How abducting an unpopular dictator could turn failure into a nationalist hero
President Donald Trump is once again speaking the language America has used too many times before: we will run it, we will fix it. This dangerous confidence echoes Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan—places where Washington believed power alone could reshape societies, only to leave behind chaos and regret.
There is no question that Nicolás Maduro is deeply unpopular. He stole the last election and has lost the support of many chavistas who once stood by him. Venezuela’s economic collapse, repression, and mass emigration are inseparable from his rule. His legitimacy at home was already crumbling.
But by abducting him, President Trump risks committing a catastrophic strategic error.
Nothing revives a failing autocrat faster than foreign intervention. What corruption, incompetence, and public anger had destroyed, American force may now restore. Overnight, Maduro can recast himself not as a failed ruler, but as a symbol of resistance against U.S. domination—exactly the narrative authoritarian leaders crave.
America has made this mistake before. In Vietnam, intervention unified opposition. In Iraq, regime change dismantled a state. In Afghanistan, two decades of war ended in a humiliating exit. Each time, Washington confused military power with political legitimacy.
Ironically, just days earlier, Maduro had offered a diplomatic opening—proposing cooperation on drugs and oil and inviting American companies to invest in Venezuela. Whether genuine or tactical, it showed he was under pressure and looking for relief. Diplomacy and internal dissent were weakening him far more effectively than force ever could.
By choosing coercion over realism, Trump may have handed Maduro his greatest political gift.
Foreign policy is not about bravado; it is about outcomes. And history suggests the outcome here is painfully predictable: a stronger dictator, a divided nation, and another American failure we will one day pretend to be surprised by.
Once again, America seems determined to relearn the same lesson—the hard way.
