James Ball writes:

America was supposed to be done with being “the world’s policeman”. Donald Trump said so repeatedly during his first term, and during his campaign in 2024.

MAGA was sick of seeing US troops deployed around the world, of spending billions on conflicts thousands of miles away, of hearing about places they’d never heard of. Donald Trump would put America first.

Today, President Trump announced the United States will be running Venezuela for the foreseeable future – at least until a “safe, proper and judicious” transition, presumably as defined by Trump himself, is possible.

America’s track record of administering foreign countries – always supposedly in their best interests – is hardly a spotless one, nor one that Trump or his supporters have defended. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan is a shining example of how American administration can fix the problems of a nation. Displacing the dictator has, traditionally, been the easy part. [Continue reading…]

I’ve served on the Homeland Security Committee for the past three years. I’m 100% for strong safe secure borders and stopping narco terrorists and cartels from trafficking deadly drugs and human trafficking into America.

Fentanyl is responsible for over 70% of U.S. drug…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) January 3, 2026

Venezuela has been “liberated” like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq were “liberated”.

The CIA has staged another hostile takeover of a country at the behest of a globalist psychopaths.

That’s it. That’s what is happening, always, everywhere. Zionists cheer every regime change.… https://t.co/F60ouK7qAr

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) January 3, 2026

Initially seemed like a solid operation to cleanly, bloodlessly, and quickly remove Maduro from power last night.

But this new policy of “running Venezuela” with US soldiers sounds like a massive over-commitment. I have zero confidence in nation-building. Big mistake.

— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 3, 2026