International Court of Justice decision on the nine dash line because it doesn't agree with it. So where is South Africa condemning China's ignorance of the International Criminal Court of justice ruling against it. You see, the big boys do what they want. When the rules apply and they meet their needs, they adhere to them. When they don't, they ignore them. And it's no different for the United States. The United States is now exercising its sovereignty in a way that it hasn't done since the Cold War. It's, in my view, long overdue. And as a consequence, the United States has retreated from the world of realism and from asserting its sovereignty when and where necessary. The world has fallen into chaos in no small measure. That is a consequence of United States withdrawal. And we see what's happening here. The Europeans are weak. They've been weak for 80 years. They destroyed themselves. The cream and flour of their best DNA wiped out in the battlefields of Ardennes and the trenches of World War I. And if that wasn't enough, as they recovered, they wiped out the best of their DNA in the second round of World War II and brought the whole world into a conflagration. Europeans are weak. They have no strength. Without the United States, they would have been Russian clients for decades. Asia is not entirely…Japan is a strong nation, South Korea is a strong nation, the Philippines a relatively strong nation, Vietnam a strong independent nation. But the world needs someone to remind folks that, hey, there's a new sheriff in town. And Donald Trump, in my view, is reasserting a traditional American role since America came on the world stage at the turn of the 20th century, when we built the Panama Canal and when they engaged with the Spanish in the Spanish American War and wound up…Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (11:14.606)…having the Philippines and Puerto Rico and places like that. Ever since that event in 1898, the United States had been a global player. And now Donald Trump is no longer taking this ridiculous foreign policy that we have and just, you know, listening to others who have no strength and can assert no authority. And if you are not impressed by, not you, Chris, but the world, not impressed by what was accomplished in a raid on a sovereign nation in the middle of the night with no casualties, shutting down every air defense system, every communication system. The Venezuelans didn't even know Maduro was gone until he was gone. They didn't even what was happening. This is incredibly powerful. And that ought to send a very clear message to people who conspire with Iranian cell phone companies to fund money to terrorists that murdered American service members, five lawsuits, anti-terrorism in the United States against MTN, and for countries that allow their helicopters to be shipped to warlords in Libya, and for countries that allow their citizens to become mercenaries to murder Ukrainians.That ought to be a clear message to someone like that. I'm just saying.Chris Steyn (12:17.673)President Trump has done things that most people never thought he would do, and that he was just bluffing, including Venezuela's president, apparently. Is he capable of invading South Africa?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (12:35.442)No, Chris, I don't think that's in the cards. I don't think we're going to ever invade South Africa, but Ramaphosa won't be president for much longer. His time will be up. Much like the blustering, arrogant president of Columbia, Gustavo Petra, who has said, come get me if you dare, if you want to put orange pajamas on me. Well, I think Maduro said the same thing, Gustavo. He'll also be out of office by August, but no, I don't see a U.S. invasion of South Africa. I would certainly hope not. But I am telling you that There are serious efforts afoot to pursue these lawsuits and there will be consequences. You know, it's interesting to see that Julius Malema ran his mouth an awful lot and threatened the life of the President of United States last year on Twitter. Well, he was suddenly rejected when he tried to go to the UK. He blamed it on colonialism and racism, but frankly, the United Kingdom did him and the world a favour. If he had gone to the United Kingdom, I strongly believe, I have no evidence, but I strongly believe there is a sealed indictment for his arrest. The Secret Service and Department Justice do not look lightly upon people who threaten the President of United States. And so there may be a sealed indictment. If he'd gone to the UK, there's a very good chance he would have been extradited to the United States. That would have been a serious issue. So it's probably best for all concerned that Juju is in South Africa. And that may be surrounding Ramaphosa in future. After he leaves office, he may not be able to go anywhere. I don't know. It's just, it's without more information from the court cases and what comes out of it, maybe he's innocent. I mean, you know, maybe it's perfectly okay to hide $580,000 US dollar stuffed in a couch in your game ranch and avoid Customs and Immigration and violate SARS regulations.I mean, that's perfectly okay according to South Africa’s Parliament. So I guess what he's doing is okay. Now I think that Trump is a person who surprised