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Donald Trump sought the presidency three times to the kind of military involvement that played out on Saturday: U.S. troops had Venezuela’s leader and his spouse in an early-morning mission, transported them to New York, and were placing American national security as indefinite caretakers of the oil-rich country.
This marked a sharp departure from what many in Trump’s MAGA alliance envisioned a decade ago when they gathered behind an isolationist, America First platform. Trump’s action in Venezuela directly contradicted that belief, leaving even some Capitol Hill allies about the minimal notice given to Congress.
The big unknown is how Trump’s base will react. These voters helped overturn 50 years of Republican hawkishness and saw regime change as a discredited leftover from a past time. What is certain, though, is that this is a major shift in U.S. approach to global intervention, with unpredictable results.
“We’ll be in charge of it,” Trump stated about Venezuela from his Florida private club. He also suggested that Venezuela could be his first move.
Trump, drawn by the prospect of an oil-rich nation he could oversee like a viceroy, saw only benefits for the U.S. energy industry. But he—and even his inner circle—didn’t know how much tolerance there would be for this expansionist view. While Trump’s advisors have the policy as a continuation of the Monroe Doctrine, many of his most devoted supporters have been far less at ease with the idea that the hemisphere should be under American political and economic control. Put simply, things were starting.
“As everyone is aware, Venezuela’s oil industry has been a failure—total failure—for a long time,” Trump remarked. “They were producing practically nothing compared to what they could have been and what could have happened.”
Instead, Trump took a colonial approach to end that stagnation—and claim war’s rewards, which the U.S. didn’t do in , much to his disappointment. In a way, this was the start of a new American empire.
“We’ll have our huge U.S. oil companies—some of the largest in the world—go in, invest billions, repair the severely damaged oil infrastructure, and start generating revenue for the country,” Trump said. “And we’re prepared to launch a second, much bigger attack if necessary,” he added, suggesting the real motive for overthrowing the government went far beyond charges.
Venezuela, a country of 30 million with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, has been the target of Trump’s anger for months. The U.S. military has conducted multiple strikes on boats suspected of drug trafficking, which even his hawkish congressional allies found dismaying.
But this weekend’s operation— Operation Absolute Resolve—went well beyond those efforts. It took fewer than three hours to remove the nation’s leader from his bedroom and involved around 150 aircraft filling the skies over South America. It with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife being blocked from their safe room and flown to New York to face criminal charges.
Trump’s ascent to power was driven by pledges to end “forever wars” and reduce U.S. involvement in other countries’ issues. On the campaign trail, he promised to end Russia’s Ukraine invasion on “Day One” and quickly resolve the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. But his words haven’t always matched reality, and his ability to shape global events has often been lacking. If anything, the past few days have felt like a painful return to an earlier period of U.S. intervention—from Panama to the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions—where outcomes were far more chaotic than planners expected.
Congress’s response has been quiet so far, but the potential for anger is hard to miss. For many conservatives, Trump’s rejection of nation-building and regime change was a key reason they supported his candidacy. His incursion into Venezuela, capture of the First Family, and reversal of campaign promises was deeply hurtful.
“This is exactly what many in MAGA thought they were voting to stop,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who will resign this week from her Georgia congressional seat. “Wow, were we mistaken.”
During an hour-long press conference explaining the strike to Americans, Trump didn’t admit to possibly breaking his campaign promises. Instead, he warned that the aggression might not stay within Venezuela’s borders. He specifically criticized Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who condemned the operation. “[Petro] has cocaine mills—factories where he produces cocaine,” Trump said. “He’s making cocaine and sending it to the U.S. So he better watch himself.”
Trump has similar for the leaders of Cuba and Mexico. Regime change appears to be at a pivotal point in this hemisphere, returning to a Cold War-era belief that American power justifies action.
That message is why much of the Washington foreign policy is waiting to see if Trump is satisfied with the reaction to this first strike or if he wants to escalate. In an administration run almost entirely by the president’s whims, the next steps are always tentative. That’s why no one in Washington’s policy circles is leaving their phones unattended right now.
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