‘Make America Great Again’ Not Just Election Slogan — It’s Trump’s Firm Resolve
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his private residence in Palm Beach, Florida on Dec. 31, 2025. It appeared to be just an ordinary day. When reporters asked Trump about his New Year's resolutions, he replied without hesitation: "peace on Earth."
Three days later, the world saw and understood how Trump defines these words.
Standing at Mar-a-Lago with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan Kaine, Trump announced that the United States had been preparing Operation Absolute Resolve for the past four days, with the objective of removing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. The operation was postponed due to bad weather and carried out in the early morning hours of Jan. 3. In other words, Trump had already approved this military operation before publicly announcing his New Year's resolution of "peace on Earth."
This was no contradiction, it is part of a pattern. As Trump's second term reaches the one-year mark, the defining characteristic of his presidency is not chaos, but decisiveness. Analysts who hoped that Trump would appear more restrained in his second term, or that he would not repeat the disorder of his first term, have misread this moment. The Trump administration neither hesitates nor operates on impulse. It is methodical, purposeful and completely clear about the use of American power.
Trump has abandoned the familiar vocabulary that has guided American foreign policy since the Cold War — alliance management, multilateral consensus and moral signaling. In its place stands a simple but harsh principle: Make America Great Again, not as a slogan, but as the logical foundation of governance.
For decades, Washington watched as Venezuela slowly drifted toward Russia and China's strategic orbit. Beijing's engagement with Maduro was open and transactional. The scene that history will record is this: just 12 hours before American forces took Maduro hostage from his residence, he was meeting with a Chinese delegation. The message was clear — American influence, deferred for so long, returned suddenly and decisively.
The operation appeared swift and almost effortless on the ground. But senior military officials later confirmed it was the result of months of preparation — regional military deployment, intelligence agency coordination and, most critically, a secret human source close to Maduro who monitored his activities until the final moments.
What happened next was even more significant than the operation itself. Trump did not resort to concepts like humanitarian intervention or restoration of democracy. He stated in clear terms that the process of power transfer in Venezuela would be completed under American supervision. He also announced that American companies would take over Venezuela's oil production and that a portion of the revenue would be used to stabilize the country and improve conditions for its people.
Previous administrations have done the same. The only difference is that Trump is the first American president in decades to publicly announce these policies unequivocally. For nearly 70 years, American foreign policy relied on intermediaries, proxies and plausible deniability. Influence was exercised indirectly — often through leaders whose legitimacy collapsed once America withdrew its support. From the Shah in Iran to Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, this pattern repeated itself again and again.
Trump had criticized this model long before entering politics. His argument has been that the United States handicapped itself by adhering to rules that competitors like China never followed. He rejected the international liberal belief that legitimacy comes from consensus, not from capability.
Unlike Richard Nixon, Trump does not separate diplomacy from pressure. Like Ronald Reagan, he believes that deterrence requires clarity, not reassurance. Nixon opened relations with China not through appealing to morals, but through strategic shock. Reagan negotiated arms control only after convincing Moscow that American military expansion was real. Trump operates in this same tradition, free from sentimentality.
His questions to foreign leaders are direct: What will America gain from this? What will Americans get? Why should America expend its power here? If the answers do not satisfy him, he withdraws.
According to most assessments, Maduro failed to grasp this reality until his final days. Venezuela was not an isolated target. It fit into Trump's three priorities — eliminating Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere, disrupting narcotics networks, and ensuring energy dominance for the long term in an AI-driven global economy. For Trump, energy security is not an environmental debate, but the foundation of technological and strategic superiority.
Artificial intelligence will require unprecedented amounts of energy. Therefore, control over energy supply chains means control over the future balance of power. A regime sitting on one of the world's largest oil reserves that was opposed to the United States did not align with Trump's policy. Therefore, the Trump administration took decisive action to change this situation.
Critics say this approach creates instability and breaks established norms. But this misreads Trump's fundamental assumption. He is not trying to preserve the post-Cold War system; he has concluded that the system has already collapsed.
From Operation Midnight Hammer, which eliminated Iran's nuclear infrastructure, to Operation Absolute Resolve, which ended Maduro's rule in just a few hours, Trump has delivered a consistent message: American power will no longer be entangled in procedural webs, will not be delayed in the name of consensus and will not be hidden behind diplomatic language.
Trump may never be loved by the liberal elite or diplomatic institutions. But entering the second year of his second term, he has perhaps become something more significant: a president who is redefining how American power is used, and how openly it is acknowledged.
