In the wake of executing a evening of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the state-building business.
In a remarkable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president declared that US forces had successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a group featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, collaborating with Venezuelans, would be assuming control of the troubled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition," he said.
What precisely "managing the nation" entails is ambiguous, but the pledge signifies an dramatic policy reversal for the president, rife with inconsistencies and daunting obstacles.
A leader who ran on opposing "forever wars", who sharply criticised past US efforts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America First" international policy is now betting his presidency on successfully reconstructing a South American nation whose economic system is collapsed and whose governmental stability has been eroded by years of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly optimistic.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He pledged to enlist American oil firms to rebuild Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, supplying funds for the American reconstruction efforts and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He did not exclude sending American soldiers to Venezuela to progress 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 intervention of Iraq, will now have to heed 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."
A Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has redefined Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump came to power nearly a year ago pledging to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has proven that he is quite prepared to use military force internationally.
In the past week, he authorized air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted atomic sites in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike previous actions, which have mostly involved rockets and aircraft that reduce the exposure of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the future of that nation – are notably 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 - mantra could be hard for some of Trump's backers to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who split from the president after accusing him of abandoning his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Public outrage with our own government's never ending use of force and backing for overseas conflicts is understandable because we are forced to pay for it," she stated. "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 confiscated US oil and stop fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers stood by the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
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 resurrected the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere should be without 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 security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and resources that are core to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to apprehend Maduro will raise broader questions in international relations, however, and affect American ties with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement expressing shock and condemning what it said was a reckless assault on a independent country.
During the Biden administration, the US offered comparable condemnations of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often appeared to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, expressed worry about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their illegal and brutal operations against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
Trump's Democratic critics were sharper.
"The United States should not be running other countries for any reason," 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 results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a criminal and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's choice not to inform legislative leaders before launching the attack.
"The President has the constitutional responsibility to abide by the law and uphold institutional norms in the United States," he said. "That is what putting America First demands."
Trump, in his press conference, explained that he chose not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
A Path Forward Shrouded in Doubt
That military operation was a triumph – with zero American deaths and minimal harm to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "one of the most stunning, successful and powerful demonstrations of American military might and competency in US history."
Now he is betting his presidency on that success enduring, as the US says it will assume responsibility for running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means is unknown. He and his team must rebuild a nation that has been in chaos for years while stabilising a hemisphere that is bound to be cautious of what Trump's international strategy has planned for them.
