President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday, June 11, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)
The term "America First" didn't originate with President Donald Trump. During the 1850s and 1860s, nativists or Know Nothings — famously depicted in Martin Scorsese's 2002 movie "Gangs of New York" — used the term. And America First isolationists, during World War 2, attacked liberal President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as overly interventionist. Then, in 1992, America First views greatly influenced GOP paleoconservative Patrick Buchanan's presidential campaign.
But the term gained a whole new prominence with Trump's 2016 campaign, which owed a lot to Buchanan's movement. And Trump emphasized America First themes during his 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
Trump's Venezuelan policy, however, is inspiring some Republicans — including outgoing MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky — to question his commitment to America First ideology.
Early Saturday morning, January 3, the news broke that U.S. forces, on orders from Trump, had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York City — where he is being held in a federal detention center and is facing drug charges.
In an article published on January 5, Politico's Lisa Kashinsky reports that Massie's "harsh rebuke of the U.S. operation in Venezuela" is "setting up an early test of just how wedded MAGA voters are to the 'America First' doctrine."
"In a series of broadsides," Kashinsky notes, "the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican blasted President Donald Trump for the Saturday raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He accused Trump of unconstitutionally skirting Congress' war-powers authority while working with U.S. oil companies ahead of the strike. And he sent a direct message to Trump's movement about the president's true intentions in the South American nation."
In a January 4 post on X, formerly Twitter, Massie wrote, "Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it's about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for."
Massie also tweeted, "We have problems at home and shouldn't be wasting military resources on international affairs."
Greene was equally critical during a Sunday, January 4 appearance on NBC News' "Meet the Press," telling host Kristen Welker, "I want to see domestic policy be the priority that helps Americans afford life after four disastrous years of the Biden Administration…. We don't consider Venezuela our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the Southern Hemisphere."
GOP pollster Rich Baris, in a January 3 tweet, wrote, "Trump will likely get a small bump due to the rally around the flag effect, driven by educated voters who are still going to vote Democrat this year by double digits, then reality will set back in and voters will be asking themselves who has a plan to make THEIR lives better."
