Coming Up Trumps

History may not remember Donroe Doctrine, but Trump’s reserved a passing mention with his Venezuela grab

For now, like it or not, Trump owns Venezuela. Some may question the ethics and legality of the grab, but that doesn’t diminish the military brilliance of ‘Op Absolute Resolve’. Its planning and execution were flawless. Trump effectively did in 2.5 hours what Putin has been trying to do for almost four years. This is not as oranges/apples as it seems because Venezuela and Ukraine are both large countries with over 3cr people each.

It’s Trump’s first unqualified success of his second term. Tariffs, inflation, jobs, investment, peace – Ukraine, Gaza, and the bunker-bustering in Iran – have been damp squibs. But Maduro in US custody is a cracker. As for right/wrong, US supreme court has already granted immunity to presidents for official acts. Besides, Trump isn’t the first prez to start a military op without Congress’s authorisation. Reagan in Lebanon, Bush Sr in Panama, Clinton in Yugoslavia, Obama in Libya, Biden in Yemen, there are enough precedents. And that’s because US law allows presidents to unilaterally authorise military action lasting up to 90 days. Anyway, they never call it war. For Obama, Libya was ‘kinetic military action’, for Trump, Venezuela is a ‘law-enforcement operation’.

So, the risk Trump took in Venezuela wasn’t legal but political. A botched op, or success with bodybags, would have hurt his approval ratings. Bush Sr’s 1989 intervention in Panama to grab Manuel Noriega resulted in 23 military deaths. Trump’s Venezuela op was surgically precise. One chopper was hit but remained operational. No troops were harmed, even while breaking into Maduro’s steel-enforced room. And don’t forget, Venezuela still has around 20 Sukhoi Su-30 MK2 planes. Something could have gone wrong, and a shot F-35 would have looked very bad indeed.

None of that happened thanks to the intense homework CIA did starting Aug. They had a mole in Maduro’s govt and stealth drones surveilling him all the time. And Trump never dissed his own intelligence team this time like he used to in his first term. That shows maturity on his part, and proves that US intelligence and military are still second to none. What now? Trump will hope this “rally event” improves his approval rating. Saddam Hussein’s capture raised Bush Jr’s rating by 7 points; Osama’s killing gave Obama 6 points. Trump, though, didn’t gain from the 2019 elimination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He’s probably staked his peace Nobel to get Maduro. Seems, now, a wise choice. 

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