“We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” he said.
A president who campaigned against “forever wars”, who sharply criticised past US efforts at regime change and who promised to implement an “America first” foreign policy is now staking his presidency on successfully reconstructing a South American nation whose economy is in shambles and whose political stability has been undermined by decades of dictatorship.
Yet Trump was relentlessly optimistic.
He said his administration has a “perfect track record of winning” – and that this would be no different. He pledged to recruit American energy companies to rebuild Venezuela’s crumbling industrial infrastructure, providing funds for the American reconstruction efforts and benefitting the Venezuelan people.
He declined to rule out deploying 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 told reporters.
Trump, a sharp critic of the US invasion of Iraq, will now have to heed the words of one of the American architects of the Iraq War, Secretary of State Colin Powell, “If you
The US has reshaped Venezuela’s future – for better or worse.
Trump entered office nearly a year ago promising to be a peacemaker, but over the past year he has demonstrated that he is more than willing to use military force around the globe.
In the past week, he ordered air strikes on Syria and Nigeria. In 2025, he targeted nuclear facilities in Iran, suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, rebel forces in Yemen, armed groups in Somalia and Islamic militants in Iraq. Continue reading…
