Following executing a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be entering the nation-building business.
In a striking news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the commander-in-chief declared that US military forces had successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then announced that a delegation featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, collaborating with Venezuelans, would be seizing the reins of the beleaguered nation.
"We are going to manage the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "running the country" entails is uncertain, but the vow represents an abrupt policy reversal for the president, laden with inconsistencies and formidable challenges.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America First" foreign policy is now gambling his presidency on effectively revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is in shambles and whose political stability has been eroded by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was persistently optimistic.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this will be no exception. He vowed to enlist American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's deteriorating industrial infrastructure, supplying capital for the American rebuilding project 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 remember the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "You break it, you bought it."
A Changed Global Approach
The US has redefined Venezuela's prospects – whether for good or ill.
Trump took office nearly a year ago pledging to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has shown that he is quite prepared to use armed force internationally.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike past actions, which have mostly involved missiles and warplanes that minimize the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his pledges to the future of that nation – are strikingly different.
His goal, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Reactions from Allies and Critics
That variation of Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan may be tough for some of Trump's supporters to swallow.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of abandoning his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending military aggression and backing for overseas conflicts is understandable because we are forced to finance it," she stated. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and cocaine trafficking charges – with Trump's explanation that the operation was to reclaim confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" agenda because it guaranteed US regional security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be without 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 not be questioned again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "protect trade, territory and resources that are core to our security interests." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "backyard."
Trump's decision to apprehend Maduro will provoke larger questions in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible assault 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 ceasefire between those two nations – one that has frequently appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My primary worry is now Russia will use this to justify their illegal and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to rationalize an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
Trump's Democratic critics were blunter.
"America should not be managing other countries for any reason," said a senator who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. "We should have understood by now not to get entangled in endless wars and regime change missions that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a criminal and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he condemned Trump's choice not to inform congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and protect institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what placing America First demands."
Trump, in his press conference, said that he chose not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a triumph – with no American deaths and minimal harm to US equipment. Trump, with his typical bravado, described the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competency in US history."
Now he is betting his presidency on that victory continuing, 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 fortify a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a hemisphere that is sure to be wary of what Trump's foreign policy has planned for them.
