Outspoken members of President Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition who previously expressed disapproval of U.S. intervention in foreign conflicts are being accused of hypocrisy over their response to events in Venezuela.
Trump launched surprise missile strikes on Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning and captured the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and First Lady Cilia Flores, who have since been taken to New York to answer drug and weapons charges.
“We’re going to run the country right,” the president said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago Saturday. “It’s going to be run very judiciously, very fairly. It’s going to make a lot of money.”
He added that he was not afraid to put “boots on the ground” to stabilize the country. He insisted the measures were consistent with MAGA’s “America First” philosophy, saying: “We want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We need that for ourselves, we need that for the world.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said that “America First” was about securing “peace through strength.”
But retiring Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently fallen out spectacularly with the administration, spoke for many anti-interventionist Republicans when she wrote on X Saturday: “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy were we wrong.”
Elsewhere on social media, many conservatives who had previously declared their opposition to regime change and “forever wars” were confronted with their past criticisms of American adventurism abroad as they sought to put a positive spin on Trump’s actions.
“PSA for everyone saying this was ‘illegal,’” wrote Vice President JD Vance defensively on X.
“Maduro has multiple indictments in the United States for narcoterrorism. You don’t get to avoid justice for drug trafficking in the United States because you live in a palace in Caracas.”
The VP appeared to be anticipating accusations that he had abandoned his principles, given that he previously attacked the “failures” of the Iraq War, in which he served, and promised a graduating class at the U.S. Naval Academy last year: “No more undefined missions; no more open-ended conflicts.”
Other MAGA voices were confronted with precisely those criticisms.
Catturd, who had posted, ”Venezuela is now more free than New York City,” was reminded that he had previously challenged his followers: “Name one U.S. inspired regime change that hasn’t ended in absolute disaster.”
“Venezuela is better off,” podcaster Tim Pool said, only for another user to respond: “Remember when he pretended to be anti-war? They were always neocons. The whole thing was a fraud.”
Commentator Gunther Eagleman reposted Trump’s Truth Social post about the Maduro operation with the comment: “This is HUGE! I am completely AMAZED at the might of our military. WOW.” A whole host of users noted that he had previously reacted to the president announcing it was “TIME FOR WORLD PEACE” with the words: “NO NEW WARS.”
“I can think of few better uses of my tax dollars than black-bagging the head of a foreign narco-trafficking organization that enriches itself by addicting and poisoning my fellow Americans,” wrote lawyer Will Chamberlain.
“This you?” asked Wu Tang is for the Children, reminding Chamberlain of a previous post that declared: “The Republican Party is no longer the party of regime change and endless wars. If you want to be its standard-bearer that is a non-negotiable position.”
The apparent contradiction between the administration’s actions and its past rhetoric was also raised by Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, when she asked Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan how Trump’s Venezuela operation and subsequent threats toward Cuba and Colombia could be rationalized with his prior emphasis on domestic priorities.
“I trust the president to make decisions that are in the best interest of Americans of our country,” the Republican congressman answered. “This president gets results.”
Jordan insisted that Trump’s record since returning to power a year ago is “certainly making America great again.”
He continued: “Getting a bad guy brought to justice who’s had a five year arrest warrant? That is certainly consistent with that theme and that message as well. So I think the American people appreciate that.”
