Following launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be entering the state-building arena.
In a notable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had successfully seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a group 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 run the country until such time as we can do a safe, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" entails is ambiguous, but the vow marks an abrupt shift in direction for the president, rife with inconsistencies and daunting obstacles.
A leader who campaigned against "endless conflicts", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who promised to implement an "America first" international policy is now staking his administration on effectively revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is collapsed and whose governmental stability has been undermined by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was persistently confident.
He stated his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He vowed to enlist American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling production infrastructure, supplying financing for the American reconstruction efforts and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He declined to rule out sending 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 vocal opponent of the US intervention of Iraq, will now have to remember the words of one of the American architects 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 redefined Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump took office nearly a year ago promising to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has shown that he is quite prepared to use armed force internationally.
In the past week, he ordered airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
In contrast to past actions, which have largely involved missiles and aircraft that minimize the exposure of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are strikingly different.
His aim, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That variation of Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - mantra might prove hard for some of Trump's followers to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of abandoning his core supporters, was quick to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's perpetual military aggression and support of overseas conflicts is justified because we are forced to fund it," she stated. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
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 reclaim confiscated US oil and halt fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the armed intervention against a "illegitimate government" as "firm and justified".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his press conference, the president said the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" priorities because it ensured 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 without influence by European powers – and renamed it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US preeminence in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The goal of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "protect trade, territory and resources that are central to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "backyard."
Trump's decision to capture Maduro will provoke broader concerns in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other significant military powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible assault on a independent country.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar condemnations of Russia after its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has frequently appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, expressed worry about the message Trump's actions might send.
"My main concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to rationalize an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were sharper.
"America should not be managing 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 consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of human rights abuses. But he censured Trump's decision not to consult with legislative leaders before launching the attack.
"The President has the legal duty to abide by the law and uphold democratic norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First requires."
Trump, in his remarks, explained that he opted 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 casualties and minimal harm to US assets. Trump, with his typical bravado, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most stunning, effective and powerful demonstrations of American power and proficiency in US history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that success continuing, as the US claims it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that truly entails remains unknown. He and his team must strengthen a nation that has been in chaos for years while stabilising a hemisphere that is sure to be apprehensive of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
