Following launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the state-building business.
In a remarkable news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the commander-in-chief declared that US forces had effectively seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then indicated that a group featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, collaborating with Venezuelans, would be seizing the reins of the embattled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he said.
What precisely "governing the state" actually means is ambiguous, but the pledge represents an abrupt shift in direction for the president, laden with contradictions and formidable obstacles.
A leader who campaigned against "endless conflicts", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America First" foreign policy is now betting his administration on effectively reconstructing a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been undermined by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly upbeat.
He claimed his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this will be no exception. He vowed to enlist American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's deteriorating production infrastructure, providing funds 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 told 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: "If you break it, you own it."
An Altered International Stance
The US has altered Venezuela's destiny – 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 armed 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 aircraft that reduce the exposure of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are strikingly different.
His objective, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That variation of Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan might prove hard for some of Trump's backers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who broke with the president after charging him of abandoning his core supporters, was quick to denounce the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's endless military aggression and backing for foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong."
Another prominent Trump critic, 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 retake seized US oil and halt fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the armed intervention against a "illegitimate government" as "firm and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" priorities because it guaranteed US hemispheric security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He revived 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 "Donroe Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, land and assets that are central to our security interests." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will provoke broader concerns in global politics, however, and affect American relations with the world's other significant global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible attack on a independent country.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar censures of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to mediate a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often seemed to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, voiced concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their illegal and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were more direct.
"America should not be administering other countries for any purpose," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have learned by now not to get involved in perpetual conflicts and regime change missions that carry devastating results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a criminal and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's decision not to inform congressional leaders prior to initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the legal duty to follow the law and protect democratic norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First requires."
Trump, in his press conference, said that he chose not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" details of the operation before the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a success – with no American deaths and minimal harm to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic bravado, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most astonishing, effective and impressive displays of American power and proficiency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that victory continuing, as the US says it will assume responsibility for administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that actually means is unknown. He and his team must fortify a nation that has been in chaos for decades while calming a hemisphere that is bound to be wary of what Trump's international strategy has planned for them.
