Hard line How Rubio is driving Trump's war on Maduro

It was a solemn pledge at the heart of Donald Trump's "America first" appeal. A Make America Great Again (Maga) foreign policy would mean the end of military commitments that had in the past sucked the US into draining, drawn-out wars far from its own shores.

- By Robert Tait WASHINGTON

Now an intense military buildup targeting the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela is stretching that commitment to breaking point as the White House strikes a bellicose posture that seems to mock Trump's self-proclaimed "president of peace" image.

In recent weeks, US forces have carried out at least eight strikes, killing at least 38 people, against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela's coast that Washington said were being used for drug trafficking. One strike, announced last Friday by Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, reportedly killed six people on a boat allegedly being used to smuggle drugs on "a known narco-trafficking route".

Two other strikes in the Pacific last week killed at least five people as tensions rose between the US and Colombia over the Trump administration's tactics against alleged traffickers.

But the main focus has been Venezuela amid a buildup that has seen nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and elite special operations forces deployed off its shores.