In the wake of executing a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump seems to be getting into the state-building arena.
In a remarkable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday morning, the president announced 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, working with Venezuelans, would be seizing the reins of the embattled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and judicious transition," he said.
What exactly "running the country" entails is unclear, but the pledge signifies an abrupt change of course for the president, laden with contradictions and formidable obstacles.
A president who ran on opposing "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at overthrowing governments and who vowed to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now betting his administration on effectively revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been undermined by years of authoritarian rule.
Yet, Trump was unwaveringly upbeat.
He claimed his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this would be no different. He pledged to enlist American oil firms to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing financing for the American rebuilding project and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He did not exclude deploying 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 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 altered Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago pledging to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is more than willing to use armed force internationally.
In the past week, he authorized air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck atomic sites in Iran, suspected narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike previous actions, which have mostly involved rockets and aircraft that minimize the risk of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela operation – and his commitments to the fate of that nation – are strikingly different.
His aim, he said during his press conference, is to "make Venezuela great again."
Domestic and International Reaction
That twist on Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - slogan may be hard for some of Trump's followers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump ally who split from the president after charging him of abandoning his core supporters, was swift to condemn the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression and backing for foreign wars is understandable because we are compelled to finance it," she stated. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another prominent Trump critic, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the legal justification for Maduro's arrest – on weapons and drug trafficking charges – with Trump's reasoning 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 describing the armed intervention against a "criminal regime" as "decisive and justified".
Strategic Justifications and Global Implications
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation advanced his "America First" agenda because it ensured US regional security and provided a reliable source of oil.
He revived the Monroe Doctrine – an early 19th Century American foreign policy that asserted the Western Hemisphere should be without influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again."
The goal of the new US security policy, he said, was to "protect commerce, territory and assets that are central to our security interests." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "home region."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will provoke broader questions in global politics, however, and affect American ties with the world's other significant global powers.
The Chinese government released a statement expressing surprise and denouncing what it said was a reckless attack on a sovereign nation.
During the previous administration, the US offered comparable censures of Russia after its incursion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often appeared to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a moderate Republican congressman, voiced worry about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary worry is now Russia will use this to excuse their illegal and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Political Criticism and Constitutional Questions
Trump's Democratic opponents were more direct.
"America 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 involved in endless wars and overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic consequences for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a autocrat with a record of human rights abuses. But he censured Trump's choice not to inform legislative leaders before initiating the attack.
"Donald Trump has the legal duty to follow 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 opted not to inform Congress because he was worried they would "leak" details of the operation before the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That military operation was a success – with zero American casualties and limited harm to US equipment. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "one of the most astonishing, effective and impressive demonstrations of American power and proficiency in US history."
Now he is staking his presidency on that success continuing, as the US claims it will take over running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means is unclear. He and his team must strengthen a nation that has been in turmoil for years while stabilising a region that is sure to be wary of what Trump's foreign policy has in store for them.