Whether the world likes it or not, America's policy under Trump's leadership is now clear.
Three days later, the world saw and understood how Trump defines these words.
Standing at Mar-a-Lago with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Gen. Dan Kaine, Trump announced that the United States had been preparing Operation Absolute Resolve for the past four days, with the objective of removing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. The operation was postponed due to bad weather and carried out in the early morning hours of Jan. 3. In other words, Trump had already approved this military operation before publicly announcing his New Year's resolution of "peace on Earth."
This was no contradiction, it is part of a pattern. As Trump's second term reaches the one-year mark, the defining characteristic of his presidency is not chaos, but decisiveness. Analysts who hoped that Trump would appear more restrained in his second term, or that he would not repeat the disorder of his first term, have misread this moment. The Trump administration neither hesitates nor operates on impulse. It is methodical, purposeful and completely clear about the use of American power.
Trump has abandoned the familiar vocabulary that has guided American foreign policy since the Cold War — alliance management, multilateral consensus and moral signaling. In its place stands a simple but harsh principle: Make America Great Again, not as a slogan, but as the logical foundation of governance.
For decades, Washington watched as Venezuela slowly drifted toward Russia and China's strategic orbit. Beijing's engagement with Maduro was open and transactional. The scene that history will record is this: just 12 hours before American forces took Maduro hostage from his residence, he was meeting with a Chinese delegation. The message was clear — American influence, deferred for so long, returned suddenly and decisively.
The operation appeared swift and almost effortless on the ground. But senior military officials later confirmed it was the result of months of preparation — regional military deployment, intelligence agency coordination and, most critically, a secret human source close to Maduro who monitored his activities until the final moments.
What happened next was even more significant than the operation itself. Trump did not resort to concepts like humanitarian intervention or restoration of democracy. He stated in clear terms that the process of power transfer in Venezuela would be completed under American supervision. He also announced that American companies would take over Venezuela's oil production and that a portion of the revenue would be used to stabilize the country and improve conditions for its people.
Previous administrations have done the same. The only difference is that Trump is the first American president in decades to publicly announce these policies unequivocally. For nearly 70 years, American foreign policy relied on intermediaries, proxies and plausible deniability. Influence was exercised indirectly — often through leaders whose legitimacy collapsed once America withdrew its support. From the Shah in Iran to Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, this pattern repeated itself again and again.
Trump had criticized this model long before entering politics. His argument has been that the United States handicapped itself by adhering to rules that competitors like China never followed. He rejected the international liberal belief that legitimacy comes from consensus, not from capability.
Unlike Richard Nixon, Trump does not separate diplomacy from pressure. Like Ronald Reagan, he believes that deterrence requires clarity, not reassurance. Nixon opened relations with China not through appealing to morals, but through strategic shock. Reagan negotiated arms control only after convincing Moscow that American military expansion was real. Trump operates in this same tradition, free from sentimentality.
His questions to foreign leaders are direct: What will America gain from this? What will Americans get? Why should America expend its power here? If the answers do not satisfy him, he withdraws.
According to most assessments, Maduro failed to grasp this reality until his final days. Venezuela was not an isolated target. It fit into Trump's three priorities — eliminating Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere, disrupting narcotics networks, and ensuring energy dominance for the long term in an AI-driven global economy. For Trump, energy security is not an environmental debate, but the foundation of technological and strategic superiority.
Artificial intelligence will require unprecedented amounts of energy. Therefore, control over energy supply chains means control over the future balance of power. A regime sitting on one of the world's largest oil reserves that was opposed to the United States did not align with Trump's policy. Therefore, the Trump administration took decisive action to change this situation.
Critics say this approach creates instability and breaks established norms. But this misreads Trump's fundamental assumption. He is not trying to preserve the post-Cold War system; he has concluded that the system has already collapsed.
From Operation Midnight Hammer, which eliminated Iran's nuclear infrastructure, to Operation Absolute Resolve, which ended Maduro's rule in just a few hours, Trump has delivered a consistent message: American power will no longer be entangled in procedural webs, will not be delayed in the name of consensus and will not be hidden behind diplomatic language.
Trump may never be loved by the liberal elite or diplomatic institutions. But entering the second year of his second term, he has perhaps become something more significant: a president who is redefining how American power is used, and how openly it is acknowledged.
Whether the world likes it or not, America's policy under Trump's leadership is now clear.
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