Following launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a notable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the commander-in-chief declared that US forces had effectively captured 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, collaborating 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, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" involves is unclear, but the pledge represents an sudden change of course for the president, rife with inconsistencies and formidable challenges.
A leader who campaigned against "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now staking his presidency on effectively reconstructing a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly optimistic.
He claimed 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 financing for the American reconstruction efforts and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He did not exclude deploying American soldiers to Venezuela to further 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 Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has redefined Venezuela's destiny – whether for good or ill.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has shown that he is quite prepared to use armed force around the globe.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck atomic sites in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike past actions, which have largely involved missiles and warplanes that reduce the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the future of that nation – are strikingly distinct.
His aim, he said during his briefing, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan may be hard for some of Trump's backers to swallow.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of deserting his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's endless use of force and backing for foreign wars is justified because we are forced to fund it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning that the operation was to reclaim confiscated US oil and halt fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers supported the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "firm and warranted".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president argued the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" priorities because it guaranteed US regional security and provided a steady source of oil.
He resurrected the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be without influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Trump 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 commerce, land and assets that are fundamental to our security interests." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's decision to apprehend Maduro will raise broader questions in global politics, however, and impact American relations with the world's other significant global powers.
The Chinese government released a statement expressing shock and denouncing what it said was a reckless attack on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar censures of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a ceasefire between those two nations – one that has often appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, expressed concern about the message Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and brutal operations against Ukraine, or China to justify an invasion of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were blunter.
"America should not be administering 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 entangled in perpetual conflicts and overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic 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 choice not to inform congressional leaders prior to launching the attack.
"Donald Trump has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and protect institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First demands."
Trump, in his remarks, explained that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" particulars of the operation before the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a success – with no American casualties and limited damage to US equipment. Trump, with his typical confidence, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "one of the most astonishing, effective and powerful demonstrations of American military might and proficiency in US history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that success continuing, as the US claims it will take over administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that actually means remains unclear. He and his team must rebuild a nation that has been in turmoil for years while stabilising a region that is bound to be wary of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
