The Venezuelan coup opens the gates to a new era of imperial plunder for Trump.

President Donald Trump started 2026 with a coup and a kidnapping, using the American military to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores. Trump’s violation of Venezuelan sovereignty is a crime against both the American Constitution and international law. More terrifyingly, it appears to be just the beginning.

On Saturday, Jan. 3, Trump gloated to Fox News, “This incredible thing last night. We have to do it again [in other countries]. We can do it again, too. Nobody can stop us.”

Trump is, unfortunately, correct. The normal check on an out-of-control president is Congress, but the Republicans who control it are all too eager to abdicate their constitutional responsibilities. Another potential restraining force is the international community. But both America’s biggest allies and biggest rivals (notably China and Russia) have signaled that they will offer no more than pro forma rhetorical objections to Trump’s nakedly imperialist foreign policy. As a result, Trump is drunk on war.

Trump is already eyeing other nations in the Western Hemisphere to attack. In an interview with The Atlantic on Jan. 4, he said, “We do need Greenland, absolutely.” In the Fox News interview, he said, “Something is going to have to be done with Mexico.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Meet the Press, “the Cuban government is a huge problem.” Trump also threatened military action against Colombia and Iran.

Trump’s bravado needs to be distinguished from what he is actually capable of. The focus on the Western Hemisphere, where the U.S. has overwhelming military superiority and where no rival power possesses nuclear weapons, is itself a sign of a superpower in retreat.

The Venezuelan war is as unpopular as Trump himself.

The Venezuela coup was a violent spectacle, but one that created a greater perception of change than is merited by reality. Aside from Maduro and his wife, Trump left the existing government of Venezuela in place, with Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now in charge. The Venezuelan coup created the type of spectacle that Trump revels in, but it had little rationale other than providing an advertisement for Trump’s vision of a world of unbridled imperial plunder divided into spheres of influence.

Unfortunately, there’s little sign of any serious political challenge to Trump’s project. The real check on his imperialism will come not from existing political elites but from mass protests and organizing. According to a YouGov poll, the Venezuelan war is as unpopular as Trump himself and has little support outside the MAGA base. The poll shows that 46 percent of the population oppose the war.

Organizing an anti-war movement in the U.S. is hard in the absence of significant American casualties, but Trump’s unpopularity has already produced massive protests. The anti-war argument can both feed on this resistance to Trump and offer the resistance an even more compelling reason to oppose this criminal presidency.

JEET HEER is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation, where this story first appeared.