Dec. 21, 2025, 4:01 a.m. ET
President Donald Trump built his “America first” brand of populist politics largely on criticism of efforts at regime change in other countries, with a special focus on the war in Iraq.
Fundamental to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ethos was his promise to end “forever wars,” which was embraced by his supporters who still adhere to that call to isolationism a decade later.
So I have to wonder what his MAGA base thinks now, as Trump pushes America closer and closer to war with Venezuela, and his growing fixation on regime change – and oil – in that South American country.
Trump, on Dec. 18, told NBC News that a war between America and Venezuela is possible while not-so-slyly hinting that his focus on that country’s oil was linked to the potential for regime change there. He sounded more like a venture capitalist plotting a corporate takeover than an American president looking out for his country.
Consider how far we’ve come since early September, when the U.S. military launched a series of strikes on boats traveling from Venezuela. Trump initially tried – unsuccessfully – to camouflage his desire to attack Venezuela as an interdiction of illegal drugs.
But last week, he made it clear: This is really about Venezuela’s oil, with a naval blockade of oil tankers there.
Trump’s fixation on Venezuela feels familiar
In a Dec. 16 social media post, Trump demanded that Venezuela “return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”
A day later, Trump complained about Venezuela this way: “They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. … They threw our companies out. And we want it back.”
That’s a reference to Venezuela’s nationalization of its oil industry, which started in 1976 and expanded in 2007, impacting U.S. companies that had operated there.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff, got ahead of her boss in a series of interviews with Vanity Fair published last week, in which she made clear that bombing Venezuelan boats was about regime change.
It was not at all comforting that Wiles seemed confused about whether Trump needed congressional approval for acts of war against Venezuela at sea or on land.
Quick check-in with the U.S. Constitution: He needs approval from Congress for both, even if he denies it.
American military adventurism is exactly the kind of thing Trump has long lambasted former President George W. Bush for, after he set off America’s nearly decade-long misadventure in Iraq in 2003.
Trump, in his first presidential campaign in 2016, argued that the invasion of Iraq was the “worst decision” in presidential history and accused Bush of lying to Americans about why that war started.
But, Trump being Trump, his aversion to war wavered plenty. He initially supported the idea of invading Iraq when it was being discussed in 2002.
And by 2011, he seemed hyperfocused on one aspect of America’s involvement in Iraq: It was all about the oil. Trump made clear he coveted Iraq’s oil and feared some other country would get it if America didn’t.
Trump’s only consistent foreign policy is hypocrisy
America’s frequent and lethal strikes on Venezuelan boats suspected of smuggling drugs are now clearly pretextually provocative, because our military is fully capable of interdicting drug runners with legal, nonlethal tactics.
But blowing nearly 30 small boats and killing more than 100 people aboard, while delighting in the details in selectively released videos, hasn’t pushed Venezuela to war or forced the country’s corrupt dictator, Nicolás Maduro, to flee.
So now the U.S. military is blockading Venezuela’s shipping lanes, after seizing at least one oil tanker. If this were an open and honest effort to enforce sanctions on the country’s oil shipments, that would be a legitimate use of force.
But this looks like something else: Trump overreaching for something he covets, while America disapproves. That has become a running theme for the first year of Trump’s second term – Americans are questioning his motives and tactics.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Dec. 17 showed that 53% of Americans oppose Trump’s attacks on boats in the waters of Venezuela; a larger percentage, 63%, oppose military action inside that country.
In a CBS News/YouGov Poll released Nov. 23, 76% of Americans said Trump hasn’t clearly explained his position on Venezuela.
Don’t expect Trump to follow his own MAGA ethos on foreign interventionism. And don’t expect him to care what Americans, or his base, think of his abandonment of “America first” isolationism.
Here’s what you can expect: Trump will make his hypocrisy as petty as possible.
The proof of that is now hanging on the wall outside the Oval Office at the White House, where Trump has installed photographs of his predecessors in a “presidential walk of fame.” Last week, his staff added plaques under some of those pictures to mock former presidents Trump does not like.
Under the picture of Bush, the new plaque says he “started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened.”
Trump would never try to hold himself to a standard he sets for other presidents. We won’t need a plaque under his picture to tell us that when his time as president ends. History will reflect his hypocrisy.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
