‘An illegal war’: Democratic 2028ers scold Trump on Venezuela – POLITICO
‘An illegal war’: Democratic 2028ers scold Trump on Venezuela
Most would-be Democratic White House hopefuls piled on the president — while his possible Republican successors quickly voiced their support.
Democrats’ criticism is a sign of an emerging trendline that could mark both the upcoming midterms and the 2028 elections. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Democrats’ criticism is a sign of an emerging trendline that could mark both the upcoming midterms and the 2028 elections.
By Gregory Svirnovskiy and Samuel Benson, 01/03/2026 03:51 PM EST, Updated: 01/03/2026 04:50 PM EST
The top Democratic contenders to succeed Donald Trump in the Oval Office excoriated the president for his overnight strike on Venezuela on Saturday, sharply criticizing the president’s foreign policy and trying to drive a wedge between the president and voters wary of foreign entanglements.
Trump, they argued, launched the operation to distract from a souring political situation on the home front.
“It’s an old and obvious pattern,” former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote on X Saturday. “An unpopular president — failing on the economy and losing his grip on power at home — decides to launch a war for regime change abroad. The American people don’t want to ‘run’ a foreign country while our leaders fail to improve life in this one.”
It’s a sign of an emerging trendline that could mark both the upcoming midterms and the 2028 elections, as Democrats look to paint Trump as betraying his campaign promises by focusing too much on global affairs rather than domestic issues.
Trump rode to electoral victory in 2024 under the banner of “America First,” vowing to remove the U.S. from expansive overseas involvement and instead focus on the welfare of U.S. citizens.
During a press conference Saturday morning at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump defended the Maduro capture as “America First” because “we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. We want to surround ourselves with energy.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker argued that Trump should prioritize affordability, a key buzzword that spurred Democratic victories in last November’s off-year elections.
“Donald Trump’s unconstitutional military action in Venezuela is putting our troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy,” he wrote on X. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable.”
The operation, which Trump announced via Truth Social early Saturday morning, saw U.S. troops capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in their downtown Caracas compound, flying them out of the country. The couple, along with their son, will soon stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The Trump administration, in the meantime, will “run” Venezuela, Trump announced in the Saturday press conference
“We’ll run it properly,” he said.” “We’ll run it professionally. We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world go in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take out money, use that money in Venezuela.”
Democrats quickly pounced on the president’s actions. Within hours of Maduro’s announced capture, the Democratic National Committee sent out a fundraising email deeming it “another unconstitutional war from Trump, who thinks the Constitution is a suggestion.”
“Trump promised peace, but has delivered chaos,” the fundraising email, signed by DNC Chair Ken Martin, read. “The most important thing we can do right now is work to elect more Democrats who will check this administration’s power and prevent more disaster.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) echoed the message. “We keep voting against dumb wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, & Libya,” he wrote on X. “But our Presidents bow to a foreign policy blob committed to militarism.”
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