Following executing a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the state-building arena.
In a remarkable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an late-night operation in Caracas.
Trump then said that a delegation including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be seizing the reins of the beleaguered nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "running the country" involves is ambiguous, but the pledge represents an dramatic shift in direction for the president, rife with contradictions and daunting challenges.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who vowed to implement an "America First" foreign policy is now gambling his administration on successfully revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is in ruins and whose political stability has been undermined by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly confident.
He claimed his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He pledged to recruit American oil firms to repair Venezuela's crumbling production infrastructure, providing funds for the American reconstruction efforts and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He did not exclude deploying American soldiers to Venezuela to advance these efforts. "We do not fear 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 consider the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you break it, you own it."
A Changed Global Approach
The US has redefined Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump came to power nearly a year ago pledging to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has shown that he is more than willing to use military force worldwide.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, militias in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
Unlike previous operations, which have mostly involved rockets and aircraft that reduce the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are notably different.
His objective, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That twist on Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - mantra could be difficult for some of Trump's supporters to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who split from the president after charging him of abandoning his core supporters, was swift to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of overseas conflicts is justified because we are compelled to pay for it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong."
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 reclaim confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the military action against a "illegitimate government" as "decisive and justified".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
During his appearance, the president said the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it ensured US hemispheric security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He dusted off the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American diplomatic policy that declared 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 never be questioned again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and assets that are central to our security interests." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to apprehend Maduro will provoke larger concerns in international relations, however, and impact American ties with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement expressing shock and denouncing what it said was a reckless attack on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered comparable condemnations 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 frequently seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, expressed concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My main 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."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were sharper.
"The United States should not be administering other countries for any reason," 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 said Maduro is a criminal and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's choice not to consult with congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"The President has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and uphold democratic norms in the United States," he said. "That is what placing America First demands."
Trump, in his remarks, explained that he chose not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "disclose" details of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That military operation was a triumph – with no American deaths and limited damage to US assets. Trump, with his typical bravado, described the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most astonishing, effective and powerful displays of American military might and proficiency in US history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that victory enduring, as the US claims it will take over administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that actually means remains unknown. He and his team must strengthen a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a region that is bound to be wary of what Trump's international strategy has planned for them.
