A GOP senator says President Donald Trump’s Venezuela agenda could trigger a “splintering” of the MAGA coalition.
Trump, 79, is waging a campaign to weaken the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and last week refused to rule out sending U.S. troops into the country, despite winning office promising not to get entangled in foreign wars.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Sunday warned that the president’s focus on foreign conflicts—including Russia’s war in Ukraine—will erode support among those who have embraced the “America First” slogan.
“Once there’s an invasion of Venezuela, or if they decide to re-up the subsidies and the gifts to Ukraine, I think you’ll see a splintering or fracturing of the movement that has supported the president,” Paul, 62, told CBS’ Face the Nation.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs added, “I think a lot of people, including myself, were attracted to the president because of his reticence to get us involved in foreign war.”
Trump’s hold on the MAGA movement has recently begun to show cracks as he struggles to deliver on affordability, clashes with immigration hardliners on skilled workers, and navigates the Epstein files controversy.
Paul accused the Trump administration of “pretending as if we are at war” by officially designating Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist organization.
“They’re pretending as if they’ve gotten some imprimatur to do what they want,” he told host Margaret Brennan. “When you have war, the rules of engagement are lessened.”
The Republican senator previously slammed the administration over its “insane” lethal strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters, which have killed at least 83 people and critics say violate international law.
He dubbed JD Vance “JD ‘I don’t give a s–t’ Vance” in September, after the vice president called the boat strikes the “highest and best use of our military.”
On Sunday, Paul renewed his attacks over the administration’s alleged failure to give Congress even basic details on the strikes.
“I’ve been given zero, not one briefing because I am skeptical of what they are doing,” said Paul, who regularly clashes with the president. “They don’t brief me or the general Senate at all. A few hand-selected people may have gotten a briefing but I have not been invited to any briefings on Venezuela.”
Trump, whose preoccupation with foreign affairs in his second term has surprised many, has expanded the strikes against so-called “narco-terrorists” into a broader pressure campaign against Maduro, whom he considers illegitimate.
U.S. troop numbers in the Caribbean Sea have risen to roughly 12,000 amid a military buildup that included last week’s arrival of the U.S.’s most advanced aircraft carrier.
MAGA previously faced internal fracturing over Trump’s foreign policy during the summer, when he considered intervening in the Israel-Iran conflict and later launched strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump lashed out at Paul and several other GOP rebels on Sunday, calling them “lowlifes” and claiming that the Republican Party has never been more united.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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