AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in New York yesterday, where he's expected to face criminal charges. He was captured by U.S. forces during an astonishing military operation in the early hours of Saturday morning in the Venezuelan capital. The commando raid has been condemned by several countries in the region, and here in the U.S., questions have been raised about the legality of the operation. Speaking at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago, President Trump suggested the U.S. could remain in the country as an occupying force.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years.
RASCOE: But the president has offered few details on how that might work in practice. Joining me now to discuss that, and much more, is NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: President Trump was, of course, elected on a platform of America First, and he pledged to stay out of foreign wars. So how do you think his political supporters will view this operation in Venezuela?
LIASSON: Yeah. Well, that's the big political question here, and you're right, this is a huge change from what he ran on. And he even said it yesterday in the press conference. He referred to the Monroe Doctrine of the 19th and early 20th century. That's gunboat diplomacy. He said, quote, "the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal. But we've superseded it by a lot. They now call it the Donroe (ph) Doctrine."
And the occupation of Iraq and the reaction against that was really what fueled MAGA and fueled the rise of Trump - the reaction against the Iraq War and the occupation. You have the Vice President JD Vance, who actually served in Iraq. He came out of that conflict thinking that America had no business intervening in other nations' problems. So I think the big question for MAGA that Venezuela might answer is, is MAGA what Trump wants on a given day, or is it a set of principles that transcends Donald Trump and focuses on domestic problems in the United States, non-interventionist isolationism?
RASCOE: But what will determine whether the overthrow of the Venezuelan president is viewed as success?
LIASSON: Well, it's all going to depend on how easy it is to, quote, "run" Venezuela. And what does it mean when Donald Trump says he's going to run Venezuela? Is it going to be an occupation like Iraq? The U.S. has intervened in Central America before, in Panama, Haiti, Grenada. Donald Trump says this could involve boots on the ground. But we also know that the U.S. has learned some hard lessons, especially in the Middle East with Iraq, that it's not so easy running countries. And, you know, Venezuela has an army. It has a national guard. It has armed drug gangs. And we don't know how the Venezuelan people will react yet.
We did have the first wrinkle yesterday when, in the press conference, Donald Trump referred to the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and said, quote, "she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great." Hours later, Rodríguez goes on TV from Venezuela and demands the immediate release of Maduro and his wife and says there's only one president of Venezuela, President Maduro. So she doesn't sound as cooperative as Donald Trump described her.
RASCOE: Now, some top congressional Republicans have praised President Trump for this military action, but several Democrats are questioning whether the president had the legal authority to intervene without congressional approval. What have you been hearing?
LIASSON: Right. Well, I think that most Republicans, as you said, are supportive of this move. You have the two MAGA apostates, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie, members of Congress, criticizing this, saying that Donald Trump should be focused on domestic problems like the price of health care and food. But Democrats want hearings. They want to exercise Congress' constitutional prerogative to approve or disapprove foreign interventions. But I don't think you're going to get big pushback from this Republican Congress on Venezuela.
RASCOE: It's been a really dramatic start to the year, and this is a year that could prove pivotal to the president's fortunes because the midterms are in November. What do you think are likely to be the big issues in the coming months?
LIASSON: Well, the two things I'm watching are the economy and the Supreme Court. On the economy, GDP seems to be doing very well, but you can't eat GDP, and prices are still high. We have a K-shaped recovery. That means the rich are doing pretty well. Middle-class and lower-income people are struggling.
And then you've got the Supreme Court, where they're going to decide on birthright citizenship, a huge case. The 14th Amendment guarantees anyone who's born on U.S. soil to be a citizen. Donald Trump wants to change that. They're going to rule on tariffs and on the Voting Rights Act, which, if they gut it, that would allow Republicans to draw even more districts that are favorable to them in the midterms.
RASCOE: That's NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Thank you so much, Mara.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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