In the wake of launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a striking press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had effectively apprehended 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 taking control of the beleaguered nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a secure, proper and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "governing the state" entails is ambiguous, but the pledge marks an abrupt shift in direction for the president, laden with contradictions and daunting challenges.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who sharply criticised past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who promised to implement an "America first" international policy is now staking his presidency on successfully revitalizing a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly upbeat.
He claimed his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this will be no exception. He promised to recruit American energy companies to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing capital for the American rebuilding project and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He did not exclude sending 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 sharp critic of the US intervention of Iraq, will now have to heed 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 altered 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 more than willing to use military force around the globe.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted atomic sites in Iran, alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
In contrast to past actions, which have largely involved missiles and warplanes that minimize the exposure of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are strikingly different.
His goal, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That twist on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - mantra could be hard for some of Trump's backers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump loyalist who split from the president after charging him of deserting his core supporters, was swift to denounce the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending use of force and support of foreign wars 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 notable Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on arms and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's explanation that the operation was to reclaim confiscated US oil and halt fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the armed intervention against a "illegitimate government" as "decisive and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" priorities because it ensured US regional security and provided a steady source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that asserted 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 not be questioned again."
The goal of the new US security policy, he said, was to "protect commerce, land and resources that are core to our security interests." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's decision to apprehend Maduro will provoke larger questions in international relations, however, and impact American relations with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement voicing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible assault on a sovereign nation.
During the previous administration, the US offered similar condemnations of Russia after its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has frequently seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, voiced concern about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My primary worry is now Russia will use this to justify their unlawful and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
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 Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have learned by now not to get entangled in endless wars and overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a criminal and a dictator with a record of human rights abuses. But he condemned Trump's choice not to inform congressional leaders prior to initiating 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 remarks, explained that he opted not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" particulars of the operation before the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That military operation was a success – with zero American casualties and minimal damage to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, described the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most astonishing, successful and impressive demonstrations of American military might and competency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that success enduring, as the US claims it will assume responsibility for administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that actually means is unknown. He and his administration must fortify a nation that has been in chaos for years while calming a region that is bound to be apprehensive of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
