Following launching a night of overwhelming force in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be getting into the state-building business.
In a notable press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday morning, the president stated that US forces had effectively apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in an overnight raid in Caracas.
Trump then said that a delegation comprising Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, collaborating with Venezuelans, would be assuming control of the embattled nation.
"We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What precisely "governing the state" entails is uncertain, but the vow represents an sudden change of course for the president, full of contradictions and formidable obstacles.
A president who campaigned against "forever wars", who vehemently denounced past US efforts at overthrowing governments and who promised to implement an "America first" foreign policy is now gambling his administration on effectively revitalizing a South American nation whose economy is in shambles and whose governmental stability has been undermined by years 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 vowed to enlist American energy companies to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling production infrastructure, supplying financing 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 heed the words of one of the American planners of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell: "If you break it, you own it."
A Shift in Foreign Policy
The US has altered Venezuela's destiny – whether for good or ill.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago promising to be a diplomat, but over the past year he has proven that he is more than willing to use military force internationally.
In the past week, he ordered airstrikes 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 Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike past actions, which have largely involved rockets and warplanes that minimize the risk of American forces to danger, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the future of that nation – are notably different.
His aim, he said during his press conference, is to "restore Venezuela's greatness."
Domestic and International Reaction
That variation of Trump's "Make America Great Again" – or Maga - mantra might prove hard for some of Trump's followers to accept.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump loyalist who split from the president after accusing him of deserting his core supporters, was swift to criticize the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's never ending military aggression 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 prominent Trump detractor, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, compared the official rationale for Maduro's arrest – on arms and cocaine 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 military action against a "illegitimate government" as "decisive and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
During his press conference, the president argued the Venezuelan operation furthered his "America First" agenda because it ensured US hemispheric security and provided a steady source of oil.
He dusted off the Monroe Doctrine – an nineteenth-century American foreign policy that declared the Western Hemisphere should be free from influence by European powers – and rebranded it the "Donroe Doctrine."
The move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US supremacy in the Western Hemisphere will not be questioned again."
The goal of the new US security policy, he said, was to "protect commerce, territory and resources that are central to our national security." He labeled the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will raise broader concerns in global politics, however, and affect American relations with the world's other major global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement expressing surprise and denouncing what it said was a irresponsible assault 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 trying to broker a ceasefire between those two nations – one that has frequently seemed to be more favourable to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, voiced concern about the message Trump's actions might send.
"My main concern is now Russia will use this to excuse their unlawful and brutal military actions against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were blunter.
"The United States should not be managing other countries for any reason," said a senator who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. "We should have understood by now not to get involved in endless wars and regime change missions that carry catastrophic results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker stated Maduro is a criminal and a autocrat with a record of rights violations. But he censured Trump's decision not to inform congressional leaders before launching 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 placing America First requires."
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 triumph – with zero American casualties and limited harm to US assets. Trump, with his typical confidence, portrayed the operation as a "daring raid" and "one of the most astonishing, effective and powerful demonstrations of American power and proficiency in American history."
Now he is gambling his presidency on that victory enduring, as the US says it will assume responsibility for running and rebuilding Venezuela - though what that actually means is unclear. He and his administration must strengthen a nation that has been in turmoil for decades while stabilising a hemisphere that is sure to be apprehensive of what Trump's foreign policy has planned for them.
