The Venezuelan coup opens the gates to a new era of imperial plunder.
Protesters participate in a rally outside the US Embassy to condemn the US attack on Venezuela on January 5, 2026 in Seoul, South Korea.
(Chung Sung Joon/Getty Images)
Donald Trump began 2026 with a coup and kidnapping, using the US military to kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. Trump's violation of Venezuelan sovereignty is a crime against both the American Constitution and international law. What's even worse is that it looks like this is just the beginning.
On Saturday Trump gloated on Fox News: “An incredible thing happened last night. We have to do this again.” [in other countries]. We can do this again too. No one can stop us.” Trump, unfortunately, is right. The usual check on an out-of-control president is Congress, but the Republicans who control it are all too eager to abdicate their constitutional responsibilities. Another potential restraining force is the international community. But both America's biggest allies and biggest rivals (especially China and Russia) have made it clear that they will raise no more than formal rhetorical objections to Trump's overtly imperialist foreign policy.
As a result, Trump is drunk on war. The spectacle of violence for the sake of naked robbery gives him a sense of power. During his press conference on Saturday, Trump rejoiced“Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea, was used to launch a spectacular attack, and it was an attack the likes of which the people had not seen since World War II.” As his domestic support weakens and his reputation is threatened new discoveries Because of his ties to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Trump is turning to foreign policy as an arena where he can still flex his muscles. This is especially true in the Western Hemisphere, where the United States has long enjoyed a de facto sphere of influence under the dubious justification of the Monroe Doctrine.
At his press conference, Trump noted: “The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we have replaced it in many ways. Very much. Now they call it the 'Donro Document.' countries are owned by American companies. “We will run the country until we can achieve a safe, proper and reasonable transition,” Trump said. He added: “The vast oil infrastructure was taken over as if we were babies, so we did nothing about it. I would do something about it. America will never allow foreign powers to plunder our people or drive us back and forth to our hemisphere.”
After Venezuela, Trump is eyeing other countries in the Western Hemisphere for attack. In an interview with Atlantic on Sunday he said“We absolutely need Greenland.” He said Greenland was “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” In an interview with Fox News, Trump said“Something will have to be done with Mexico.” Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Meet the press that “the Cuban government is a huge problem” and “they have a lot of problems.” Trump also threatened military action v. Colombia and Iran.
Trump's bravado must be distinguished from what he is actually capable of. Focusing on the Western Hemisphere, where the United States enjoys overwhelming military superiority and where no rival power possesses nuclear weapons, is itself a sign of superpower retreat. Trump's recent statement National Security Strategypublished in November, clearly avoided ending great power cooperation with China and Russia. As journalist Noah Calvin asserts“American imperial hegemony seems as unchecked as ever, but this behavior of a power in decline seeks weaker and weaker opponents to defeat in lieu of any other national project.”
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The coup in Venezuela was a brutal spectacle, but it created a greater sense of change than the reality deserved. In addition to Maduro and his wife, Trump left behind the existing Venezuelan government led by Vice President Delcy Rodriguez. Trump fired Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been described as a “very nice woman” who is not respected within the country. In other words, Trump achieved leadership change, not regime change. connivance of the Venezuelan political elite. Contrary to Trump, the United States will not govern Venezuela directly; rather it will be continue to use coercion to achieve political goals. Venezuela will be under US control more than ever and will become an open playground for the US business community, but all of these goals could likely be achieved by reaching an agreement with Maduro (as some in the Trump administration are doing). I was hoping for this last summer).
The Venezuelan coup created the type of ultra-violent spectacle that Trump relishes, but it had no explanation other than to advertise Trump's vision of a world of unbridled imperial plunder divided into spheres of influence.
This imperialism in itself is destabilizing and must be resisted. If the world is to survive the 21st century's confrontation with climate change, it will need more international cooperation than ever before. Trump's turf policies, in addition to his reactionary emphasis on supporting fossil fuel extraction, are a direct undermining of any such cooperative future.
Unfortunately, there are no signs of any serious political problems for Trump's project. Republicans are a lost cause. Moreover, although many Democrats in Congress were admirably candid in attacking Trump's foreign policytheir leaders such as Chuck Schumer And Hakeem Jeffrieswere more reserved, often focusing on procedural objections such as the need for congressional oversight rather than substantive criticism. Centrist Democrats I even argue anonymously that their party should support Maduro's takeover.
European leaders have proposed restrained and contradictory response to a coup in Venezuela, mixing condemnation of Maduro as a tyrant with a pious expression of faith in international law. Matt Duss, vice president of the Center for International Policy: warns that “Europe's bumbling response to Trump's war in Venezuela is essentially an invitation to just go ahead and take Greenland.”
The real check on Trump's imperialism will come not from existing political elites, but from mass protests and organizing, which in turn can help change elite opinion. According to a YouGov poll, The Venezuelan war is equally unpopular like Trump himself, and he has little support outside of the MAGA base. The poll shows 46 percent of the population opposes the war compared with 39 percent who support it, a division that breaks down along partisan lines. These numbers are startling because US wars are usually most popular early on. This coup is starting with low approval and is likely to fall even lower when it turns out to bring negligible benefits beyond business leaders, including Charles Myers, a major donor to the Democratic Party.salivating over money making opportunities in a more Trump-compliant Venezuela (though even those business leaders seem reluctant make the types of investments that Trump calls for). Outside the United States, there were mass protests against Maduro's kidnapping.
The coup in Venezuela is not only unpopular, it highlights the worst trends of lawlessness that make Trump himself unpopular. Organizing an anti-war movement in the US is difficult because there are no significant casualties in the US, but Trump's unpopularity has already sparked mass protests. The anti-war argument can both feed off this resistance to Trump and offer the resistance an even more compelling reason to oppose this criminal presidency.
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