I was among those who celebrated the Saturday morning raid that neutralized Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. In a vacuum, removing a socialist dictator who aligns himself with America’s enemies and upsets the lives of Americans at home without losing a single American troop is a no-brainer. Especially so when that person is in America’s backyard.
But now, things get more complicated. Nobody is quite sure what the exact reasoning behind the move is from the Trump administration — there are plenty of reasonable justifications, but the messaging has been schizophrenic. And what comes next? That’s extremely unclear as well. I’d think Trump and his team had a plan in place for the day after when they embarked on the mission, but we frankly don’t know what that is yet.
And perhaps most of all, questions remain about whether Trump is keeping his promise. We were sold “America First” foreign policy that would avoid foreign entanglements. The coming days and weeks in Venezuela will determine if that promise is kept.
I, for one, think there’s a very straightforward case for the Maduro raid being “America First.” It starts with our southern border…