Following launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the nation-building business.
In a remarkable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president stated that US military forces had effectively seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a team featuring 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 manage the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and judicious transition," he said.
What exactly "governing the state" entails is unclear, but the vow represents an dramatic policy reversal for the president, full of inconsistencies and significant obstacles.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US attempts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America First" international policy is now betting his administration on successfully rebuilding a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose political stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly upbeat.
He stated his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no different. He vowed to recruit American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's deteriorating production infrastructure, providing capital for the American rebuilding project 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 invasion of Iraq, will now have to remember the words of one of the American architects of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you break it, you own it."
A Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has altered Venezuela's prospects – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago pledging to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has proven that he is more than willing to use military force internationally.
In the past week, he ordered airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike past actions, which have largely involved rockets and warplanes that minimize the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are markedly different.
His goal, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That variation of Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - mantra might prove hard for some of Trump's backers to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump loyalist who split from the president after charging him of abandoning his political base, was swift to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's endless military aggression and support of foreign wars is understandable 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 prominent Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and cocaine trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake seized US oil and halt fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers supported 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 press conference, the president said the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" agenda because it guaranteed US hemispheric security and provided a steady source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign 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 supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be challenged again."
The goal of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard trade, land and assets that are core to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's decision to capture Maduro will provoke broader questions in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other significant global powers.
The Chinese government released a statement voicing surprise and denouncing what it said was a reckless assault on a independent country.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar 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 often seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, expressed worry about the message 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 rationalize an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were sharper.
"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 devastating results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of human rights abuses. But he censured Trump's choice not to consult with legislative leaders before launching 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 putting America First demands."
Trump, in his press conference, said that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "disclose" details of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a success – with no American casualties and limited harm to US equipment. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, described the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and proficiency in American history."
Now he is betting his presidency on that victory continuing, as the US claims it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means remains unclear. He and his team must rebuild a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a hemisphere that is bound to be cautious of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
