Our national anthem calls us to build a nation where every creed and race finds an equal place. That promise not Oz is the destination worth pursuing. Yet the road before us has become increasingly difficult to read. One decision, one alliance, one speech, one headline and one public statement at a time, another brick is laid until suddenly we discover we are no longer asking where the road begins, but where it ends.
My words are not wrapped in diplomatic silk. They are the language of someone trying to reconcile what is unfolding before her eyes with the nation she has loved all her life. I write as a citizen. I write from what I have read, what I have witnessed, what I have observed and what has entered the public record.
The Yellow Brick Road is my allegory because roads are never built in a single day. They are laid one brick at a time. Each brick may appear ordinary by itself, yet there comes a moment when we must step back and recognize that the road has been leading somewhere all along. That is the story I believe Trinidad and Tobago is now telling itself.
The road becomes visible
In recent months, I have watched Trinidad and Tobago move into an increasingly visible strategic relationship with the United States. Military cooperation expanded. Diplomatic engagement deepened. American naval vessels entered our ports for joint exercises and training. Radar and security arrangements became part of the wider regional conversation. Trinidad and Tobago was increasingly presented as a significant partner within the American security architecture of the Caribbean.
Then, during a United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing, Chairman Jim Risch publicly thanked Trinidad and Tobago for what he described as its role in the arrest and extradition of NicolΓ‘s Maduro while discussing the nomination of Jennifer Johnson-Carroll as United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.
Whether one celebrates or questions that relationship is a matter of political judgment. The fact that it was spoken openly in a congressional proceeding is part of the public record.
Chairman Jim Risch β Opening statement, approximately 02:40
βAnd finally, Ms. Carroll, Trinidad and Tobago is a fellow democracy and a key U.S. economic, diplomatic, and security partner in the Caribbean. Trinidad has benefited from and actively participated in U.S. initiatives like the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative. And most recently, Trinidad has played an active role in support of U.S. law enforcement efforts in the region, including the arrest and extradition of NicolΓ‘s Maduro in Venezuela. We are very grateful for this work. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on ways we can deepen our strategic relations with Trinidad if you are confirmed as ambassador.β
Hearing reference: Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing. The relevant opening remarks begin at approximately 00:02:40.
That statement stopped me. It did not arrive through anonymous whispers, partisan speculation or a rum-shop retelling. It was spoken in Washington during the formal introduction of a nominee selected to represent the United States in Trinidad and Tobago.
Politics is often revealed not only by what is declared at home, but by what is spoken without hesitation abroad. When language used in an American congressional hearing appears to reach beyond what citizens understood from their own government, questions are neither unreasonable nor unpatriotic. They become necessary.
The boats, the declarations and the alliance
We cannot separate that hearing from the wider sequence of events. Boats were attacked in Caribbean waters during United States operations described as part of the campaign against suspected drug trafficking. Our Prime Ministerβs public declarationβsupporting violent action against traffickersβwas carried far beyond Trinidad and Tobago and became international news.
Related report: PBS NewsHour report on the Prime Ministerβs reaction to the Caribbean strike and United States anti-trafficking operations.
I watched the posture of our government become increasingly aligned with the hard power and aggressive vocabulary of the Trump administration. I watched Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar become one of the regionβs most emphatic advocates for American intervention against the drug trade by whatever means she considered necessary.
Then came the warships. Then the joint exercises. Then the radar systems. Then NicolΓ‘s Maduro and his wife were removed from Venezuela and transported to the United States to face proceedings in New York. Months later, Maduro remained in American custody while the political temperature in Trinidad and Tobago continued to rise.
These are not imaginary bricks. They are events, public declarations, diplomatic movements and official words. My interpretation lies in asking what they mean when placed alongside one anotherβand where the road they form may be leading us.
What began abroad is now being echoed at home
While international attention has focused on Trinidad and Tobagoβs strategic importance, something equally consequential has been unfolding inside the country. The national conversation has become harder, angrier and more tribal. It is no longer simply political disagreement. To my ears, it increasingly echoes the grievance-driven, accusatory and permanently combative politics that have become familiar under MAGA America.
This is my reading of what I have observed, and I make no apology for saying so. The cadence is recognizable: political opponents described not merely as wrong, but as enemies; accusations repeated until they become the atmosphere; allegations bound together with race, criminality and national loyalty; social media used not simply to communicate, but to provoke, dominate and inflame.
Then came the verified social-media post issued under the Prime Ministerβs official account.
It repeatedly reproduced a racist slur directed at the Prime Minister, alleged that political opponents and members of a βlocal drug mafiaβ intended to weaponize that slur during Emancipation Day celebrations, and anticipated a βround twoβ on Independence Day while returning to the governmentβs declared fight against the drug trade.
Those were not words whispered in a private conversation. They were published under the name and authority of the nationβs highest elected office.
