Michigan Politicos Split Along Party Lines On Trump Decision To Seize And Jail Venezuela's Maduro

Michigan Advance

January 5, 2026

Michigan’s Republicans appeared thrilled with President Donald Trump this weekend after the U.S. military took action in Venezuela to bomb, kidnap and transport the nation’s socialist President Nicolás Maduro.

But the state’s Democratic representatives in Congress said Trump bypassed legislative branch approval to launch a military strike that has the potential to destabilize Venezuela – even if they agreed that Maduro was a dictator.

The Venezuelan president’s 2024 reelection was determined by many countries, including the U.S., to be illegitimate, while he has been characterized by the administration as the leader of a drug cartel. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also captured in Saturday’s raid, were brought to New York to face a U.S. indictment on narco-terrorism and conspiracy charges originally levied in 2020.

Trump said in a news conference Saturday that the intention was not to necessarily free the Venezuelan people from Maduro’s rule, but rather to secure the nation’s vast oil resources. He added that American petroleum companies would ultimately finance the rebuilding of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also signaled that nations like Cuba could face similar treatment.

In Michigan, key congressional Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate denounced the move.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield) said in a statement that the U.S. should not drag itself into another “forever war that puts American servicemembers in harm’s way and has no end in sight.”

“The president said the United States will now run the nation of Venezuela,” Peters wrote. “The American people did not ask for this. There’s no question that Maduro was a bad actor in the region, but that does not grant the administration unilateral authority to wage war without Congressional authorization. I’m also deeply concerned this action could embolden our adversaries like Russia and China to attempt to remove the legitimate leaders of U.S. allies around the world.”

Peters demanded that the Trump administration “immediately provide Congress and the American people with the legal justification for this mission and how they plan to ensure it does not lead to the destabilization of Venezuela and the entire region.”

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), who has become one of Michigan’s foremost critics of Trump’s domestic and foreign policies, said Trump’s breakneck military action against Venezuela “continues the signature trend of his presidency: relentless focus on foreign entanglements and looking tough abroad, so as to distract from what’s happening to Americans’ pocketbooks. “

“So instead of action on health care costs or housing or energy bills, Americans get military action in Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and now a long-term engagement in Venezuela,” Slotkin said. “Despite all the talking points to the media — and by Cabinet members directly to senators last month — this was never about stopping the drug cartels. If it were, President Trump wouldn’t have pardoned drug kingpin Juan Orlando Hernández, and he’d be going after Mexican cartels that move the fentanyl that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans — not fishing boats full of cocaine or, ultimately, the Venezuelan oil fields.”

Slotkin added that Trump’s only aim was for regime change and an oil grab.

“Maduro is a bad man, and the people of Venezuela deserve better,” Slotkin said. “But we know that regime change isn’t as simple as removing one leader. While there are comparisons to the arrest of Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989, let’s not forget that the U.S. sent in over 27,000 troops and lost 23 servicemembers in the process. … The bottom line is that President Trump wants to look tough by attacking countries abroad to distract from his failure to attack the core issue of the cost of living at home.”

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) decried Trump's action without congressional approval.

“I’m grateful our service members made it home, but they never should have been sent on this mission in the first place. Michiganders don’t want more wars,” Stevens said. “I voted to put a stop to Trump’s military buildup in Venezuela, and I will work with my colleagues in Congress in the coming days to demand answers and accountability.”

That said, Stevens said the people and the Venezuelan people are safer with “Maduro’s violent regime out of power.” Still, she said Trump was essentially forcing Michiganders to cover the “billions of dollars it will take to rebuild and run Venezuela. Taking over another country while Americans can’t afford their rent and groceries is unacceptable.”

U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Grand Rapids) said the opposition to military action against Venezuela and the kidnapping of Maduro wasn’t just about legal technicalities.

“It’s about the American people having a voice in decisions that could put our service members at risk and commit our tax dollars to conflict,” Scholten said in a statement.

U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Shri Thanedar, both representing Detroit, said the action was unconstitutional and violated international law.

“These are the actions of a rogue state,” Tlaib said in a statement on social media.

The state’s Republican members of Congress were far more congratulatory of Trump and what they called decisive executive action to rid the world of a dictator and an alleged drug trafficker – however, the narrative has moved away from allegations of Venezuela moving fentanyl into the U.S. to cocaine.

“(Maduro) was a transnational criminal and illegitimate dictator who directly enabled violent cartels to flood our country with illicit drugs, profit off the deaths of countless Americans, including friends of mine, and eliminate his political opponents,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) in a statement. “I pray for the people of Venezuela, who have long suffered under the brutal rule of the Maduro regime. It is my hope to see them rise up and lead their country in a new direction of self-determination, peace and prosperity.”

Barrett, however, did ask that the president now work with Congress to obtain proper authorization for the continued use of military intervention in Venezuela, “a constitutional power specifically reserved for Congress,” Barrett added.

“I’ve also lost too many friends to open-ended nation building conflicts, and I spend each day in Congress reflecting on the total human cost of armed military intervention,” Barrett wrote. “Venezuela is not Afghanistan, but we still must demand clear and precise end goal objectives with a firm discipline against mission creep.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland) thanked the military for carrying out the operation with “skill and courage,” but also called on social media for the U.S. to recognize Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, “the rightful winner of the past election, as President and work with him in this time of transition until the Venezuelan people can hold a free and fair election.”

Trump, however, has indicated the U.S. will work instead with Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who has since been installed as Venezuela’s interim leader.

U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), also brought up the specter of the forever war in the context of Venezuela, but unlike Barrett, James praised Trump for doing in “four hours” what other presidents took multiple terms to achieve in Afghanistan and Iraq – a bit of a misnomer considering the Iraq and Afghan wars ended in large U.S. death tolls, disastrous pullouts and the situation in Venezuela is far from resolved.

“I voted for this!” James wrote jubilation on social media.

Various military experts and pundits have weighed in on the strike, a decision that was carried out on the order of Trump and not gut-checked by members of Congress, who wield the sole lever to issue war powers to the president.

Trump’s administration has said that his cabinet had precedent to take action against Maduro, citing the 1990 decision from then President George H.W. Bush to detain former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega, which was aimed at securing the Panama Canal for Western interests.

NPR reported that the similarities stop there, given that U.S. troops left swiftly and handed over power to a popular opposition faction that was ready to take control of Panama.

Trump has insinuated that the U.S. and its oil partners would “run” Venezuela until it was “safe” to engage in a “proper and judicious transition.”

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