US intervention in Venezuela could test Trump's ability to hold GOP
together in an election year
[January 05, 2026]
By STEVEN SLOAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s military intervention in
Venezuela will pose a fresh test of his ability to hold together a
restive Republican coalition during a challenging election year that
could be defined by domestic concerns like health care and
affordability.
While most Republicans lined up behind the president in the immediate
aftermath of the stunning U.S. mission to capture Venezuelan leader
Nicolás Maduro and bring him to New York to face criminal charges, there
were signs of unease across the spectrum within the party. In
particular, Trump's comments about the U.S. positioning itself to “run”
Venezuela have raised concerns that he is abandoning the “America First”
philosophy that has long distinguished him from more traditional
Republicans and helped fuel his political rise.
“This is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of
that doesn't serve the American people, but actually serves the big
corporations, the banks and the oil executives,” said Rep. Marjorie
Taylor Greene of Georgia, a former Trump ally who is resigning on
Monday, in an interview with NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
Those concerns were shared by some who are not associated with the
party's far-right flank.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a moderate who is one of the
most vulnerable Republicans in the November midterms, said in a
statement that “the only country that the United States of America
should be ‘running’ is the United States of America.”
Those comments reflect the sensitive dynamics between Trump and his
fellow Republicans at the outset of an election year in which their
party risks losing control of Congress. While the president's dominance
remains undisputed, the ironclad grip that he has held over the party
has faced unusual challenges in recent months. Blocs of Republicans have
banded together to pressure Trump to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Others have been vocal in encouraging Trump to take concerns about
affordability more seriously.
Trump’s aggressive vision of US dominance
Few issues are as central to Trump's political brand as ensuring that
the U.S. does not get entangled in seemingly endless foreign conflicts
at the expense of domestic goals. During a 2016 Republican presidential
debate, for instance, he described the war in Iraq as a “big, fat
mistake."
But on Saturday, Trump said he was “not afraid of boots on the ground”
in Venezuela if that was deemed necessary, and he framed his actions as
prioritizing the safety and security of Americans. He articulated an
aggressive vision of U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, and said
it was important to “surround ourselves with good neighbors."
He remained confident on Sunday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One
that his supporters are “thrilled.”
“They said this is what we voted for,” Trump said.
However, much like the Iraq War, a president's early optimism after a
dramatic military action can sometimes meet more sobering realities that
drain domestic political support.
In Venezuela, U.S. troops could be placed in harm's way again as Trump
warns that more military operations may be in the works. An ongoing
conflict could worsen the hemisphere's refugee crisis, something the
White House has tried to tamp down with stricter border controls. In
addition, there are questions about how much cooperation the U.S. will
receive from officials still in Venezuela or how easily the country's
oil reserves could be tapped to fulfill Trump's goal of extracting more
energy with Maduro out of the picture.
Trump's comments this weekend about revitalizing the oil industry in
Venezuela are in line with some of the earliest critiques he made of the
handling of the Iraq War. During a 2013 speech before the Conservative
Political Action Conference, Trump said the U.S. should “take” oil from
Iraq and “pay ourselves back.”
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President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan.
3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla., as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Frustration with the handling of the Iraq War contributed to major
gains for Democrats in the 2006 election and helped create the
conditions for Barack Obama to be elected to the presidency two
years later. Given the baggage surrounding those wars, Trump allies
insist that the actions this weekend in Venezuela are different.
“Venezuela looks nothing like Libya,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio
said on “Meet the Press. “It looks nothing like Iraq. It looks
nothing like Afghanistan. It looks nothing like the Middle East
other than the Iranian agents that are running through there
plotting against America, okay?”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton argued that the
1989 ouster of Manuel Noriega in Panama is a better comparison.
“That was a successful operation,” Cotton said on CNN's “State of
the Union.” “I believe, in the long run, this will be too.”
Still, amid some of the pushback about the U.S. taking expansive
responsibility for managing Venezuela, Rubio suggested a more
limited role. He said that Washington would not handle day-to-day
governance of the South American country other than enforcing an
existing “oil quarantine” on Venezuela.
There's not much organized GOP opposition to the strikes
It is not clear that any forceful, organized opposition to Trump's
Venezuela policy is emerging within the GOP. Instead, many lawmakers
appear to be giving the Republican administration some room and, at
most, offer some warnings.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who faces a potentially challenging
reelection campaign this year, called Maduro a “narco-terrorist and
international drug trafficker” who should stand trial even, as she
said “Congress should have been informed about the operation earlier
and needs to be involved as this situation evolves.”
Even Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who often criticizes military
interventions, did not specifically oppose Trump's actions. He wrote
on social media that “time will tell if regime change in Venezuela
is successful without significant monetary or human cost.”
Many Democrats denounced Trump's actions in Venezuela and the
Democratic National Committee quickly sought to raise money by
blasting “another unconstitutional war from Trump.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., rejected the administration's
argument that it was combating drug crimes, saying on X that the
White House is instead focused on “oil and regime change” while
seeking to “to distract from Epstein + skyrocketing healthcare
costs.” Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the
strike was part of an “old and obvious pattern” where an “unpopular
president — failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at
home — decides to launch a war for regime change abroad.”
___
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Matthew Lee
contributed to this report.
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