US EditionTrump's Venezuela Strike Splits MAGA Base
U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro in a special operation as the Trump administration aims to install a compliant interim government and secure Venezuelan oil interests.
- On Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, President Donald Trump ordered an overnight strike that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, who face charges in New York.
- Officials tied the action to drug trafficking, dictatorship, and Venezuela's oil reserves, arguing it supported regional stability and targeted multiple threats, the White House said.
- The raid deployed a large-scale nighttime operation with helicopters and fighter jets, while Trump monitored it live from Mar-a-Lago, releasing photos of a situation room with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- Congressional Republicans largely praised the strike while only two House Republicans publicly raised concerns, but some MAGA-aligned figures split, notably Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who criticized Trump and urges targeting Mexico.
- Legal and political experts said the operation bypassed Congress and violated war powers, warning the U.S. could become entangled in Venezuela and Democrats may exploit this ahead of midterm congressional elections.
124 Articles
124 Articles
Defense hawks get upper hand in tug-of-war over Trump foreign policy
President Donald Trump is moving more firmly into the camp of Washington’s defense hawks with a muscular foreign policy that cuts against the calls from his own base to retreat from the world stage.Trump has repeatedly worried congressional Republicans with his on-and-off commitment to Ukraine’s war against Russia and entered office taking a decidedly noninterventionist approach to foreign policy.Yet in recent months, Trump has eased those doubt…
In the MAGA circles (Make America Great Again, as the grassroots movement of support for President Donald Trump is known), these days the debate is largely semantic: What does the slogan “America First” really mean (United States first), a central part of the Trump ideology? Some argue that it means absolute isolationism, and that, therefore, the operation in Venezuela on Saturday morning to capture President Nicolás Maduro and the subsequent co…
One News Page
OK! MagazineMarjorie Taylor Greene Accuses Donald Trump of MAGA Betrayal After Capture of Venezuela Leader Nicolás Maduro: 'We Are So Sick and Tired'
Marjorie Taylor Greene expressed her disapproval of President Donald Trump's Venezuela military operation in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, January 4.
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