The word’s root goes back to Nazi-occupied Norway, when politician and military man Vidkun Quisling led a puppet government – later coined the Quisling regime – which infamously collaborated with and was propped up by Berlin.

Alongside the Vichy government in France, Quisling was seen as one of Europe’s foremost traitors during WWII, and his surname became a synonym for treason, collaboration with an invading foreign power, and being a powerless or merely de facto leader. Which leads us to our flex.

Using a private US charter plane operated by a Colombian firm instead of a Venezuelan official jet, the unelected and illegitimate “interim president” Delcy Rodriguez visited New York to represent the country at the UN General Assembly in September, where the power dynamics underpinning the Donald-Delcy smackdown were – once again – laid bare before the eyes of the world.

In one of the most yellow-bellied episodes of Venezuela’s recent past, flex after flex from the Orange man on the world’s foremost podium was greeted not with pride, patriotism or protest by Delcy but with slippery silence, subordination and sinister smiles, prompting cringe, shame and nausea in the revolutionary ranks at home.

Delcy’s response to Donald’s speech

One of the most notable moments of Delcy’s visit to the country that bombed Caracas only nine months ago was her reaction to Trump’s audacious UNGA speech, sitting motionless, frozen with an expressionless and hollow gaze as her overlord brazenly attempted to justify the new neocolonial power play: “To the victors belong the spoils,” he flexed out.

But while Trump’s trash talk came as little surprise, Delcy’s dire demeanor did.

Her body language – slumped in her chair eating up word after word of Trump’s rhetoric – reeked of a woman following despicable macho orders to keep quiet, and paled in comparison to the dignified responses of the Cuban delegation (which walked out) or Palestinians and others (who jeered and booed) when confronted with attacks on their national sovereignty in the UN arena.

But Venezuela’s unelected interim President sat motionless, lapping it up without even raising an eyebrow, while her new boss ultra-flexed over his violation of her country’s sovereignty and its right to self-determination; the bombing of Caracas and the kidnapping of Delcy’s boss Nicolas; Venezuela’s military incapacity; Caracas’ right to control its own natural resources; slandering horrendous generalizations about us, the Venezuelan people, to boot.

It’s worth reprinting the Orange Emperor’s comments in full, to understand the extent of the flex and the heinousness of Delcy’s response.

“A lot has happened since we last gathered here one year ago in January. At my direction, the United States military conducted a massive military operation penetrating deep into the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, descended on a heavily defended and fortified military base, one that was supposed to be flawless against attack, and arrested the outlaw dictator, real criminal Nicolas Maduro.

“Since that day, hundreds of Venezuelan political prisoners have been freed. They’ve let them out of jails, and we’re working closely with the leaders of Venezuela to forge a much better future for the Venezuelan people.

Last month, we signed the largest oil deal in history, covering 65 billion barrels of oil, which will benefit both Venezuela and the United States enormously and help drive down the cost of energy all over the world.

“And that is starting to perk right now. It’s coming out. The biggest oil companies in the world are going in, and the numbers are absolutely incredible. When you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60% of the oil in the world. So it’s perhaps the biggest deal.

“It was a war, but it’s perhaps the biggest deal ever made. To the victor belong the spoils. You’ve all heard that our actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to America to gain a foothold anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

“And if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States. As you know, Venezuela had the finest equipment in the world from other countries.

And guess what – it didn’t work. Didn’t even come close to working.

“For decades, other administrations allowed much of this region to be dominated by vicious gangs and bloodthirsty drug cartels, destabilized by uncontrolled migration and infiltrated by hostile foreign adversaries, foreign,  sick, demented adversaries. But not anymore. We are reasserting American power, including American military power, where necessary in our region and around the world, to create a safer future for all of us. It’s happening, and it’s happening quickly.”

Smiles with the invader

Hours later, Delcy once again shocked Venezuelans by beaming alongside the Orange Emperor after their oil-soaked official bilateral meeting.

While she described the meeting as “historic”, Donald called her “wonderful”. It must have been a lovely moment for the two. It had been 27 years since Venezuelan and US leaders last met officially, when a recently elected Hugo Chavez met Bill Clinton on the sidelines of the 1999 UNGA shortly before relations broke down.

