PARIS — Here we go again. Another round of “maximum pressure” against the leader of a country that won’t bend the knee to Washington. And this time, they’re letting the American public think that they can actually play along for a cash prize. What could possibly go wrong?

As always with Washington publicity stunts, it seems legit before anyone actually reads the fine print. And who’s going to bother doing that when the Trump administration is offering a $50 million reward for “information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Nicolas Maduro”?

The title “President of Venezuela” is totally absent from the State Department’s announcement, because Maduro “failed to present any evidence that he had prevailed” in last year’s presidential election, they say. Never mind that he currently occupies the presidential palace, which is more than can be said for any handpicked puppets plucked out of the Venezuelan opposition and paraded around by Washington with the label “Interim President” — until they realize that Venezuelans aren’t buying their propaganda.

Washington already had a $25 million bounty on Maduro, and even that wasn’t enough to get the job done. Probably because the job itself is impossible. What exactly are they even asking for? They want folks to tell them where Maduro is? Pretty sure that’s public information. You want someone to lasso him up and deliver him to you like in an old-school Hollywood Wild West movie? That’s illegal.

American citizens aren’t actually allowed to just go around overthrowing heads of state, lest they end up having to study Oliver North’s on-camera posturing from the Iran-Contra hearings for their own congressional testimony.

You need a government permit to hunt certain species of animal — and that applies to big-game world leaders, too. So when the effort ultimately fails, and lawmakers start demanding to know who authorized the dumpster fire, any attempt at deploying contractors for plausible deniability blows back into the face of the U.S. government.

Just ask Jordan Goudreau — a former Green Beret who claimed to have the blessing of the first Trump administration to eject Maduro shortly after it had authorized a $25 million bounty for him.

Goudreau ended up being charged last year for weapons violations in an alleged attempt to stage a coup against Maduro from neighboring Colombia. Charged by the same Justice Department now appearing to encourage mercenarial freelancing.

You’d think they would have gone, “Geez, maybe we should be careful about what we put out there and encourage, since there are clearly some wing- dings who risk taking our self-serving regime change PR a bit too seriously.” Instead, they’ve joined the State Department in doubling the bounty. There isn’t even a disclaimer on the press release saying, “For entertainment and promotional purposes only. Don’t be stupid. Do we really have to spell it out to you that this isn’t legal?” Yes, you do, apparently.

So why do they want Maduro so badly, anyway? If any Americans ultimately decide, after a night of drinking with their pals, to mount a militarized game of “The Amazing Race: Caracas,” what noble cause would they be serving?

I guess some might say, “democracy,” as they wipe the drool, generated by their two functional neurons, from their chin. That’s the oft-sold fairy tale version. Because nothing says “voice of the people” like foreigners coming in and doing a coup on behalf of a government known for handpicking replacements based on the degree of wear shown on their Western-issued kneepads.

The Trump administration would like everyone to know that the actual reason they’re so hell-bent on getting Maduro is because he’s a drug peddler. And not the kind that the U.S. government enriched by making their product mandatory for work or study, like during COVID. No, Maduro is “a leader of Cartel de los Soles,” the State Department says. The same group that the U.S. Treasury just happened to have designated a “global terrorist” group last month.

If you want to measure how much the terrorist label still means, consider that a former head of the Al Qaeda terrorist group is now running Syria, and Trump has called him a “young, attractive guy,” and a “tough guy” with a “strong past.” Just a quick reminder that Al Qaeda’s “strong past” also includes the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on American soil.

No one’s even accusing Maduro of blowing anything up. Meanwhile, closer to Maduro’s neighborhood, Mexico has denied the existence of any actual proof of U.S. accusations linking Maduro to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.

Even the U.S. government memo back in May noted the difference between negligence and active cooperation, questioning any evidence of the latter. And if we’re going to go after foreign officials based on the presence of drug cartels in their country, then why not start with neighboring Colombia, which has been fighting cartels for so long that Colombians are now being loaned out to help Ukraine fight Russia, according to the Associated Press.

Old “war on drugs” talking points may have worked back when the government had better control over perception as it tried to scare up support for its political agenda by evoking national security. But at this point, shouldn’t Washington have found a way to secure its border against drugs?

Trump was supposed to stop this foreign regime change nonsense — not perpetuate it. So how about being more explicit about what business and political interests are served by Maduro’s ejection?

Until then, please folks, keep any fantasies of self-enrichment through DIY coups confined to the four walls of your local pub. And if you still feel the urge to play Washington’s $50 million big game hunt, maybe just buy a Nerf gun and stage a coup against your neighbor’s lawn gnome. It’s cheaper, safer and, unlike this bounty, actually winnable.

(Rachel Marsden is a columnist, political strategist and host of independently produced talk shows in French and English. Her website can be found at [http://www.rachelmarsden.com.)]http://www.rachelmarsden.com.)}