SEN TIM KAINE: Trump’s Venezuela strike represents ‘painful return’ to failed intervention
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President Donald Trump’s unauthorized military invasion of Venezuela to arrest Nicolás Maduro – however bad it may be – is a sad return to the day when the United States asserted the right to dominate the internal political affairs of all nations in the Western Hemisphere. That history is full of failures—in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere—that destabilized the region and led to deep hostility toward the United States.
The White House spin room is already working hard to sell this disaster to the American people, including the anti-interventionist MAGA base that elected President Trump. At the top of the to-do list was a press conference involving Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
At press time, Trump celebrated a deep hole. He acknowledged that the illegal operation would have been costly for US workers. He promised to “run” Venezuela and was unable to answer follow-up questions about what that meant. He offered vague suggestions that American companies could steal Venezuela’s oil—a desperate attempt to show that this reckless operation was in America’s best interest. And he and Rubio even threatened that Cuba was next.
KAINE TELLS CONGRESS TO ‘GET IT OUT OF THE SOLDIERS,’ WANTS LIFE POWER
We assert that nations should respect each other’s sovereignty. How can we make that claim with a straight face when the United States does not? We sign international human rights treaties that prohibit the killing of disabled soldiers.
How can we look the world—or ourselves—in the eye when we kill shipwrecked people who didn’t even know the president put them on a secret list of those who could be targeted by the US military?
We pledge allegiance to the Constitution which specifies that war may not be started without a vote of Congress. How can we allow this president—or any president—to send our troops against other nations without notice, consultation, debate within or a vote of Congress?
And where will this go next? Will the president move our troops to protect the Iranian protesters? Enforcing a ceasefire in Gaza? Fighting terrorists in Nigeria? Taking Greenland or the Panama Canal? Invading Cuba? Suppressing Americans who peacefully assemble to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all of this and more. But he clearly sees no need to seek legislative approval from a legislature elected by the people before putting workers at risk.
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The net effect of the president’s actions—illegal unilateral military strikes, chaotic tariffs, rude rhetoric—is to weaken relationships with allies and increase our adversaries. China, in particular, recently released a Latin American strategy that promises deeper ties with nations in the region. We know from our experience that such Chinese relations are often empty and cruel. But our neighbors in the Americas will accept cooperation, even if uncertain, rather than domination.
Not only could this action drive our neighbors further into the arms of our most strategic enemy—endangering America’s economic and national security—it is yet another broken promise by an unfocused, unfocused president. What happened to putting America first? The American people are asking for lower prices, but all Trump is interested in is chasing opportunities to lead us into wars we don’t want.
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It is long past time for Congress to reaffirm its constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and commerce. My bipartisan resolution stating that we should not go to war with Venezuela without clear congressional authorization is up for a vote in the coming days. And I expect there will be many such decisions in the coming year.
We are entering the 250th year of American democracy and we cannot allow it to devolve into the violence our founders fought to escape.
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