Following executing a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be entering the nation-building business.
In a striking media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the commander-in-chief announced that US forces had successfully apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an late-night operation in Caracas.
Trump then indicated that a group comprising Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working 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 safe, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "running the country" actually means is unclear, but the commitment marks an abrupt change of course for the president, rife with contradictions and formidable challenges.
A leader who ran on opposing "endless conflicts", who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who vowed to implement an "America First" international policy is now staking his presidency on effectively revitalizing a South American nation whose economic system is collapsed and whose political stability has been undermined by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly upbeat.
He said his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He vowed to enlist American energy companies to overhaul Venezuela's deteriorating production infrastructure, providing capital for the American rebuilding project and benefitting 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 told reporters.
Trump, a sharp critic of the US invasion of Iraq, will now have to remember the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "You break it, you bought it."
A Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has redefined Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump came to power nearly a year ago promising to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is ready 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, alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and jihadist fighters in Iraq.
Unlike previous actions, which have mostly involved missiles and warplanes that reduce the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are strikingly distinct.
His objective, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Response at Home and Abroad
That play on Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - slogan might prove 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 abandoning his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's perpetual use of force and backing for overseas conflicts is justified 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 notable Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, contrasted 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.
Most Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the military action against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and warranted".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" priorities because it ensured US regional security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, 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 larger questions in global politics, however, and impact American ties with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing surprise and condemning what it said was a irresponsible attack on a sovereign nation.
During the Biden administration, the US offered comparable censures of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is attempting to broker a ceasefire between those two nations – one that has frequently appeared to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, voiced concern about the precedent Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern 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 more direct.
"The United States should not be running other countries for any purpose," said a senator who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations committee. "We should have learned by now not to get entangled in endless wars and overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a criminal and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's choice not to inform legislative leaders prior to initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the constitutional responsibility to follow the law and protect institutional 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 worried they would "leak" particulars of the operation before the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a success – with zero American deaths and limited damage to US assets. Trump, with his typical bravado, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most astonishing, effective and impressive demonstrations of American military might and competency in US history."
Now he is gambling his legacy on that success enduring, as the US claims it will assume responsibility for administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that truly entails remains unclear. He and his administration must rebuild a nation that has been in chaos for years while stabilising a hemisphere that is sure to be wary of what Trump's foreign policy has planned for them.