Trump’s attack on Venezuela rallies US Republican hawks behind him

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump won broad approval for

his strike on Venezuela

from hawkish Republicans who have sparred with the White House over Ukraine and other foreign policies throughout his first year back in office.

Jan 3’s attack and the arrest of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro rallied the party around the US President, a far cry from the bruising intra-Republican battles over healthcare and affordability in recent weeks. 

Isolationists within the party, like Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie, balked at the strike, but were in the minority. Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Republican who frequently battles with Mr Trump, was uncharacteristically tempered in his criticism, even as he bristled at the administration’s decision to bypass Congress on the strike. 

The result in the hours after Mr Maduro’s ouster was a united Republican Party front involving rallying behind the commander-in-chief just 10 months before midterm elections for which Mr Trump’s sinking popularity had become a major concern for Republicans. 

“A free, democratic, and stable Venezuela, led by Venezuelans, is in America’s national security interests,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader who has a testy relationship with Mr Trump, said on Jan 3. 

There is also at least the potential for Venezuela’s oil to play a role in the midterms, too.

While many Democrats blasted what they called a war for oil, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested in 2025 that resolutions to conflicts with Venezuela and Russia could result in significantly lower oil prices.

That would help Republicans counter concerns about the cost of living, which fuelled big Democratic wins in off-year elections, although analysts are not expecting a big impact on oil prices any time soon. Venezuela’s oil output has plunged to about 1 per cent of global supplies, and rebuilding its infrastructure will take time, money and political stability.

Democratic dissent 

Democratic leaders threaded a careful political needle on Jan 3, condemning Mr Maduro as a thug and a dictator while also demanding briefings on what they called an “unauthorised” attack undertaken without consulting Congress. 

In particular, they pounced on Mr Trump’s stated claim that he would “run” Venezuela and seize the country’s oil, a strong indication that US commitment will extend beyond Jan 3’s strike. 

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia told reporters he would force votes this week to end the conflict. He also said he would insist on a vote later in January to block funding for military action in Venezuela. 

“There is no legal justification” for Mr Trump to attack Venezuela, run it or seize its oil without an act of Congress, Mr Kaine told reporters. “The only way that this can be stopped is for Congress to stop it,” he added. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Jan 4 that to get congressional approval, the administration would need to satisfactorily answer questions such as how long the US presence would last, how many troops would be involved, how much is it going to cost, and what are the limitations to US action. 

“This is the very thing Trump campaigned against, endless wars, and right now we’re headed right into another one,” Mr Schumer said on ABC’s This Week.

Those votes will put senators on the record, but they are extremely unlikely to pass the Republican-led Congress, let alone get the two-thirds vote needed in both chambers to override a presidential veto.

Mr Paul, who has backed Mr Kaine’s efforts to assert Congress’s constitutional responsibility to authorise the commitment of US forces abroad, voiced concerns that “a leader who monopolised central power is removed in an action that monopolises central power”. But the Kentucky Republican is an outlier in the party with few allies. 

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the moderate Republican who leads the committee that appropriates military and other federal funding, only mildly admonished the administration for not informing Congress earlier and said lawmakers need to be involved “as this situation evolves”. 

Even as Democrats raised questions about the legalities of Mr Trump’s attack, the politics for the minority party are complicated. 

Mr Maduro’s capture could have an impact on politics in places like Florida, home to many Americans of Venezuelan descent. 

Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the former Democratic Party chair, called the capture of Mr Maduro “welcome news for my friends and neighbours who fled his violent, lawless, and disastrous rule” in a statement.

She said she will “demand answers as to why Congress and the American people were bypassed in this effort”. BLOOMBERG