Republican lawmakers are divided over whether President Trump should escalate military pressure on Venezuela to oust President Nicolás Maduro.
Some Republicans are warning that “regime change” has a history of backfiring on the United States.
Senate Republicans largely support Trump’s aggressive targeting of Venezuelan speedboats suspected of smuggling drugs, but some warn that attacking Maduro’s regime more directly, either by striking targets on land or putting “boots on the ground,” could go too far.
“I’m certainly following the situation closely. I support what the president’s done. I think the question is how forceful we should do this,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said. “I think we just have to be very careful when we’re dealing with regime change. It seems to backfire a lot.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he believes the administration is pursuing regime change in Venezuela and declared, “I’m opposed to it.”
Paul argued that Trump is being arbitrary in striking Venezuelan boats suspected of drug smuggling while pardoning the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for partnering with cocaine traffickers to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Paul said presidents are getting around Congress’s authority to declare war by themselves declaring “war against people we designate to be terrorists.”
A Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment frankly on Trump’s aggressive pressure against Maduro said the Trump administration seems intent on ousting Maduro even though Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators in a briefing last week that’s not their goal.
“I do not want to put ground troops in Venezuela. I don’t want to have another Afghanistan or Iraq,” the senator said. “I’m not in favor of U.S.-directed regime change.”
Rubio last week addressed Senate Republicans’ growing concerns that Trump may be planning a more aggressive intervention in Venezuela to oust the Maduro regime, which many Republicans say has held onto power illegitimately.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told journalist Chris Whipple in an interview for Vanity Fair indicating regime change is Trump’s goal.
“He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle,” Wiles said, going on to suggest that if Trump wants to order land strikes, he would need Congress’s authority.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) says there’s “a lack of clarity” from the administration about its national security goals for the region.
Trump said last month that U.S. strikes against Venezuela could begin “very soon,” a threat that prompted Paul to join a group of Senate Democrats to file a war powers resolution file a war powers resolution to block U.S. armed forces from engaging in hostilities against Venezuela without authorization from Congress.
Some Republican defense hawks have expressed frustration that Rubio and Hegseth haven’t stated more clearly an agenda to force Maduro from power.
“Most Americans want to know what’s going to happen next. I want to know what’s going to happen next. Is it the policy to take Maduro down? It should be, if it’s not. And if he goes, what’s going to happen next? I’d like a better answer as to what happens when Maduro goes,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an outspoken advocate for regime change, said after meeting with Hegseth and Rubio.
