_THE MISSION_
For months, President Donald Trump warned that Venezuela’s socialist leader, Nicolás Maduro, would have to go — either the easy way, through a deal, or the hard way.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, President Trump watched a livestream of American troops landing in Caracas, backed by the coordinated deployment of more than 150 advanced military aircraft, breaching Maduro’s compound, arresting him and his wife, and removing them by military ship within hours, without a single American casualty.
That was the hard way, and it marked Trump’s second highly ambitious, and seemingly flawless, demonstration of American military power in service of his policy goals.
The operation, known as Absolute Resolve, relied on an intricate web of preparations: CIA operatives penetrating Maduro’s inner circle, a full-scale reconstruction of his compound for elite training exercises, and the use of American military technology to disable Caracas’ power grid and neutralize Venezuela’s Chinese-built air defense systems.
The Trump administration favors a swift resolution, akin to its strikes on Iran, which eliminated — or at least severely set back — Iran’s nuclear missile capabilities with virtually no retaliation or apparent downside for the United States. That would mean a quick transfer of power to a loyalist, with little to no disruption for Venezuelans.
Whether that outcome is achievable remains unclear.
The White House now faces the challenge of managing that power transition, with Maduro’s second-in-command emerging as the likely, though non-ideal, successor. Delcy Rodríguez, a Maduro loyalist, has been sworn in but is not recognized by Washington as legitimate. Trump and his advisers have made clear that if the next leader fails to comply with US demands, American boots on the ground remain a real possibility.
President Trump issued a stark warning to Venezuela’s remaining leadership: “All political and military figures in Venezuela should understand what happened to Maduro can happen to them.” In the interim, he suggested, albeit somewhat ambiguously, that the United States would effectively run the country, with the transition overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
He also indicated that the United States, working through American oil companies, would seek new agreements to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector.
Why Venezuela? Is Venezuela the only nation pouring drugs into America? — Chuck from California
The two motives most often cited for Trump’s actions are Venezuela’s role in drug trafficking and Maduro’s status as an alleged narco-terrorist, as well as access to the country’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
_DRUGS_
In 2020, the Department of Justice indicted Nicolás Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking, alleging that his government sought to flood the United States with drugs and that hundreds of tons of cocaine transit Venezuela each year.
Vice President JD Vance has argued that this trafficking strengthens Latin America’s cartels and that cutting Venezuela out of the chain would weaken them across the region.
Still, Venezuela is not the primary driver of America’s drug crisis. Colombia produces nearly all of the cocaine that reaches the United States, and China — not Venezuela — is at the center of the fentanyl epidemic.
_OIL_
The other factor drawing the most attention is oil, though critics tend to frame it as a cynical effort to enrich American energy companies. Before 1999, Venezuela was a major oil supplier to the United States. That changed after Hugo Chávez took power, nationalized the sector, and presided over the slow decay of the country’s oil infrastructure, hollowing out its productive capacity.
In the decades since — particularly after US sanctions — Venezuelan oil has flowed increasingly to China, helping to sustain American adversaries.
While US oil companies would almost certainly benefit from renewed access, and increased supply could ease gasoline prices at home, the larger effect of removing Maduro is to pull Venezuelan oil away from Beijing and back toward Washington.
It’s another lever that the US will have to pull in the case of war with China.
Simply put, Venezuela was home base for America’s enemies in the West. The operation was about making America stronger and our adversaries weaker.
Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, the White House has signaled a renewed embrace of a modernized Monroe Doctrine. As the president put it in remarks on the operation, an “America First” foreign policy begins with good neighbors.
Nicolás Maduro, whose closest allies are Russia and China, did not qualify. Venezuela’s proximity to the United States, its vast oil reserves, and its significant rare earth mineral deposits — at a moment when China dominates global supply — made that misalignment especially problematic.
Removing Maduro weakens Russian and Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere, as both countries are deeply embedded in Venezuela’s energy sector.
The country has also served as Iran’s primary foothold in the West, helping Tehran evade sanctions, engaging in military cooperation, purchasing Iranian drones and weapons, and providing an operating environment for Hezbollah.
Plus, for decades, Venezuela has also supplied Cuba with the bulk of its energy needs.
Is Cuba next, and does this give China an excuse to take Taiwan? — Ashley from Kentucky
In remarks after the operation, Trump ruled out a similar intervention in Cuba, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio did warn that Cuba is in “a lot of trouble.”
Communist Cuba has long been sustained by its relationship with socialist Venezuela, and with control over Caracas, Washington now holds far greater leverage over Havana. In that sense, the United States may not need another operation to advance its aims against a decades-long adversary.
Other American rivals are likely taking note. Leaders such as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are almost certainly reassessing their assumptions about Washington and how seriously to take Trump’s threats — or his doctrine of peace through strength — after the audacity of the Venezuela operation. Its scale and apparent success strengthen America’s hand in future negotiations.
China presents a more complicated case. It is conventional wisdom that Beijing’s move on Taiwan is a question of when, not if, and many who align with Vice President JD Vance argue that intervening could come at an unacceptable human cost.
Still, while the Venezuela operation offers China no concrete justification for seizing Taiwan, it does give Beijing rhetorical space to argue that the United States has set a precedent.
About Maduro's capture: Why are they bringing him to New York to be tried? — Stefan from Tennessee
The Southern District of New York has long served as the primary venue for major international criminal cases involving drugs, terrorism, and money laundering. Maduro was indicted there in March 2020, well before his capture, making it standard protocol to bring him to that court for arraignment and trial.
People say Trump captured Maduro without approval from Congress. Was it necessary for President Trump to get approval from Congress for that? — Anne from North Carolina
Technically, the administration framed the operation as law enforcement rather than war, citing the standing indictment against Maduro. On that basis, no act of Congress is required to arrest an indicted defendant, even when that defendant is a sitting head of state.
More broadly, Congress has not been the primary vehicle for authorizing the use of force in decades, and Trump is hardly the president who upended that norm. If the regime-change effort ultimately fails, producing serious consequences for both Venezuela and the United States, it is not far-fetched to imagine Democrats moving to impeach him over it.
