There’s no shortage of questions surrounding Donald Trump’s decision to deploy U.S. forces to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Was the offensive legal? Who’ll fill the leadership vacuum in Caracas? Does the White House envision a lengthy occupation?
But just as notable is another question that the American president and his team have pushed onto the list: Who’s next on Team Trump’s target list?
The Republican spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night for 37 minutes, during which time he offered unsubtle threats against a half-dozen countries, including Venezuela.
“If they don’t behave,” Trump said, referring to Venezuelan officials, “we will do a second strike.” He added that he hadn’t ruled out having U.S. troops on the ground in the South American country.
Hours earlier, he similarly told The Atlantic that if Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela’s executive vice president who has succeeded Maduro, “doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
So much for the idea that Saturday morning’s mission was nothing more than “a law enforcement operation,” as Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to argue on Sunday.
As part of the same Air Force One gaggle, Trump described Colombia as “very sick,” and when asked whether there might be a U.S. operation in that country too, the American president replied, “Sounds good to me.”
A day earlier, Trump said of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, “He does have to watch his ass.”
Also on Sunday night, the Republican said, “You have to do something with Mexico,” suggested he was willing to hit Iran “very hard” and emphasized his belief that the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland “from a national security situation.”
In case that weren’t quite enough, Trump also said he believes the government in Cuba is “ready to fall.” A day earlier, he said his administration would be “talking about” Cuba because he believes it’s “very similar” to Venezuela. Rubio added during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believes Cuban officials are “in a lot of trouble.” All of this, of course, comes on the heels of Trump approving a strike in Nigeria the day after Christmas. It helped wrap up a year in which the Republican administration also launched preemptive military strikes on targets in Iran, initiated a bombing campaign in Yemen, targeted Islamic State group sites in Syria, struck Islamic State group targets in Somalia and launched dozens of deadly strikes on civilian boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean. If you voted for Trump because you expected restraint on foreign policy and the use of military force abroad, I have some bad news for you. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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