Following executing a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the nation-building business.
In a remarkable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president announced that US military forces had successfully apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an late-night operation 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 beleaguered nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "managing the nation" involves is ambiguous, but the commitment marks an dramatic shift in direction for the president, laden with contradictions and significant challenges.
A president who ran on opposing "endless conflicts", who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an "America first" international policy is now gambling his administration on effectively reconstructing a South American nation whose economy is in ruins and whose political stability has been eroded by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly confident.
He said his administration has a "unblemished record of winning" – and that this would be no exception. He promised to enlist American oil firms to rebuild Venezuela's deteriorating industrial infrastructure, supplying capital for the American rebuilding project and aiding the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of 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 intervention of Iraq, will now have to heed the words of one of the American architects of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you break it, you own it."
An Altered International Stance
The US has reshaped Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has proven that he is quite prepared to use armed force worldwide.
In the past week, he authorized airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, militias in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike previous operations, which have largely 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 strikingly different.
His goal, he said during his press conference, is to "restore Venezuela's greatness."
Reactions from Allies and Critics
That play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan may be hard for some of Trump's backers to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally who split from the president after charging him of abandoning his political base, was swift to denounce the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression and support of overseas conflicts is understandable because we are compelled to pay for it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong."
Another notable Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared 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 halt fentanyl production.
Most Republican lawmakers supported the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson characterizing the military action against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and legitimate".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his press conference, the president said the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it ensured US hemispheric security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He resurrected the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American diplomatic policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and renamed it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The action in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The goal of the new US national security strategy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, territory and assets that are core to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "backyard."
Trump's decision to capture Maduro will raise broader concerns in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese government issued a statement expressing shock and denouncing what it said was a irresponsible attack on a independent country.
During the Biden administration, the US offered similar 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 frequently seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, expressed concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their illegal and barbaric operations against Ukraine, or China to rationalize an attack 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 Senate Foreign Relations committee. "We should have understood by now not to get involved in perpetual conflicts and regime change missions that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a criminal and a autocrat with a record of human rights abuses. But he censured Trump's choice not to consult with congressional leaders before initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the legal duty to abide by the law and uphold democratic norms in the United States," he said. "That is what placing America First demands."
Trump, in his press conference, said that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "disclose" particulars of the operation prior to the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That mission was a success – with zero American deaths and limited damage to US equipment. Trump, with his characteristic bravado, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "among the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and proficiency in US history."
Now he is betting his legacy on that victory continuing, as the US claims it will assume responsibility for administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that truly entails is unknown. He and his administration must fortify a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while calming a region that is sure to be cautious of what Trump's international strategy has planned for them.
