What exactly does the U.S. want in Venezuela?

President Donald Trump wants to oust Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s illegitimate president and architect of its economic collapse. The U.S. Navy’s largest warship is being positioned off the nation’s Caribbean coast as other covert and active military operations are underway.

Maduro deserves a send-off. He destroyed private property rights and corrupted the nation’s legal system, repressing his people so badly that 8 million fled. His country now traffics in drugs, weapons and humans. Maduro stole his election in 2024, continuing the unstable government that began more than two decades ago under Hugo Chávez.

But does the United States want to be back in the regime change business? Using military action against a sovereign nation must have a legal justification and so far the evidence the Trump administration has put forward is thin and contradictory. For three months, the United States has demanded Maduro step down. Starting in September, U.S. drones have blown up at least 21 speedboats allegedly carrying fentanyl, most in the international waters of the Caribbean basin, to stop “narco-terrorism.” But almost all fentanyl comes over the border with Mexico.

This Sunday, the United States began arguing that Maduro is the head of a foreign terrorist organization it calls Cartel de los Soles and described by the State Department as a drug smuggling network run by Venezuelan military officials. It’s further pressure in the campaign to get Maduro to flee or convince his generals to stage a coup. We have offered a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest, twice the amount that was on the head of Osama bin Laden.

If the South American nation is in such bad shape, though, why has the administration ended the “temporary protected status” of some 600,000 Venezuelans who have sought asylum here, and is sending back two planeloads of deportees a week? How does the administration argue the drone strikes meet the legal threshold for killing enemy combatants — but rejects demands that Congress approve any continued military action by claiming we are not engaged in hostilities?

The armada anchored by the USS Gerald R. Ford, an aircraft carrier, puts thousands of troops within striking distance of Venezuela. While it has the earmarks of Trump’s practice of escalating a conflict to negotiate a deal, what exactly does our government want?

Opposition leader María Corina Machado, who dedicated part of her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, says she has a 100-day plan to restore democracy and revitalize the economy. Venezuela does have the world’s largest oil fields, the largest reserves of gold in the Americas, abundant natural gas, verdant farmland and a stunning coastline to attract tourists. For all those reasons, it is unlikely the army, the criminal syndicates and others will easily fall in line with any plan. If Maduro were to leave or be killed, there could be chaos.

That’s why specific military and diplomatic strategies must be forthcoming. Trump’s actions don’t square with his America First slogan and his promises to keep the nation out of foreign entanglements.