Following executing a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the state-building arena.
In a remarkable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president announced that US forces had effectively captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an late-night operation in Caracas.
Trump then said that a group including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working with Venezuelans, would be assuming control of the troubled nation.
"We are going to administer the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and judicious transition," he said.
What exactly "running the country" entails is uncertain, but the pledge represents an dramatic policy reversal for the president, laden with contradictions and formidable challenges.
A leader who ran on opposing "endless conflicts", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now gambling his administration on successfully rebuilding a South American nation whose economic system is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been eroded by years of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly upbeat.
He stated his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this will be no different. He promised to enlist American energy companies to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing capital for the American rebuilding project and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of sending American soldiers to Venezuela to progress these efforts. "We do not fear boots on the ground…we had boots on the ground last night," he told 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 shatter it, you are responsible for it."
An Altered International Stance
The US has redefined Venezuela's future – for better or worse.
Trump took office 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 around the globe.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
In contrast to previous actions, which have mostly involved rockets and warplanes that reduce the exposure of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are notably different.
His goal, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Reactions from Allies and Critics
That play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan might prove hard for some of Trump's backers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who broke with the president after charging him of abandoning his political base, 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 compelled to fund 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 arms and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's explanation that the operation was to retake confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the military action against a "criminal regime" as "firm and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his appearance, the president argued the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it ensured US hemispheric security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He dusted off the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American diplomatic policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be without influence by European powers – and renamed it the "Trump Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, land and assets that are fundamental to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will provoke broader questions in international relations, however, and impact American relations with the world's other major military powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement voicing shock and denouncing what it said was a reckless attack on a sovereign nation.
During the previous administration, the US offered similar condemnations of Russia following its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to mediate a ceasefire between those two nations – one that has frequently appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, voiced concern about the message Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern 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 critics were more direct.
"The United States should not be running 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 endless wars and regime change missions that carry devastating consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a lawbreaker and a dictator with a record of human rights abuses. But he condemned Trump's choice not to consult with congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"The President has the legal duty to abide by 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 chose not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a success – with no American deaths and minimal harm to US equipment. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, described the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "one of the most astonishing, effective and impressive demonstrations of American military might and competency in American history."
Now he is staking his legacy on that victory continuing, as the US says it will take over administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that actually means remains unknown. He and his team must fortify a nation that has been in chaos for decades while stabilising a hemisphere that is bound to be cautious of what Trump's international strategy has in store for them.
