\n The ostensible justification is that Maduro was the pinnacle of a cartel state that threatens America\u2019s security and the well-being of its citizens with narcotics trafficking. But Trump\u2019s claims overplay Venezuela\u2019s role, and his transparent relish at wielding a big stick in his geopolitical backyard highlights more ambitious motives<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Few of Venezuela\u2019s repressed citizens will lament the removal<\/a> of a dictator who wrecked lives and ruined economic opportunity.\n <\/p>\n \n But the swoop against Maduro was a stunner, and not just because the overthrow of a foreign leader is considered an act of war.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s entire political philosophy was rooted in avoiding any more US shock-and-awe operations<\/a> to enforce overseas regime change after two decades of quagmires.\n <\/p>\n \n What happened to the plan to stop meddling in intractable foreign politics that the US doesn\u2019t understand? Is \u201cAmerica First\u201d over?\n <\/p>\n \n Probably not. Instead, it\u2019s on steroids.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump is still acting in the hard-eyed pursuit of what he perceives to be vital US national interests. It\u2019s just that his definition of the concept has expanded massively since 2016. So has his appetite for wielding unchecked power<\/a>, which has burst US borders and is racing through the Americas and beyond.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAmerica will never allow foreign powers to rob our people or drive us back into and out of our own hemisphere,\u201d Trump warned at a remarkable news conference Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. \u201cUnder our new national security strategy<\/a>, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Saturday proves that the United States has reverted to days when presidents and intelligence agencies sought to topple<\/a> autocratic or inconvenient leaders in favor of puppet governments. It also conjures dark reminders of CIA political meddling, including in Latin America, which has often backfired.\n <\/p>\n \n If upside projections of Trump\u2019s bet play out, his domestic political exposure could be limited. He might ease the torment of the Venezuelan people; create stability in the northern part of South America; allow a return home of Venezuelan refugees; and blunt efforts by US foes China and Russia to gain a foothold that could threaten US security and interests.\n <\/p>\n \n An apparently well-executed military operation without US combat deaths to grab Maduro will only enhance Trump\u2019s reputation for orchestrating thunderclaps of military power after his strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear installations last year.\n <\/p>\n \n His recharged strongman\u2019s personality cult will please some Republican voters, as will his defiance of constitutional limits and liberal critics. This may discourage rebellions from GOP dissidents who understand that the Constitution stipulates that Congress and not presidents declare war.\n <\/p>\n \n But the president is taking a risk with many in his fraying political base already chafing at his strikes in Iran<\/a>, Nigeria<\/a>, Syria<\/a> and now Venezuela and apparent obliviousness to grinding economic conditions at home. Democrats are already hammering the theme as a bedrock of their campaign ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s critical to GOP political prospects that the US does not get sucked into Venezuela in vast ground troop deployments that mirror the chaos of the post-9\/11 wars. But if the initial shock ouster of Maduro degenerates into violence \u2014 as it did with earlier US regime change operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, he will slide into deep political trouble.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s triumphant morning news conference at Mar-a-Lago, as Maduro was transported into US custody in New York, dripped with hubris. It was hard not to recall President George W. Bush\u2019s \u201cMission Accomplished\u201d victory lap on an aircraft carrier in 2003, shortly before a bloody insurgency rocked Iraq.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNo other president has ever shown this kind of leadership, courage, and resolve, the most powerful combination the world has ever seen,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gushed, ignoring Abraham Lincoln\u2019s Civil War heroism, Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s daring oversight of the D-Day Normandy landings and John F. Kennedy\u2019s steely resolve preventing nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis.\n <\/p>\n \n The administration\u2019s hagiography could be especially dangerous for the mindset of a president who already thinks he\u2019s infallible and omnipotent.\n <\/p>\n \n Disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well Libya after the ouster of Moammer Gadhafi in 2011, cut deep into Americans\u2019 psyche because they were born from Washington\u2019s negligence after an initial triumph. Venezuela \u2014 with its 31 million people; brutal security forces; criminal and gang culture; and fractured governance and economy \u2014 looks a prime candidate for the societal implosion that often results when tyrants are suddenly deposed.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump was glib on what exactly comes next, but his candor was shocking. And his true motives appear to add up to a modern form of colonialism.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,\u201d Trump said, seemingly playing into every regime change trope. \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have,\u201d he said, apparently raising the possibility of sending American forces into a volatile semi-failed state where government thugs and militia run rampant.\n <\/p>\n \n And remember the incessant complaint of anti-Iraq War campaigners that the war there was \u201creally about the oil\u201d? There\u2019s no confusion this time.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe oil companies are going to go in. They\u2019re going to spend money. We\u2019re going to take back the oil that, frankly, we should have taken back a long time ago,\u201d Trump said.\n <\/p>\n \n But he had no answers on how the United States would \u201crun\u201d Venezuela, although he suggested at one point that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine and Hegseth would be involved.\n <\/p>\n \n Any attempt to revive the oil industry wrecked by Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Ch\u00e1vez will take years and require a huge US security footprint. So this is no quick in-and-out operation by the US. Trump will own the aftermath, whether there\u2019s peace, civil disintegration or a new tyrant to replace Maduro.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, no one can comfortably predict what will happen.\n <\/p>\n \n The first wave of criticism of regime change Trump-style carried the whiff of critics rhetorically fighting the last war. The Iraq template may not fit Venezuela. Although the latter is often seen as a vast criminal enterprise, the country lacks the religious and tribal schisms and the belligerent neighbors such as Iran that helped push Iraq into hell in 2003. And the Trump administration has not so far dismantled the state apparatus, as Bush\u2019s viceroys did in Baghdad to disastrous results.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump seemed to imply that his administration was talking to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez. He said she was \u201cessentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The vice president, however, seemed defiant in an address from Caracas, saying that the US was guilty of \u201ckidnapping\u201d Maduro and demanding his return. And while calling for a \u201cjudicious\u201d transition, Trump didn\u2019t commit to a return to democracy, leaving open the implication that a pliant regime in Caracas is his preference.\n <\/p>\n \n The president\u2019s actions have already ignited a political firestorm at home.\n <\/p>\n \n While officials initially tried to portray Maduro\u2019s capture as a law enforcement operation to fulfill a narcotics indictment he faces, Trump\u2019s expansive new claims about running the Western Hemisphere and taking Venezuelan oil put the operation onto even shakier legal and constitutional grounds.\n <\/p>\n \n Attacks on air and land in Venezuela seem to clearly meet the definition of US combat action that requires the prior authorization of Congress \u2014 as was sought and received by Bush before the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cLast night, President Trump waged war on a foreign nation without authorization, without notification, and without any explanation to the American people,\u201d Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. \u201cWhatever comes next, President Trump will own the consequences.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Reed added: \u201cThis has been a profound constitutional failure. Congress \u2013 not the President \u2013 has the sole power to authorize war. Pursuing regime change without the consent of the American people is a reckless overreach and an abuse of power.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who has long sought to narrow presidential discretion in taking the US to war following White House overreach in the post-9\/11 years, said, \u201cCongress must reassert our critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy, and trade.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But in the short term, at least, Trump appears immune from pressure on Capitol Hill. Leaders of the GOP Senate and House majorities expressed support and said they expected briefings in the coming week. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has questioned the legality of Trump\u2019s boat strikes against alleged drug traffickers off Venezuela, said he supported Maduro\u2019s removal, while noting that the founders limited the president\u2019s power to wage war.\n <\/p>\n ![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c-2026-01-03t140557z-554984829-rc2otia7jt3z-rtrmadp-3-usa-venezuela.jpg\")
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