'I thought we were done with foreign wars': Maga fury at Venezuela strikes

As US forces gather in the Caribbean, Trump faces growing dissent on the home front, writes Hugh Tomlinson in Washington

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In the low light of a bar in Capitol Hill last week, a Republican strategist shook his head in frustration.

"I thought we were done with regime change and endless foreign wars," he said of Donald Trump's confrontation with the Venezuelan despot Nicolás Maduro.

"The voters' priorities at the election last year were clear - it was the economy and immigration. No one was calling for regime change in Venezuela."

Many Republicans share that unease as the standoff with Maduro threatens to consume Washington and drag the Trump administration into a political and legal quagmire.

While a US taskforce remains stationed in the Caribbean, back in Washington, defence secretary Pete Hegseth has faced allegations of war crimes over a series of airstrikes on boats that the White House claims were carrying drugs bound for the US.

Reports that US forces launched a second strike to kill the survivors of one attack in September have seen prominent Republicans join Democrats to demand a full investigation. The White House's shifting accounts of the incident and a move to push responsibility on to a three-star admiral have enraged many on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon.

Among Maga loyalists, Trump's march to war with Venezuela is a betrayal of his America First doctrine and his pledge to end US involvement in needless foreign conflicts. In the eyes of many supporters, the president is now in thrall to the very neoconservative wing of the Republican party Maga was created to destroy.