In the wake of launching a night of shock and awe in Venezuela, Donald Trump now appears to be entering the state-building arena.
In a notable media briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort 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 announced that a team including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, working 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 secure, orderly and careful transition," he said.
What exactly "managing the nation" involves is ambiguous, but the commitment signifies an abrupt policy reversal for the president, full of inconsistencies and daunting challenges.
A leader who ran on opposing "endless conflicts", who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who vowed to implement an "America First" international policy is now staking his administration on effectively reconstructing a South American nation whose economy is in ruins and whose political stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet, Trump was relentlessly confident.
He said his administration has a "perfect track record of winning" – and that this will be no exception. He vowed to recruit American energy companies to overhaul Venezuela's crumbling industrial infrastructure, supplying financing for the American reconstruction efforts and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He left open the possibility of sending American soldiers to Venezuela to advance these efforts. "We're not afraid of boots on the ground…we had boots on the ground last night," he informed 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."
An Altered International Stance
The US has redefined Venezuela's destiny – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago pledging 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 authorized airstrikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he struck nuclear facilities in Iran, alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, insurgent groups in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq.
Unlike previous actions, which have largely involved rockets and warplanes that reduce the risk of American forces to harm, Trump's Venezuela strike – and his pledges to the fate of that nation – are strikingly distinct.
His objective, he said during his briefing, is to "restore Venezuela's greatness."
Response at Home and Abroad
That variation of Trump's "MAGA" – or Maga - slogan may be difficult for some of Trump's followers to digest.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a one-time Trump loyalist who split from the president after accusing him of deserting his political base, was quick to denounce the president's actions on social media.
"Americans' disgust with our own government's endless use of force and backing for overseas conflicts is justified because we are forced to pay for it," she wrote. "This is what many in Maga thought they voted to end. How mistaken we were."
Another notable Trump critic, 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 reclaim seized US oil and stop fentanyl production.
The majority of Republican lawmakers rallied behind the president, with House Speaker Mike Johnson describing the military action against a "criminal regime" as "firm and legitimate".
Policy Rationales and Worldwide Consequences
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 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 move in Venezuela, Trump said, shows that "US preeminence in the Western Hemisphere will never be challenged again."
The purpose of the new US security policy, he said, was to "safeguard commerce, land and assets that are core to our national security." He branded the Western Hemisphere as America's "sphere of influence."
Trump's choice to capture Maduro will provoke larger questions in international relations, however, and affect American relations with the world's other significant global powers.
The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement voicing surprise and denouncing what it said was a irresponsible assault on a sovereign nation.
During the previous administration, the US offered comparable censures of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Now the Trump administration is trying to broker a peace deal between those two nations – one that has often seemed to be leaning to the Russian side.
Don Bacon, a centrist Republican congressman, expressed concern about the signal Trump's actions might send.
"My primary concern is now Russia will use this to justify their unlawful and barbaric operations against Ukraine, or China to justify an attack of Taiwan."
Opposition and Legal Scrutiny
Trump's Democratic critics were more direct.
"America 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 overthrow attempts that carry catastrophic results for Americans."
Another senior Democratic lawmaker said Maduro is a lawbreaker and a dictator with a record of rights violations. But he condemned Trump's decision not to inform congressional 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 placing America First requires."
Trump, in his remarks, explained that he chose not to inform Congress because he was concerned they would "leak" details of the operation before the attack.
An Uncertain Future
That military operation was a success – with no American deaths and limited harm to US assets. Trump, with his characteristic confidence, portrayed the operation as a "spectacular assault" and "one of the most astonishing, successful and impressive displays of American military might and proficiency in US history."
Now he is staking his presidency on that victory continuing, as the US claims it will take over administering and reconstructing Venezuela - though what that truly entails is unclear. He and his team must strengthen a nation that has been in chaos for years while calming a hemisphere that is sure to be cautious of what Trump's foreign policy has planned for them.
