Following launching a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the nation-building business.
In a striking media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president announced that US forces had successfully seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a team including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be taking control of the embattled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "governing the state" actually means is uncertain, but the vow represents an abrupt shift in direction for the president, laden with inconsistencies and formidable obstacles.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now staking his administration on effectively rebuilding a South American nation whose economy is collapsed and whose governmental stability has been eroded by decades of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly optimistic.
He stated his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He pledged to enlist American energy companies to rebuild Venezuela's deteriorating production infrastructure, supplying capital for the American rebuilding project and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of sending 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 architects 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 came to power nearly a year ago promising to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has shown that he is quite prepared to use armed force worldwide.
In the past week, he ordered airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted atomic sites in Iran, alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
In contrast to previous actions, which have mostly involved missiles and warplanes that minimize the risk of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are strikingly different.
His objective, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That twist on Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - slogan may be hard for some of Trump's followers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump ally who broke with the president after charging him of deserting his political base, was quick to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's perpetual military aggression and support of foreign wars is justified because we are compelled to pay for it," she stated. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on arms and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to retake confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers rallied behind 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 press conference, the president said the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it guaranteed US hemispheric security and provided a steady source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an early 19th Century American diplomatic policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and renamed it the "Trump Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will not be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "safeguard trade, territory and resources that are central to our national security." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will raise larger concerns in global politics, however, and affect American ties with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement voicing surprise and denouncing what it said was a irresponsible assault on a independent country.
During the previous administration, the US offered comparable condemnations of Russia following its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has frequently appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, expressed worry about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My main worry is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and barbaric operations against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic opponents were blunter.
"The United States should not be administering other countries for any purpose," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have learned by now not to get involved in perpetual conflicts and overthrow attempts that carry devastating consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he condemned Trump's decision not to inform legislative leaders prior to initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the constitutional responsibility to follow the law and uphold institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First requires."
Trump, in his remarks, explained that he opted not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That military operation was a triumph – with zero American casualties and minimal harm to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, described the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "among the most astonishing, effective and powerful demonstrations of American military might and competency in US history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that success continuing, as the US claims it will assume responsibility for running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means is unclear. He and his administration must fortify a nation that has been in chaos for decades while calming a hemisphere that is bound to be apprehensive of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
