Georgia politicians react to Trump’s strike on Venezuela

Georgia politicians reacted swiftly after President Donald Trump said Saturday that U.S. forces had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flown him out of the country following what he described as a “large scale strike against Venezuela.”

During an address to the nation from his Florida home, Trump praised the U.S. military forces that carried out the overnight operation and said there could be more strikes, if he deemed them necessary. He also said Venezuela will be controlled by America indefinitely.

“We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said.

The president said the success of the raid contrasted with others carried out by previous administrations, including former President Jimmy Carter’s.

“They were an embarrassment,” Trump said. “If you look back to Afghanistan or if you look back to the Jimmy Carter days, they were different days. We’re a respected country again like never before.”

The Venezuelan government said there were fatalities from the strikes, though U.S. officials said no American personnel were injured and would not comment on Venezuelan casualties.

The announcement was stunning even in an era of near-daily global flashpoints, and it instantly reverberated in Georgia, where politicians are preparing for midterm elections that many view as a referendum on Trump’s administration.

Echoing a familiar pattern, Republicans praised the military operation while Democrats questioned the president’s motivations and strategy.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Buddy Carter, who is competing to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, offered one of the most full-throated endorsements of Trump’s move. He called Maduro “an illegitimate leader” who will “now face American justice for narco terrorism, sending drugs into our country and killing our children.”

“This indictment is just the beginning,” he said, adding that “no other president could have done this.”

The other GOP Senate candidates also weighed in.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins wrote, “Narco-terrorist Maduro’s reign of terror has come to an end, and he will face justice for flooding our country with drugs and violence.”

Derek Dooley, the former football coach, credited the White House for taking action five years after Maduro’s indictment.

“I applaud the Trump Administration for taking decisive action to apprehend Maduro and force him to answer for his crimes against Americans,” Dooley wrote on X.

These reactions underscored how many Republicans have long viewed Maduro as a destabilizing threat to national security.

Democrats in Georgia saw something different, questioning the timing and justifications for the strike.

State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a candidate for lieutenant governor, accused Trump of violating his own campaign promises about avoiding foreign entanglements.

“Trump ran on the idea that trying to be the world’s policeman was a bad idea that distracted from taking care of our people at home,” McLaurin said. “Between building the new White House ballroom and his new wars, looks like Trump cares about anything but addressing rising costs.”

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said the president’s actions are unconstitutional and not in line with what voters want.

“In December, I voted to restrict military action in Venezuela,” she wrote on X. “The American people are looking for lower costs, not endless war.”

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath said she has concerns about the legality of the attack and wants Congress to be briefed. Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock blasted Trump’s comments that U.S. service members could be deployed inside Venezuela during the regime change.

“Americans do not want U.S. troops involved in yet another endless war or their government running another government,” Warnock said in a statement. “Yet, that is what Donald Trump, who as a candidate promised to get us out of foreign wars, has announced. ‘We will run’ Venezuela. We have seen that awful movie before.”