Americans do not want war with Venezuela
Military intervention in the country is even more unpopular than Trump’s tariffs and health care cuts
President Donald Trump announced at a press conference on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026 that the United States government had successfully captured Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and would try him domestically for crime related to narco-terrorism against the U.S. Trump also announced that America is “going to run the country, essentially, until such time that we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” to a new regime. Trump said members of his administration would be working with Venezuela’s new leadership to expand U.S. oil production in the country.
The president quickly ran into a few problems:
Venezuela’s new leader, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, called the U.S. an illegal invader and said she was not working with the Trump administration. She called Maduro the rightful leader and demanded he be released.
Invading a foreign country and kidnapping its president amounts to an act of war, which the president, per the Constitution, needs congressional approval for, but wh…
