Trump’s Regime Gambit in Venezuela: The Return of Washington’s Old Playbook
Abbas Hashemite, New Eastern outlook, October 28, 2025 —
After spreading chaos and turmoil in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia, the Trump administration now seeks to destabilize South America by attempting regime change in Venezuela.
The Trump administration holds that it is conducting these strikes on the Venezuelan vessels in self-defense, as they were carrying illicit drugs to the United States. However, these illegitimate US strikes have sparked global outrage and condemnation. While talking about these strikes, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, stated that one of the boats targeted by the US forces was not Venezuelan; instead, it was “Colombian with Colombian citizens inside.” Many international observers and experts in maritime and international law hold that the United States’ attacks on the Venezuelan ships are illegal. Experts hold that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea prohibits countries from interfering with boats in international waters unless they are chased from a country’s waters into the international sea.
U.S. Expansionism and the Middle East Connection
However, the self-proclaimed “man of peace,” Donald Trump, acts with impunity in all his operations against his rivals. In a shocking move, the world saw US President Donald Trump confessing that he provided US arms and weapons to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for their genocidal operations in Gaza. He further stated that Netanyahu used these weapons very well, a statement largely seen as a shameful appreciation for the Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. Since October 7, 2023, the United States has provided unprecedented and unwavering military, diplomatic, and financial aid to the Zionist state for its genocidal operations in Gaza. President Trump seeks to help the Zionist lobby to materialize their ambition of “Greater Israel.” The Israeli lobby has always had a strong influence on US lawmakers. Many renowned Western scholars and philosophers have raised concerns about the growing influence of the Israeli lobby on US foreign policy. Moreover, the US itself seeks to destabilize the Middle East to realize its regional interests and ambitions by spreading chaos and turmoil in the region.
Destabilizing Eastern Europe and Beyond
The US establishment is also persistently pursuing a policy to destabilize the Eastern European region. The United States and its Western allies sparked an armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine by pushing the latter to join the NATO alliance in violation of the historic treaty between Russia and the West. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the Russia-Ukraine conflict due to this Western conspiracy. In addition, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s unwitty decisions have led to the loss of significant Ukrainian territories. In its pursuit of destabilizing Eastern Europe, the West recently sparked anti-government protests in Tbilisi to install a pro-West regime in Georgia. However, these protests failed to achieve the desired outcome.
Fighting Drug Trafficking or a Regime Change Operation
The actual ambition of the US administration behind its attacks on Venezuela is also the ouster of the incumbent President Nicolás Maduro Moros. Most of the South American countries are tilted towards the rising Eastern bloc. Russia and China are increasingly viewed as leading proponents of a more inclusive and multipolar world order. Many third-world states consider them more reliable allies as compared to the United States and other Western nations. The US administration has consistently been penalizing all the nations showing their tilt towards Moscow or Beijing. The incumbent Venezuelan President Maduro is anti-West and has shown a tilt towards Russia. Earlier this month, President Maduro signed an executive order to enhance the strategic partnership with Moscow.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of drug trafficking without providing any evidence of his involvement in any such act. The US government has also offered a $50 million bounty for the arrest of President Maduro. The Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Yvan Gil, labelled this bounty as “political propaganda.” It appears the US president’s allegations about the Venezuelan president are similar to its propaganda about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Trump administration seeks to use these allegations to launch a full-fledged military attack on Venezuela. However, President Maduro has warned the US against any such move, stating that Venezuela holds around 5000 Russian anti-aircraft missiles to protect the country’s sovereignty. Many other South American states have also criticized the US move to deploy aircraft carriers in the region and its unprovoked attacks on vessels in international waters. President Trump’s regime change operations in Venezuela and other countries in the world will further expedite the US decline as a global hegemon and superpower.