Um … Is Donald Trump Seriously Going to Start a War with Venezuela?

I would never defend the Iraq War, but at least Congress, the broader American public, and the international community openly debated that policy before the U.S. invaded Iraq. Not here. This bellicose posture toward Venezuela is entirely driven by the administration with little consultation with anyone else. It’s true that presidents in both parties in recent decades have ignored the fact that it’s literally written in the Constitution that Congress, not the president, is supposed to formally declare when the United States is at war. But what Trump is doing has less accountability than, say, Barack Obama expanding the use of drone strikes in the post–September 11 period, when leaders in both parties and the American public were very committed to killing potential terrorists. 

In a recent CBS News poll, 76 percent of Americans, including 64 percent of Republicans, said that the administration needs to provide a clear rationale for its actions in Venezuela. Only 13 percent of Americans viewed Venezuela as a “major threat” to U.S. national security. 

And all of the misleading statements from the administration about Maduro undermine the campaign against him and also echo Iraq in some ways. As was the case with Saddam Hussein, there is plenty to oppose about Maduro without wrongly implying that he is sponsoring terrorism. Almost no one believes the Trump administration’s claim that randomly killing people on fishing boats is part of a smart way to combat drug smuggling. It is hard to imagine that the Trump administration sincerely cares about Maduro ignoring election results—that’s what Trump did himself in 2020. And the  administration is very allied with Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, who also attempted to stay in power after losing an election.