Was Venezuela attack 'America First'? Trump, some former backers disagree

The U.S.-led ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on Saturday marks the latest foreign intervention led by President Donald Trump in his second term after years of touting an "America First" brand of foreign policy that called for less involvement in global conflicts.

Trump, who over the past year has put himself at the center of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Iran, and Indian and Pakistan, among other international conflicts, defended the operation to depose Maduro as in line with his "America First" mantra. But his critics argued the operation was the latest departure from his long-time pledge to keep the U.S. out of conflict.

Trump’s foreign policy positions have undergone an “evolution” between his first and second terms, said Meena Bose, director of Hofstra University’s Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.

“When he first ran for president and started campaigning in 2015, he was very much opposed to U.S. intervention abroad,” Bose told Newsday in a phone interview. “His America First policy was very much against the Iraq War. He called for … economic U.S. primacy in the world, but to also kind of step back from direct engagement. And yet, we've seen multiple efforts from the first term and the second where the administration has been engaged in airstrikes and military action abroad.”

Since taking office last January, Trump has authorized a U.S. military airstrike on Iran's nuclear facilities in June, airstrikes over Yemen targeting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the spring and most recently missile strikes last month in Nigeria targeting Islamist militant groups. Read the story here. 

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.