Democrats’ Trump Derangement Syndrome has reached critical condition following a daring U.S. military raid that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend. Many of the same liberals who once criticized President Donald Trump for supposedly allowing Maduro to remain in power are now outraged that Trump has taken decisive action to end his rule.
By any objective metric, the raid was a stunning success and yet another massive feather in Trump’s foreign policy cap. In a lightning strike that lasted less than three hours, American forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and brought them to face justice in the United States. In March 2020, during Trump’s first term, the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Maduro for narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and related offenses.
In the wake of the raid, tens of millions of Venezuelan citizens and freedom-loving people around the world took to the streets to celebrate the downfall of one of the world’s most brutal authoritarian leaders. “This feels like a breath of fresh air,” one Venezuelan who lives in Florida told CBS News. “It’s not an act of war. It’s an act of freedom,” another said. Videos coming out of Venezuela show tens of thousands of people waving flags and cheering in the streets.
Democrats, however, were decidedly less enthusiastic about Maduro’s capture, accusing Trump of violating the Constitution and initiating an “act of war” against Venezuela. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the raid “reckless,” while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) alleged that the Trump administration showed “no evidence” that Maduro posed an “imminent threat.”
Newly inaugurated Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani reportedly called Trump personally to criticize the raid, accusing the President of violating international law. Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America demanded that Trump release Maduro immediately.
In fact, it appears as if Democrats and Never-Trump Republicans have joined Maduro’s inner circle and other corrupt regimes in places like Iran, Russia, and North Korea as the only people who are upset that the now-former dictator is sitting in a jail cell instead of the presidential palace in Caracas.
But it was Democrats themselves who first insisted that the United States do more to bring about Maduro’s downfall – and even disparaged Trump for not taking exactly the sort of action that they now claim is reckless and unconstitutional.
Take, for instance, the criticism from former Vice President Kamala Harris, who posted on X that Trump’s actions were “unlawful and unwise” and accused him of launching a “war for regime change.” But as users on social media were quick to point out, the Biden-Harris administration offered a $25 million reward for information that would have led to Maduro’s arrest. (Too bad Trump can’t retroactively collect it.)
Adding to the hypocrisy, back in 2020, Schumer, who is now blasting Trump for bringing an end to the Maduro regime, explicitly criticized Trump for not bringing an end to the Maduro regime.
A year before that, in 2019, Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy had this to say about Venezuela: “If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States).” But following this weekend’s events – now that Trump has taken Murphy’s advice and done something that Murphy himself said would be good for the country – Murphy posted that “the illegality of Trump’s insane war in Venezuela is out of control.”
Murphy further called the strike “a warmongering distraction.” But it was far more than a “distraction” for the 30 million people who live in Venezuela and the countless Americans who have had their lives destroyed by the illicit drug trade that Maduro propped up. It was also a devastating blow to China, Russia, Iran, and every other U.S. adversary that had used Venezuela as an outpost in America’s backyard.
It’s also worth noting that the same Democrats who are now accusing Trump of violating the Constitution and committing an “act of war” against Venezuela had nothing but praise to offer when former President Barack Obama took even more serious actions without congressional approval.
In 2011, Obama authorized an enormous air offensive to intervene in the Libyan Civil War, an action that eventually led to the overthrow and death of Muammar Gaddafi. Obama also authorized a strike that killed Osama bin Laden inside the sovereign nation of Pakistan without congressional approval – a success which even his Republican opponents in Congress almost universally commended him for.
Now, however, when the military swoops in and captures a foreign dictator alive and returns him to the United States to face justice in a court of law, Democrats are losing their minds. Few reactions in recent memory have so perfectly captured how hypocritical, out of touch, and downright unhinged Democrats seem to the American people.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
