Following launching a evening of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be getting into the state-building business.
In a notable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president declared that US military forces had successfully seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then announced that a team including 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 administer the country until such time as we can do a safe, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" entails is unclear, but the vow represents an abrupt change of course for the president, full of inconsistencies and formidable obstacles.
A leader who campaigned against "endless conflicts", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at regime change and who vowed to implement an "America First" foreign policy is now betting his presidency on successfully revitalizing 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 persistently confident.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no different. He pledged to recruit American energy companies to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling production infrastructure, supplying capital for the American rebuilding project and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He declined to rule out sending American soldiers to Venezuela to further these efforts. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground…we had boots on the ground last night," he informed reporters.
Trump, a sharp critic of the US invasion of Iraq, will now have to heed the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you shatter it, you are responsible for it."
A Changed Global Approach
The US has altered Venezuela's prospects – for better or worse.
Trump took office nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has shown that he is more than willing to use armed force internationally.
In the past week, he authorized airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck atomic sites in Iran, alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
In contrast to previous operations, which have mostly involved missiles and aircraft that minimize the exposure of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his commitments to the future of that nation – are strikingly different.
His aim, he said during his press conference, is to "restore Venezuela's greatness."
Response at Home and Abroad
That play on Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - slogan may be tough for some of Trump's followers to swallow.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after accusing him of abandoning his political base, was quick to denounce the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending use of force 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. Boy were we wrong."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on arms and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake seized US oil and stop fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and justified".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president said the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it guaranteed US hemispheric security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He dusted off the Monroe Doctrine – an early 19th Century American diplomatic policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Trump Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard trade, territory and resources that are fundamental to our security interests." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "backyard."
Trump's decision to capture Maduro will raise broader questions in global politics, however, and affect American ties with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a reckless attack on a sovereign nation.
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 ceasefire between those two nations – one that has often seemed to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My main worry is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and barbaric military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
Trump's Democratic opponents were blunter.
"The United States should not be running other countries for any reason," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have understood by now not to get involved in perpetual conflicts and regime change missions that carry devastating consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a dictator with a record of human rights abuses. But he censured Trump's decision not to inform congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and uphold institutional 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" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a triumph – with no American casualties and limited damage to US assets. Trump, with his typical bravado, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most stunning, successful and impressive displays of American power and competency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that success continuing, as the US says it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means is unknown. He and his team must fortify a nation that has been in chaos for years while stabilising a hemisphere that is bound to be cautious of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
