Following launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a striking press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president declared that US military forces had effectively apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a team comprising 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 administer the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" involves is unclear, but the pledge represents an dramatic policy reversal for the president, rife with inconsistencies and significant obstacles.
A president who campaigned against "endless conflicts", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who promised to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now staking his administration on successfully reconstructing a South American nation whose economy is in ruins and whose political stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was persistently confident.
He claimed his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this will be no exception. He vowed to recruit American oil firms to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing capital for the American reconstruction efforts and aiding 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 intervention of Iraq, will now have to consider 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 Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has reshaped Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago pledging to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is more than willing to use armed force internationally.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck atomic sites in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
In contrast to previous actions, which have mostly involved rockets and warplanes that reduce the exposure of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the future of that nation – are strikingly different.
His aim, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That variation of Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan may be difficult for some of Trump's followers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump ally who split from the president after accusing him of abandoning his core supporters, was quick to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of foreign wars is understandable because we are forced to pay for it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another notable Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake confiscated US oil and halt fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the military action against a "illegitimate government" as "decisive and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president argued the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" priorities because it guaranteed US regional security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He resurrected the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American diplomatic policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be without influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US preeminence in the Western Hemisphere will not be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "protect commerce, land and assets that are core to our security interests." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will raise larger concerns in global politics, however, and impact American ties with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement expressing surprise and denouncing what it said was a reckless assault 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 trying to mediate a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often appeared to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and barbaric operations against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
Trump's Democratic opponents were more direct.
"America should not be running 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 perpetual conflicts and overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic results 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 inform legislative 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 placing America First requires."
Trump, in his press conference, explained that he opted not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "disclose" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a triumph – with zero American casualties and limited harm to US equipment. Trump, with his typical bravado, described the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "one of the most astonishing, successful and powerful displays of American power and competency in American history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that success enduring, as the US claims it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that truly entails remains unclear. He and his team must strengthen a nation that has been in chaos for decades while calming a region that is bound to be cautious of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
