Following launching a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a remarkable news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had effectively seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then announced that a team including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be assuming control of the troubled nation.
"We are going to administer the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" actually means is ambiguous, but the pledge marks an dramatic policy reversal for the president, laden with inconsistencies and formidable challenges.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who sharply criticised past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America first" international policy is now staking his administration on successfully revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is collapsed and whose political stability has been eroded by decades of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly confident.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He pledged to enlist American oil firms to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing capital for the American rebuilding project and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of deploying American soldiers to Venezuela to progress these efforts. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground…we had boots on the ground last night," he informed reporters.
Trump, a vocal opponent of the US intervention of Iraq, will now have to heed the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you shatter it, you are responsible for it."
A Changed Global Approach
The US has reshaped Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago pledging to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is quite prepared to use armed force worldwide.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted atomic sites in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike past operations, which have largely involved missiles and aircraft that minimize the exposure of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are markedly different.
His aim, he said during his press conference, is to "restore Venezuela's greatness."
Reactions from Allies and Critics
That variation of Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - slogan might prove tough for some of Trump's supporters to swallow.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of abandoning his political base, was quick to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending military aggression and backing for foreign wars is understandable because we are compelled to fund it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and cocaine trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to reclaim seized US oil and stop fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the military action against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president argued the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it guaranteed US hemispheric security and provided a steady source of oil.
He resurrected the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Trump Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The purpose of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and resources that are fundamental to our security interests." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to apprehend Maduro will raise larger questions in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible attack on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar censures of Russia following its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has frequently seemed to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced worry about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My main worry is now Russia will use this to justify their illegal and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to rationalize an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic opponents were sharper.
"The United States should not be running other countries for any reason," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have understood by now not to get entangled in perpetual conflicts and regime change missions that carry catastrophic results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he condemned Trump's decision not to inform legislative leaders prior to launching the attack.
"The President has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and protect institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First requires."
Trump, in his press conference, said that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That mission was a success – with zero American deaths and minimal damage to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic bravado, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most stunning, successful and impressive demonstrations of American military might and competency in US history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that success continuing, as the US says it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that truly entails is unclear. He and his team must fortify a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a region that is sure to be wary of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
