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Since taking the escalator in 2015 to announce his first presidential bid, Donald Trump has presented himself as a break from traditional hawkish U.S. foreign policy.
The American president even criticized some his political rivals as “warmongers” and “war hawks”.
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But Trump’s decision to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and announce that the United States will “run” the Latin American country has drawn comparisons to the wars of regime change he rejected during his political career.
Some critics of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who have supported his message of focusing on problems at home rather than conflicts abroad, are criticizing Washington’s march toward war against Venezuela.
Still, Trump’s grip on Republican politics appears to remain firm, with most party lawmakers praising Trump’s actions.
“To President Trump and his team, you should be very proud for setting the liberation of Venezuela in motion,” Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote in a social media post.
“As I have often said, it is in America’s national security interests to take on the drug caliphate in our backyard, the centerpiece of which is Venezuela.”
Graham’s reference to the “drug caliphate” appears to play into Islamophobic tropes and encourage the tendency to compare US attacks against suspected drug traffickers in Latin America to the so-called “war on terrorism”.
The US senator praised the winner of the FIFA Peace Prize – handed to Trump by association head Gianni Infantino in December – and dubbed him “the GOAT of the American presidency,” meaning “the greatest of all time.”
Muted criticism
While Graham and other foreign policy hawks in Trump’s orbit were expected to support the measures against Venezuela, even some Republicans skeptical of foreign interventions cheered Maduro’s removal.
Former Congressman Matt Gaetzone of the most vocal critics of right-wing hawkish foreign policy, mocked the “capture” of the Venezuelan president.
“Maduro will hate CECOT,” he wrote on X, referring to the famous El Salvador prison where the Trump administration was held. sent hundreds suspected gang members without due process.
Libertarian Sen. Rand Paul, who has been a leader in denouncing Congress’ war power, has expressed only muted disapproval of Trump’s failure to ask lawmakers for authorization for military action in Venezuela.
“Time will tell whether regime change in Venezuela will succeed without significant monetary or human costs,” he wrote in a lengthy statement that primarily opposed the introduction of “socialism” in the United States.
“Best not to forget, however, that our founders limited the executive’s power to wage war without congressional authorization for one reason: to limit the horror of war and to limit war to acts of defense. Let us hope that these precepts of peace will not be forgotten in our justified relief that Maduro is gone and the Venezuelan people have a second chance.”
Early Saturday morning, Republican Senator Mike Lee questioned the legality of the attack. “I look forward to knowing what, if anything, could constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force,” he wrote on X.
Lee later said Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him that U.S. troops were executing a legal arrest warrant for Maduro.
“This action likely falls within the President’s inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel against actual or threatened attack,” the senator said.
CONTESTATION
Republican Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of the few dissenting voices.
“Americans’ disgust with our own government’s relentless military aggression and support for foreign wars is justified because we are forced to pay for it and both parties, Republicans and Democrats, still keep Washington’s military machine funded and operating,” Greene wrote on X.
Greene, a former Trump ally who fell out with the US president and will leave Congress next week, rejected the argument that Trump ordered Maduro’s “capture” because of the Venezuelan president’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
She emphasized that Venezuela is not a major exporter of fentanyl, the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
She also pointed out that last month, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a convicted drug trafficker who was serving a 45-year sentence in a U.S. prison.
“Regime change, financing of foreign wars and [sic] Taxpayer dollars are systematically funneled to foreign causes, foreigners both at home and abroad, and foreign governments, while Americans constantly face rising costs of living, housing, health care and learn about scams and fraud on their tax dollars is what enrages most Americans,” Greene said.
Rep. Tomas Massie, another Republican, shared a speech he gave in the House of Representatives earlier this month warning that attacking Venezuela is about “oil and regime change.”
“Are we prepared for swarms of 25 million Venezuelans, who will likely become refugees, and billions in American treasure that will be used to destroy and inevitably rebuild this nation? Do we want a miniature Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere?” Massie said in the remarks.
“If this cost is acceptable to this Congress, then we should pass it as the voice of the people and in accordance with our Constitution. »
Although Massie and Greene are outliers within their party, Trump’s risky actions in Venezuela have been a short-term success: Maduro is detained by the United States at minimal cost to Washington.
Similarly, few Republicans opposed the U.S. war in Iraq when President George W. Bush stood under the “Mission Accomplished” sign on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.
But there is now near consensus across the political spectrum that the invasion of Iraq was a geopolitical disaster.
The fog of war continues to hang over Venezuela, and it is unclear who is running the country or how Trump will “run” it.
The US president did not rule out the possibility of deploying “boots on the ground” in Venezuela, raising the prospect of a US occupation and the possibility of another Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan.
“Do we really believe that Nicolas Maduro will be replaced by a modern-day George Washington? How did this happen in… Libya, Iraq or Syria? Massie warned in his speech to Congress.
“Previous presidents told us to wage war against weapons of mass destruction, which did not exist. Today, it’s the same strategy, except we are told that drugs are the weapons of mass destruction.”
