Following launching a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be entering the nation-building business.
In a remarkable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort 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 said that a delegation 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 secure, orderly and judicious transition," he said.
What exactly "governing the state" involves is unclear, but the commitment signifies an abrupt change of course for the president, full of inconsistencies and formidable obstacles.
A leader who ran on opposing "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America First" international policy is now betting his presidency on successfully reconstructing a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose political stability has been eroded by decades of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly upbeat.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He pledged to recruit American energy companies to repair Venezuela's deteriorating industrial infrastructure, providing funds for the American reconstruction efforts and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He declined to rule out deploying American soldiers to Venezuela to progress these efforts. "We do not fear 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 heed the words of one of the American architects of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "You break it, you bought it."
A Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has altered Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump took office nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is ready to use military force around the globe.
In the past week, he authorized air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted atomic sites in Iran, alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
Unlike past actions, which have mostly involved missiles and aircraft that minimize the risk of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are strikingly distinct.
His goal, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That twist on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - mantra might prove tough for some of Trump's supporters to swallow.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after accusing him of deserting his core supporters, was quick to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's perpetual use of force and backing for foreign wars 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 notable Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and cocaine trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the armed intervention against a "illegitimate government" as "firm and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
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 early 19th Century American diplomatic policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and renamed it the "Trump Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will not be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "protect trade, territory and resources that are core to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will provoke broader questions in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing surprise and denouncing what it said was a reckless assault on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered comparable condemnations of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has frequently seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, expressed concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to justify their unlawful and barbaric operations against Ukraine, or China to rationalize an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were blunter.
"The United States should not be administering other countries for any purpose," said a senator who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. "We should have understood by now not to get involved in endless wars and regime change missions that carry devastating results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he condemned Trump's decision not to inform legislative leaders prior to launching the attack.
"Donald Trump has the legal duty to follow the law and protect institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what placing America First demands."
Trump, in his press conference, explained that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" particulars of the operation before the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a triumph – with zero American deaths and minimal damage to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic bravado, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most astonishing, effective and impressive demonstrations of American power and proficiency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that success continuing, as the US claims it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that truly entails is unclear. He and his team must strengthen 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 planned for them.
