A screen displaying architect Shalom Baranes' presentation is reflected in a portrait of U.S. President Donald Trump during a National Capital Planning Commission hearing on White House East Wing renovations in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 8, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
In three U.S. presidential elections in a row — 2016, 2020 and 2024 — Donald Trump campaigned on a non-interventionist America First platform that was greatly influenced by paleoconservative Patrick Buchanan. But Trump's foreign policy is now drawing scathing criticism from former MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), both of whom consider the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a betrayal of the non-interventionist platform he championed in the past. And Trump flew into a rage when, on Thursday morning, January 8, five GOP senators — Kentucky's Rand Paul, Maine's Susan Collins, Missouri's Josh Hawley, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and Indiana's Todd Young — joined Senate Democrats in voting to advance a resolution to block his administration from using military force against Venezuela.
But in an article published on January 9, the New York Times' Sabrina Tavernise explains why many Republican voters are supporting an aggressively interventionist foreign policy that is inconsistent with the America First platform he embraced in the past.
"President Trump's audacious raid (in Venezuela) has been viewed with measured skepticism by some of his most influential supporters, who disdain interventions abroad," Tavernise explains. "Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, in a podcast on Monday, questioned whether the military action was the start of a new era of empire. Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide, asked whether it was 'hearkening back to our fiasco in Iraq'…. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who left Congress this week after a rift with Mr. Trump, said on CNN that 'what's not OK is for our government to put their full focus on foreign countries.'"
Tavernise adds, "But this skepticism may not be shared by many rank-and-file Republican voters."
The Times journalist notes that "to many Republican voters," Trump "has projected American power without committing troops or costing American lives."
"Early polls indicate robust Republican support," Tavernise observes. "A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted this week showed that 65 percent of Republican respondents approved of the operation to remove Mr. Maduro, and just 6 percent disapproved. About 29 percent said they didn't know or skipped the question."
But Donna Burgraff, a 64-year-old college professor in Tennessee who voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, is among the GOP skeptics.
Burgraff told the Times, "I really have mixed feelings about this…. (Maduro) was a bad guy, but is it our job as the U.S. to get rid of all the bad guys in the world?"
Sabrina Tavernise's full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).