Donald Trump hailed a U.S. military victory in Venezuela on Saturday, but his sudden enthusiasm for intervention abroad has landed him in a political minefield at home.
Trump has for years decried U.S. entanglements abroad.
A decade ago, when he called the post-9/11 invasion of Iraq a “stupid thing,” he was laying out the core tenets of the nationalist, isolationist MAGA ideology that would win him the White House.
So Saturday’s special forces raid on Caracas to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was doubly risky.
Service members involved in the complex attack – which included troops transported by helicopters, jet bombing sites around the city and formations of naval vessels off the coast – escaped without losing any soldiers.
But for Trump, the domestic political risks have just begun.
Not surprisingly, Democratic leaders were quick to attack.
Senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called the action “reckless.”
“The second unjust war in my lifetime. This war was illegal,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq veteran. “We have no reason to go to war with Venezuela.”
Many in Trump’s Republican Party stood up and applauded.
A White House spokesperson stirred up enthusiasm in the early hours of Saturday morning with a social media post featuring a strong arm, fist and fire emoji.
Sen. Tom Cotton soon joined in.
“I commend President Trump and our brave military and law enforcement officers for this incredible operation,” he said.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a key figure in Trump’s political machine, quickly sought to dispel doubts about the legality of the military action.
“Today’s military action in Venezuela was a decisive and justified action that will protect American lives,” he said.
Johnson made it clear that Congress would not be rushed into meetings and debates. He said Trump administration officials were “working hard” to hold a briefing next week.
– America first or Venezuela? –
But there are signs of unease among Republicans.
Shortly after news of the extraordinary raid on Caracas first broke, conservative Senator Mike Lee wrote on X that he “looks forward to learning what, if anything, would constitutionally justify this action.”
He noted that there was no “declaration of war or authorization to use force.”
Soon after, Lee returned to the Trump team and said he had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was assured that the operation was solely to carry out Maduro’s arrest.
This “may fall within the inherent powers of the president.”
But Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Make America Great Again firebrand and longtime Trump supporter who recently fell out with the president, is far less forgiving.
In a lengthy post on X, she dismissed Trump’s explanation that the conflict in Venezuela was about stopping drug trafficking.
She said most of the deadly fentanyl entering the United States passes through Mexico, so “why hasn’t the Trump administration taken action against Mexican drug cartels?”
Green went on to raise a series of questions that are likely to be echoed by much of the MAGA base, including how to explain the difference between forced regime change in Venezuela and Russian or Chinese aggression in Ukraine or Taiwan.
“Disgusted” by foreign intervention, spending abroad rather than at home, and “neocon wars” — “this is what many in MAGA believe they are voting to end,” she wrote.
“Oh my gosh, we were wrong.”
SMS/ksb
