Only a few hours after the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was removed from his palace, his job and his country by US special forces, Donald Trump was still marvelling about how it felt to monitor a live feed of the raid from his Mar-a-Lago mansion.<\/div>
He shared his feelings with Fox News. <\/div>
If you could see the speed, the violence, they call it that... It was amazing, amazing work by these people. No one else could do something like this.<\/div>
The US president wants and needs quick victories. Before he took office for the second time, he boasted that ending the Russia-Ukraine war would be a single day's work.<\/div>
Venezuela, as presented in Trump's statements, is the quick, decisive victory that he has craved. Maduro is in a prison cell in Brooklyn, and the US will 'run' Venezuela - turning over millions of barrels of oil with the promise of controlling how the profits are spent. All this, at least for now, without American lives lost or a prolonged occupation like that seen in Iraq post-2003.<\/div>
However, Trump's administration appears to ignore the complexities woven into Venezuelan governance and society, including rampant corruption and diverse political factions.<\/div>
Trump is also joyfully embracing a geopolitical sugar rush. He and his advisers are stressing that he delivers on his promises, putting countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Greenland on notice about potential U.S. interventions.<\/div>
In a bold move to establish dominance, Trump even rebranded the Monroe Doctrine as the 'Donroe Doctrine'. This act suggests a more aggressive unilateral approach to US foreign relations, asserting that the US will ensure its security interests dominate the Western Hemisphere.
Trump's strategy illustrates a stark departure from past U.S. foreign policy, which traditionally sought partnerships over coercion. Analysts worry that Trump's isolationist and aggressive stance could reshape global power structures and escalate tensions as emerging threats like China are actively excluded from Latin America. There is growing apprehension that a return to imperialistic ideologies could destabilize regions and undermine international cooperation.
"additional_links": [ { "title": "Analysis: Why Trump chose Maduro's VP over Nobel winner", "url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77krp7m362o" }, { "title": "Trump's Venezuela raid has created chaos - and that is a risk for China", "url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly92dkxqvko" }, { "title": "Trump's toppling of Maduro is fraught with risk - what happens next is unclear", "url": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q4dg1kn8vo" } ]