In the wake of launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the nation-building business.
In a notable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had effectively apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a delegation comprising Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be assuming control of the troubled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "managing the nation" involves is ambiguous, but the pledge represents an dramatic policy reversal for the president, full of inconsistencies and daunting obstacles.
A leader who campaigned against "endless conflicts", who sharply criticised past US efforts at overthrowing governments and who promised to implement an "America first" international policy is now betting his presidency on successfully revitalizing a South American nation whose economic system is collapsed and whose governmental stability has been eroded by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was persistently confident.
He stated his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this will be no different. He pledged to recruit American oil firms to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, supplying capital for the American rebuilding project and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of deploying 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 altered Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump came to power nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has proven that he is quite prepared to use armed force around the globe.
In the past week, he authorized airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
In contrast to previous operations, which have largely 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 strikingly distinct.
His aim, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Reactions from Allies and Critics
That twist on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - mantra might prove difficult for some of Trump's supporters to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump ally who split from the president after accusing him of deserting his core supporters, was quick to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's perpetual military aggression and backing for overseas conflicts is justified because we are forced to finance it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another notable Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on arms and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning 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 "criminal regime" as "decisive and justified".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his press conference, the president said the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda 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 without influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will not be challenged again."
The goal of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and assets that are core to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will raise broader concerns in global politics, however, and impact American relations with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing surprise 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 incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to broker a ceasefire between those two nations – one that has often seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary worry is now Russia will use this to justify 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 blunter.
"America should not be running other countries for any purpose," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have understood by now not to get involved in endless wars and regime change missions that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's decision not to inform congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"The President has the constitutional responsibility 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 chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" particulars of the operation before the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a triumph – with zero American deaths and minimal harm to US equipment. Trump, with his typical bravado, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that victory continuing, as the US claims it will assume responsibility for running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that truly entails is unclear. He and his administration must rebuild a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a region that is bound to be apprehensive of what Trump's international strategy has in store for them.
