President Donald J. Trump just notched another huge win on the world stage, and Democrats are furious. At least, they want us to think they are.
Trump greenlit the operation that snagged Nicolás Maduro, the narcoterrorist and socialist dictator. Now Maduro sits in American custody. Democrats want to believe that Trump committed a war crime, invaded another country, got us into an “illegal war,” and all that. But, they’re not angry about what Trump did. They’re angry because Trump did it after they spent years talking about it.
Democrats spent years screeching about Maduro's iron-fisted rule. Unfortunately, their Trump Derangement Syndrome trumps everything, even crushing a dictator who menaced our backyard.
It’s true, and we have the receipts.
Back in February 2020, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sneered, “And the President brags about his Venezuela policy. Give us a break. He hasn’t brought an end to the Maduro regime. The Maduro regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the President began.”
Boy, it sure sounded like he wanted Trump to end the Maduro regime. Well, fast-forward to Sunday, and he’s telling George Stephanopoulos that Trump’s actions were “reckless” and that Americans are now living in fear.
“This is reckless,” he said. “And the American people are just, this morning, in fear of what’s going to happen here.”
And he wasn’t alone.
Here’s what Sen. Dick Durbin had to say back in 2019:
The people of Venezuela deserve better than this. We can’t allow this President’s short attention span to stop us from delivering on our promise to help the Venezuelan people rebuild their country. Boredom or fomenting a new crisis elsewhere is no excuse for inaction. https://t.co/Ski5RPGMop
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) June 20, 2019
On Saturday, however, Durbin had completely flip-flopped.
Nicolás Maduro repeatedly denied the will of the Venezuelan people, including when two thirds of them voted for an end to decades of political & economic ruin and criminality.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 3, 2026
However, I disagree with President Trump’s use of U.S. military forces without Congressional approval &…
So brave.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) also pushed hard for action once. In 2024, he called on the United States to do more to remove Maduro from power.
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“Obviously, we know Maduro and his cronies do not want to go quietly into the night, but the United States needs to work with its partners and allies in the region to ratchet up the pressure,” he told MSNBC.
What does he say now?
Trump and his cronies can try to dress this up, but it is an illegal act of war to replace Maduro and grab Venezuela's oil for his billionaire buddies.
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) January 3, 2026
Full statement below: pic.twitter.com/NCjByoVS2o
The only thing that changed is who sits in the Oval Office.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also called for Trump to intervene in 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) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 24, 2019
Today… not so much.
The invasion of Venezuela has nothing to do with American security. Venezuela is not a security threat to the U.S..
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 4, 2026
This is about making Trump's oil industry and Wall Street friends rich. Trump's foreign policy - the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela - is fundamentally corrupt. pic.twitter.com/alGWtnjrSO
It gets better. Back in 2019, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) professed her support for “bringing in the new president and delegitimizing the Maduro government."
And here’s what she’s saying now:
I have strongly opposed sending American forces into harm’s way in Venezuela without authorization from Congress. We should not put Americans at risk in this way without careful deliberation among the people’s elected representatives. Wars for regime change can lead to unintended…
— Senator Amy Klobuchar (@SenAmyKlobuchar) January 3, 2026
Make no mistake about it, Democrats wanted Maduro gone. They even called on Trump to do something during his first term. The difference was that they didn’t expect him to do anything. Frankly, the only logical conclusion is that they didn’t want him to do anything. Maduro was just another thing they wanted to use as a political cudgel against him. As long as Trump didn’t act, they could criticize him for inaction. Now that he did exactly what they’ve been wanting to do for years, suddenly they’re against it. If Trump had been president when Osama bin Laden was killed, they probably would have impeached him for it.
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