everybody, including me, it's just how forceful he's been. But when you look at it objectively, Trump is 79 years old. He believes America has been on the wrong path for 30 or 40 years and something needs to be done. He has a limited amount of time. He had a plan, he had four years to build a plan, and you can almost see it like a playbook. Day one, these are the actions. Day two, keep people off guard. Day three. Day four. And even the tariffs, which people are freaking out over. Well, we now have more favorable trade conditions with Switzerland and a number of other countries which are allowing US goods to flow into those countries which were previously blocked. Yet South Africa continues to impose tariffs on our poultry in the midst of a poultry shortage in South Africa. South Africa continues to put quotas on our automobiles in the midst of an invasion and flood of Chinese automobiles into South Africa, unconstrained.Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (14:57.422)South Africa continues to ban our pork products, an aggressive stance against the United States in clear violation of World Trade Organisation rules. But hey, hey, actions have consequences. South Africa is a sovereign state. They can do what they like.Chris Steyn (15:10.943)Colonel, does President Trump write his own playbook or is there somebody who can tell him what to do? Does somebody have a hold over him?Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (15:20.098)Well, there's lots of speculation. I have a viewer who thinks that Bibi Netanyahu controls Donald Trump. No, I have others who think that Russia controls Donald Trump. Yet every time they say these silly things, we see just this past week that Donald Trump has twice rebuked Israel for its actions, for its plans. He's also rebuked Russia for its claim that Ukraine had actually targeted the residence of Putin, said that's not true. So he doesn't stand with those folks.No, nobody controls Trump, not even Melania. I mean, he would pick different ties I think if Melania was one picking his ties, but, but no, nobody controls Trump. He's not anybody's puppet. And I think it's hilarious when people try to claim that. Here's the thing, the Maduro raid. Trump was against it. He didn't want to do it as late as five or six months ago when Marco Rubio, who was the Hawk, of course; he's the son of Cuban immigrants who fled Cuba under communist oppression. And he grew up in America. Now he's the Secretary of State, was a Senator and was Trump's opponent. In the first election 2016, remember he called him Little Marco. He belittled Marco Rubio. Now he's the most powerfulSecretary of State in some time. Rubio has been pushing for the U.S. to actually go and take him down and get rid of him to relieve the pressure on the people of Venezuela. And Trump said no. He shut that conversation down. He allowed the planning to go forward. We allow planning for a lot. Right now we're planning all kinds of things. Who knows? Maybe somebody's planning a raid of SEAL Team Six to greet Cyril Ramaphosa in his pajamas. Who knows? I don't know.But right now there's a military operation being planned somewhere about something. That's what military planners do. And so this operation was planned for five months in the final stages. Trump allowed the plan to go ahead. But just like what would have been the invasion of Haiti, under Clinton, we had airborne troops in C-130s flying from Fort Bragg, from … Air Force Base to Haiti. They were less than an hour from jumping out of planes to invade Haiti when they were told, stand down, just land the planes and turn around, come back. So operations that wouldn't necessarily be pulled.Trump was opposed to this. He didn't want to do this. Much like in my view, Iran. He only did Iran out of necessity. And he did this out of necessity in his view. It was time for this. So Maduro was given multiple opportunities to exit the stage. The Trump administration tried to bribe him to relieve the pressure and oppression of the Venezuelan people. Hey, you can go live in a Caribbean island. We'll leave you alone. We'll forget about the indictments. But he ratched up the pressure. He became arrogant and obstinate. And I can look around the world and see only aColonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (17:41.666)couple of other leaders doing the same sort of thing, being arrogant and obstinate in the face of the bear, in the face of danger, imminent danger that might be coming your way. Gustavo Petro, whose term is coming to an end, and a certain politician in a certain part of Southern Africa doing the same thing. Not wise moves, to say the least.Chris Steyn (18:00.863)Thank you. That was US intelligence analyst Colonel Chris Wyatt speaking to business. I'm Chris Steyn.

(Ret.) Col Chris Wyatt - Ramaphosa continues to taunt Trump - despite Maduro raid

Related Stories

Rob Hersov: The small municipality that fixed itself — a blueprint to rescue South Africa

(Ret) Col Chris Wyatt - Ramaphosa’s "Watergate", Trump’s ceasefire “farce” - and racist abuse of SA refugees…

BN Daybreak - Wed 6 May 2026: Trump pauses Hormuz mission; Oil prices retreat; AI Scam defiance; SA fuel hikes

(Ret.) Col Chris Wyatt: War news, fuel price hike — and the ANC facing its worst ever election