THE NEW YORK TIMES — OPINION: Over the past few months, President Trump has deployed an imposing military force in the Caribbean to threaten Venezuela. Until now, the president used that force — an aircraft carrier, at least seven other warships, scores of aircraft and 15,000 U.S. troops — for illegal attacks on small boats that he claimed were ferrying drugs. This weekend, Mr. Trump dramatically escalated his campaign by capturing Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro as part of what he called ”a large scale strike” against the country.
Few people will feel any sympathy for Mr. Maduro. He is undemocratic and repressive, and has destabilized the Western Hemisphere in recent years. The United Nations recently issued a report detailing more than a decade of killings, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention by henchmen against his political opponents. He stole Venezuela’s presidential election last year. He has fueled economic and political disruption throughout the region by instigating an exodus of nearly eight million migrants.
If there is an overriding lesson of American foreign affairs in the past century, however, it is that attempting to oust even the most deplorable regime can make matters worse. The United States spent 20 years failing to create a stable government in Afghanistan and it replaced a dictatorship in Libya with a fractured state. The tragic consequences of the 2003 war in Iraq continue to beset America and the Middle East. Perhaps most relevant, the United States has sporadically destabilized Latin American countries, including Chile, Cuba, Guatemala and Nicaragua, by trying to oust a government through force.
Mr. Trump has not yet offered a coherent explanation for his actions in Venezuela. He is pushing our country toward an international crisis without valid reasons. If Mr. Trump wants to argue otherwise, the Constitution spells out what he must do: Go to Congress. Without congressional approval, his actions violate United States law. » | The Editorial Board | Saturday, January 3, 2026
Donald Trump was thoroughly irresponsible to launch this attack. This sets a precedent for other authoritarian leaders to follow suit. Further, for Trump to assert that Nicolás Maduro was corrupt is just plain silly and hypocritical. Who is more corrupt than Trump? This is a textbook example of the pot calling the kettle black!
But the most disturbing aspect of this for me is Trump’s proclivity to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations. He has stated that he wants to change the politics of Europe, of the European Union.
If Trump really wanted to do something useful, he should have shown strength, not weakness, in dealing with his buddy in Russia, to stop the killing in Ukraine.
Moreover, as for Maduro treating his citizens badly… That’s exactly what Trump is doing with many American citizens when he disappears them and sends unknown numbers to concentration camps.
My guess is that Trump has his eyes firmly on the oil wealth of Venezuela. In this illegal move, he sees billions of dollars for himself, his family, and his cronies. But that oil wealth belongs to Venezuelans, not Americans. And it certainly does not belong to the Trumps! — © Mark Alexander