While the details of the conversation are yet to come to light, both parties reported talking about topics such as the Great Oil Robbery and elections “sometime”. Only time will tell what other “Great Deals” they made behind the backs of the Venezuelan people in New York.

But the visuals stole the show. The symbolism of Delcy smirking alongside a grinning Donald – the man who ordered the bombing of Caracas, who kidnapped Delcy’s former boss, and who is pillaging Venezuela as if he were a feudal warlord alongside the woman who holds the door open for him – was overpowering, overwhelming, and, let’s be frank, disgusting.

That glow, alongside her UNGA performance, showed there is no resistance from Delcy, no bad feeling, no pushback, just a big, shameful, teeth-filled leer for the cameras (alongside a seemingly confused and back-to-front “V peace” sign her advisors should be sacked over).

Maduro left waiting

It’s a 15.4 km drive from where Delcy sat that day to the Metropolitan Detention Center. You go down FDR Drive, wave ironically to the Statue of Liberty, pass through the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel onto Hamilton Avenue, and arrive in about 24 minutes.

But it seems Delcy didn’t have time to make that trip, busy as she was drooling over her new master’s address. Visiting her “president” and his wife, detained there after their outrageous and illegal extrajudicial kidnapping, clearly wasn’t a priority for her. Meeting the man who kidnapped them was.

Or maybe she didn’t know what to say to Nicolas should she see him? Would she tell him how she is pulling down the “Free Nicolas” posters around the country, how she handed over key witness Alex Saab to US authorities, or how she, her brother, and Diosdado Cabello have cut up the cake of power?

But it seems she also didn’t have time to name Maduro in her UN speech, where many expected her to denounce the bombing of the country and the extrajudicial kidnapping. But no, no comment, quite in line with Donald’s orders, I expect. I wonder if Maduro had her speech live-streamed to his NY prison cell that day so he could see the extent of his VP’s new line firsthand.

International reaction backs Delcy

Beyond the cameras and body language, Delcy’s NY trip served one clear objective: to propel the unelected leader onto the international scene and supercharge recognition of her illegitimate government, all with an eye to attracting large foreign capital to the pillage fest.

In New York, Trump’s allies and Western elites stumbled over each other in a rush to be the first to “congratulate” her and “normalize” the “new” Venezuela. Milei, Abelardo, Noboa, Bukele, Paz, Kast… even the IMF and World Bank joined the parade of circus clowns riding into town on a horse named Trump, unquestioningly hurling Delcy onto the world scene.

All the while, Delcy’s triumvirate buddies back home were on damage control, dressing her NY agenda up as a “dialogue of peace” [with the man who bombed Caracas] and hailing the new “international recognition” [from far-right governments detested by the anti-imperialist left].

But the backlash from NY has not gone away, despite their best manipulative efforts.

Life has become increasingly uncomfortable for Delcy’s backers after her New York theatrics, as they struggle to carry off academic leaps and drive around in conceptual circles to justify her clear and visual subordination to Trump, her meeting with the bomber of Caracas, and the cold shoulder she offered to her former boss whom she left to rot in a NY cell. ‘A gun to her head forced her to smile alongside Trump’, I hear them hysterically scream!

But beyond those who follow their beat and cover their eyes to the material reality, Delcy’s NY stance, her NY agenda, and her NY smile beamed down on the Venezuelan people with repugnant clarity. Her message was certainly not lost here at home, and it was certainly not about having a gun against her head or taking one step back to then take two steps forward, as some stubbornly maintain.

So returning to where we started: what happened to Herr Quisling, I’m sure you’re asking?

Well, once the dependent relationship with Berlin that kept him in power fell apart, once his overlord Hitler was out of the picture, he was unable to stand alone and was arrested for his crimes. He was put on trial and charged with embezzlement, murder, and high treason in post-war Norway, where he was sentenced to death and executed by firing squad in Oslo on October 24, 1945: a calamitous fall from grace for a calamitous politician. Good riddance, and a lesson that modern-day Quislings would do well to heed.