Following launching a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the nation-building arena.
In a notable news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president declared that US military forces had successfully seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an late-night operation in Caracas.
Trump then indicated that a team including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, collaborating with Venezuelans, would be taking control of the troubled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "governing the state" entails is unclear, but the pledge represents an sudden change of course for the president, laden with contradictions and formidable challenges.
A leader who campaigned against "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an "America First" foreign policy is now staking his presidency on successfully revitalizing a South American nation whose economic system is collapsed and whose political stability has been undermined by decades of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was persistently optimistic.
He said his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this will be no different. He vowed to enlist American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling production infrastructure, supplying financing for the American reconstruction efforts and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He declined to rule out deploying American soldiers to Venezuela to advance these efforts. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground…we had boots on the ground last night," he informed reporters.
Trump, a sharp critic of the US invasion of Iraq, will now have to consider the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you break it, you own it."
A Changed Global Approach
The US has altered Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump took office nearly a year ago pledging to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is ready to use armed force around the globe.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, militias in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
Unlike previous operations, which have mostly involved missiles and warplanes that minimize the exposure of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are markedly distinct.
His objective, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That variation of Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan could be difficult for some of Trump's supporters to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of deserting his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are compelled to fund it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong."
Another prominent Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on arms and cocaine trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers supported the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "firm and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president said the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" priorities 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 asserted the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Trump Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and resources that are fundamental to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "backyard."
Trump's decision to capture Maduro will provoke larger concerns in international relations, however, and impact American relations with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese government released a statement voicing surprise and denouncing what it said was a irresponsible attack on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar condemnations of Russia after its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to mediate a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often appeared to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My main worry is now Russia will use this to justify their unlawful and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were more direct.
"The United States should not be running other countries for any reason," said a senator who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. "We should have learned by now not to get involved in endless wars and regime change missions that carry catastrophic results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a criminal and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's decision not to consult with legislative leaders before initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the legal duty to abide by the law and protect institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what placing 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.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a success – with no American deaths and limited damage to US equipment. Trump, with his typical bravado, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most astonishing, successful and impressive demonstrations of American military might and proficiency in American history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that success enduring, as the US says it will assume responsibility for administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that truly entails remains unclear. He and his administration must strengthen a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while stabilising a region that is sure to be cautious of what Trump's international strategy has in store for them.
