{"id":17315,"date":"2026-01-03T21:01:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/an-illegal-war-democratic-2028ers-scold-trump-on-venezuela\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:01:41","slug":"an-illegal-war-democratic-2028ers-scold-trump-on-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/an-illegal-war-democratic-2028ers-scold-trump-on-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An illegal war\u2019: Democratic 2028ers scold Trump on Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The top Democratic contenders to succeed Donald Trump in the Oval Office excoriated the president for his overnight strike on Venezuela on Saturday, sharply criticizing the president\u2019s foreign policy and trying to drive a wedge between the president and voters wary of foreign entanglements.<\/p>\n

Trump, they argued, launched the operation to distract from a souring political situation on the home front.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an old and obvious pattern,\u201d former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on X Saturday<\/a>. \u201cAn unpopular president \u2014 failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home \u2014 decides to launch a war for regime change abroad. The American people don\u2019t want to \u2018run\u2019 a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a sign of an emerging trendline that could mark both the upcoming midterms and the 2028 elections, as Democrats look to paint Trump as betraying his campaign promises by focusing too much on global affairs rather than domestic issues. <\/p>\n

Trump rode to electoral victory in 2024 under the banner of \u201cAmerica First,\u201d vowing to remove the U.S. from expansive overseas involvement and instead focus on the welfare of U.S. citizens. <\/p>\n

During a press conference Saturday morning at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump defended the Maduro capture as \u201cAmerica First\u201d because \u201cwe want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker argued that Trump should prioritize affordability, a key buzzword that spurred Democratic victories<\/a> in last November\u2019s off-year elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s unconstitutional military action in Venezuela is putting our troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/a> \u201cThe American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The operation, which Trump announced via Truth Social early Saturday morning<\/a>, saw U.S. troops capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in their downtown Caracas compound, flying them out of the country. The couple, along with their son, will soon stand trial on drug trafficking<\/a> charges.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration, in the meantime, will \u201crun\u201d Venezuela<\/a>, Trump announced in the Saturday press conference<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll run it properly,\u201d he said.\u201d \u201cWe’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world go in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats quickly pounced on the president\u2019s actions. Within hours of Maduro\u2019s announced capture, the Democratic National Committee sent out a fundraising email deeming it \u201canother unconstitutional war from Trump, who thinks the Constitution is a suggestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump promised peace, but has delivered chaos,\u201d the fundraising email, signed by DNC Chair Ken Martin, read. \u201cThe most important thing we can do right now is work to elect more Democrats who will check this administration\u2019s power and prevent more disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) echoed the message. \u201cWe keep voting against dumb wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, & Libya,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cBut our Presidents bow to a foreign policy blob committed to militarism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other 2028 Democratic contenders \u2014 including Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Sen. Mark Kelly, both veterans \u2014 condemned the administration\u2019s open-ended approach to their takeover in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived through the consequences of an illegal war sold to the American people with lies,\u201d Gallego wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cWe swore we would never repeat those mistakes. Yet here we are again. The American people did not ask for this, Congress did not authorize this, and our service members should not be sent into harm\u2019s way for another unnecessary conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly noted that Maduro is \u201ca brutal, illegitimate dictator who deserves to face justice,\u201d but questioned the U.S.\u2019 end game: \u201cIf we learned anything from the Iraq war, it\u2019s that dropping bombs or toppling a leader doesn\u2019t guarantee democracy, stability or make Americans safer,\u201d Kelly wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pushed back on Trump\u2019s assertion that the Maduro operation was about drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it was, Trump wouldn\u2019t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X<\/a>, referencing Trump\u2019s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, who was sentenced to decades in an American prison<\/a> on drug trafficking charges. \u201cIt\u2019s about oil and regime change.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one potential future Democratic presidential hopeful celebrated Maduro\u2019s capture without tacking on criticism of Trump. “\u00a1Libertad!\u201d Today I celebrate with the people of Venezuela in Colorado and elsewhere. The tyrant has fallen!\u201d wrote Colorado Gov. Jared Polis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republicans waiting in the wings to succeed Trump, however, loudly backed the president\u2019s moves. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, two key administration figures seen as the GOP\u2019s most likely heir apparents<\/a> once Trump leaves politics, were quick to praise the president on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president offered multiple off ramps, but was very clear throughout this process: the drug trafficking must stop, and the stolen oil must be returned to the United States,\u201d Vance, whose rose to political prominence in part by embracing isolationist tendencies, wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cMaduro is the newest person to find out that President Trump means what he says.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a president of action,\u201d Rubio, who has long been more hawkish, said at the Mar-a-Lago press conference.\u201dThis is not a president that just talks and does letters and press conferences. And, you know, if he says he’s serious about something, he means it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top Democratic contenders to succeed Donald Trump in the Oval Office excoriated the president for his overnight strike on Venezuela on Saturday, sharply criticizing the president\u2019s foreign policy and trying to drive a wedge between the president and voters wary of foreign entanglements. Trump, they argued, launched the operation to distract from a souring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}