{"id":135,"date":"2026-05-27T23:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:42:26","slug":"the-key-thing-missing-from-trumps-regime-change-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=135","title":{"rendered":"The key thing missing from Trump\u2019s regime change plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After the extraordinary U.S. tactical victory removing Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from Caracas, President Donald Trump appears to have stumbled immediately. During a self-congratulatory press conference Saturday rolling out their post-Maduro strategy, Trump, Cabinet members and other U.S. officials provided details about the special operations mission that captured Maduro without the loss of any U.S. personnel. They also made several claims about plans for Venezuela\u2019s future that could unsettle even the most optimistic among us. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s plan to \u2018run\u2019 Venezuela for its oil is already facing problems<\/a><\/p>\n

While there is global debate about the legality of rendering Maduro to the U.S. criminal justice system, both the Trump and Biden administrations were in sync on a fundamental point: Maduro was an illegitimate president that the United States has not recognized since January 2019. But at Saturday\u2019s press conference, U.S. officials expressed support for Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, the executive vice president of Venezuela, to be the country\u2019s interim president.<\/p>\n

There is a logic problem: If Maduro was an \u201cillegitimate dictator,\u201d then wouldn\u2019t his executive vice president similarly be illegitimate?<\/p>\n

Here are some basic facts that existed before U.S. actions Saturday: Delcy Rodr\u00edguez has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2018 for antidemocratic actions and violating human rights. She has also been sanctioned since 2018 by the European Union, a rarer designation reserved for particularly bad actors. She has been a part of Maduro\u2019s various governments since 2013, when he took over for the deceased Hugo Chavez. She is a staunch Maduro loyalist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At his press conference, Trump indicated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had engaged with Rodr\u00edguez by phone and that she had been \u201cquite gracious\u201d and was willing to do whatever is necessary to facilitate a transition of power. Notably, Rubio appeared visibly uncomfortable with Trump\u2019s characterization of the nascent relationship. But a more forceful contrast came from Rodr\u00edguez, who gave her own press conference on Saturday and railed against the Trump administration. Rodr\u00edguez denounced the U.S. action as an \u201cillegal and illegitimate kidnapping,\u201d rejected the idea of U.S. authority to oversee Venezuela and insisted that Maduro remains the country\u2019s \u201conly president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Trump administration apparently has no plans to bring into the governing process either of the opposition figures who would have legitimate claims to lead a democratic Venezuela: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, the undisputed head of the opposition; or Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, who garnered more votes in the July 2024 presidential election that Maduro claimed to have won. Either could be a unifying figure seeking to stabilize Venezuela moving forward. In the absence of a leader with legitimate credentials, the Trump strategy of regime change is a farce. Removing only Maduro while rogue figures on the U.S. Treasury\u2019s Specially Designated Nationals blacklist are still firmly in control in Caracas is like repositioning deck chairs on the Titanic. It would be laughable were the stakes not so high. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more State Dept. tries to shield X from British probe into AI porn scandal<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps Trump\u2019s reference Saturday to the potential for \u201cmore powerful strikes\u201d was meant to encourage individuals with ties to Maduro to depart the country. Personally, I\u2019m paying attention to how quickly wrongfully detained Americans are released and when political and military prisoners of conscience are allowed to return to society. If the notorious Helicoide torture center in Caracas remains full, then Venezuelans will know that the Maduro regime continues in some form \u2013 and that their hopes for genuine democratic change should remain low.<\/p>\n

The other chilling comment from Trump\u2019s press conference was his announcement that the United States plans to \u201crun\u201d Venezuela. How, exactly, and for how long? \u201cWe\u2019re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition\u201d to new leadership, the president said. Without significant security forces on the ground, it is hard to see how a failed state, riddled with illegal armed groups and foreign terrorist organizations, will somehow remain stable merely by removing a deeply unpopular dictator.<\/p>\n

Many believed that the Trump administration\u2019s focus on Venezuela was ultimately about regional stability, stopping drugs and the relationships Venezuela nurtured with our strategic adversaries. Some of us, perhaps more naively, hoped that restoring democracy and stopping human rights abuses were objectives. Those are all laudable goals, even if reasonable people can disagree about the legality of and fallout from directed U.S. action. The president\u2019s remarks Saturday, however, underscored his administration\u2019s interest in access to oil. Given the number of oil companies whose assets have been expropriated in Venezuela and that have won international arbitration awards, a quick return of U.S. oil companies to invest in Venezuela and boost oil production is unlikely.\u00a0Steep investments will be a hard sell if the rule of law remains shaky. <\/p>\n

I served for five years total as chief of mission and U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. I know how deeply some have yearned for this regime change. And yet: The world has asked so much of the Venezuelan opposition. They have protested in the streets, drawn global attention to the dictatorship\u2019s many abuses, engaged in negotiations \u2013 all to no avail. Opposition candidates have run in and won elections only to see the Maduro regime refuse to hand over power. And now that Maduro has been relieved of his illegitimate presidency, the opposition could again be asked to suffer the indignity of watching the regime remain in power during this \u201ctransition.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the United States expects a different result from the same people, we collectively will have failed to learn from the Maduro regime\u2019s record.\u00a0 As we say in South Carolina, there is no education in the second kick of a mule.<\/p>\n

Read more Kari Lake stops Radio Free Europe from broadcasting into Iran over politics<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the absence of a leader with legitimate credentials, the Trump strategy of regime change in Venezuela risks devolving into a farce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nThe key thing missing from Trump\u2019s regime change plan - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=135\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The key thing missing from Trump\u2019s regime change plan - Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the absence of a leader with legitimate credentials, the Trump strategy of regime change in Venezuela risks devolving into a farce.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=135\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-27T23:42:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0206dfa2bde56a4792f75b5b97027e43\"},\"headline\":\"The key thing missing from Trump\u2019s regime change plan\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-27T23:42:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135\"},\"wordCount\":1008,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/29ceadbabb4f4ff2b94e58b3ceb8af6e.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longdistancemoversusas.com\\\/?p=135\",\"name\":\"The key thing missing from Trump\u2019s regime change plan - 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