Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016 in part as a repudiation of the Republican governance of the then-recent past, specifically the presidency of George W. Bush, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Trump’s version of governance, he promised repeatedly in that first campaign, would not involve adventurous foreign wars.
Trump’s first presidency could not have been mistaken for dovish, but it also never entailed long, open-ended commitments to take over a foreign country. In his 2020 and 2024 campaigns, Trump once again made repeated promises that his opponents would take America to war, while he could be counted on to deliver peace.
In his second presidency, Trump has participated in the type of foreign adventurism, starting with an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, that other presidents have avoided. And at the same time, he’s made constant demands to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and even received a consolation “peace prize” from FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
Now, however, Trump has done something that looks quite a bit like something the Bush-Cheney Administration would have done.
After toppling the Venezuelan government by military force, Trump declares “we are going to run the country.” The next time anyone tries to claim the Trump Doctrine (whatever that means) is somehow opposed to “regime change,” please laugh in their faces pic.twitter.com/Lu2sFlSoL2
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 3, 2026
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On Saturday, the U.S. launched an operation to enter Venezuela and arrest the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife. Maduro is being brought to the United States to face criminal charges.
Addressing the operation on Saturday, Trump sounded a lot like George W. Bush in 2003:
“Venezuelan people are free again,” the president said, per the BBC. Trump also described the operation as “one of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history.”
But he also said something else that turned the clock back to the Bush era: He declared that “we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.”
“Trump, a sharp critic of the US invasion of Iraq, now seems to be in the business of nation-building – and dealing with the consequences of American military action,” The BBC reported.
María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, happened to win Trump’s coveted Nobel Peace Prize last year. She published a letter Saturday demanding that Maduro “face international justice for the atrocious crimes committed against Venezuelans and against citizens of many other nations.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
