The operation ordered by President Donald Trump which led to Saturday’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro drew support across the Make America Great Again movement.
American military forces, reportedly including the Army’s elite Delta Force, protected a law enforcement operation which arrested Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narcoterrorism, drug trafficking, and firearms charges in Caracas early Saturday morning.
Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden took aim at Democratic critics of the mission, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
“Today, Democrats will claim @POTUS‘ decisive action in Venezuela violated international law,” Gooden posted Saturday on X in response to a video of Ocasio-Cortez opposing “interventionism.” “Yet, when Nicolás Maduro STOLE an election, they remained silent. In fact, Democrats like AOC are on record REFUSING to denounce Maduro’s terrorist regime.”
“Maduro: the only illegal alien Dems *don’t* want to bring to the US,” Salem Radio Network host Scott Jennings posted.
Other MAGA personalities praised the operation itself.
“The Venezuela mission showed the world what [American] special ops can do,” commentator Mike Cernovich posted on X. “It’s fucking cool as hell. Too many people got gaslit into thinking America didn’t have the greatest fighting force in history. Now! The world knows what can be done with REAL LEADERSHIP. Sent a message.”
“Bold move by @realDonaldTrump taking out convicted NARCO TERRORIST and DICTATOR of Venezuela Maduro,” Republican Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett posted Saturday, along with a video in which he predicted Maduro would “be away for a long time.”
Other MAGA figures contrasted Trump’s action to the course followed by past administrations.
“When Hugo Chavez took over Venezuela and mocked America and [nationalized] our assets there – US Presidents did NOTHING,” Bo Snerdley, the producer for the late conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, said in a post on X. “When Maduro took over and help flood America with drugs and criminal illegal aliens – US Presidents did NOTHING. Trump DID SOMETHING.”
“China met with Nicolás Maduro Friday to talk alliances. Trump captured Maduro later that SAME day, while the Chinese delegation still remains in Venezuela,” conservative commentator and former police officer Brandon Tatum posted. “A direct message to Xi Jinping and the WORLD. Savage.”
Outgoing Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, until recently a vocal Trump supporter, made an apparently sarcastic post on X.
“We are ‘running’ Venezuela now,” Greene said with a facepalm emoji. “America First!!!”
Other MAGA figures expressed some concerns about the operation.
“When I thought this was a limited strike to go after Maduro, I was willing to defend it. But now that I hear we will be ‘running Venezuela,’ I have some concerns,” Republican State Del. Nick Freitas, a former Green Beret, posted on X. “Because I’ve lived at the business end of this kind of foreign policy and it didn’t work out well.”
Others suggested similar operations take place in America in cities where resistance to operations by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken place.
“See that thing we just did to Venezuela?” X user Oilfield Rando posted. “That’s what I want done to Minneapolis, Seattle, Sacramento, Austin, Boise, Columbus, Detroit, Madison, NoVA, Raleigh, Atlanta, Lewiston, Chicago.”
Podcaster Tim Pool, however, delivered a succinct reaction on X.
“Venezuela is better off,” he posted.
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