Itâs amazing how quickly a âforeign policy expertâ like Joe Biden can go from keyboard warrior to international punchline.
Flashback to Biden in 2020, clapping back at then-President Trump for even considering a meeting with NicolĂĄs Maduro. You remember the tweet â the one where Biden puffed out his digital chest and declared, âTrump talks tough on Venezuela, but admires thugs and dictators like NicolĂĄs Maduro. As President, I will stand with the Venezuelan people and for democracy.â
Well, here we are in 2025, and letâs just say that tweet⌠aged like a banana in the sun.
Because while Biden spent four years âstanding with the Venezuelan peopleâ by, what, tweeting furiously and bumping up Maduroâs bounty to $25 million, President Donald J. Trump actually did something. He sent Delta Force. He took the gloves off. He greenlit an operation that snatched the Venezuelan dictator and his wife right out of Caracas and delivered them straight to a holding cell in Manhattan. No metaphor. No diplomatic nuance. Just actual action. And yes, Maduro looked every bit like the disgraced strongman he is â gray sweatsuit, eye mask, headphones, clutching a bottle of water like it might save him from a federal indictment. Spoiler: it wonât.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wasted no time setting the record straight. âSo, we have a reward for his capture, but weâre not going to enforce it?â he asked on NBCâs Meet the Press. âThatâs the difference between President Trump and everybody else⌠President Trump did something about it.â
Exactly. The Biden administration raised the reward, but Trump raised the stakes.
Under Biden, Maduro was free to continue ruling by fear, allegedly trafficking cocaine with cartels, and propping up one of the most corrupt regimes in the Western Hemisphere. Under Trump, heâs awaiting trial in New York, facing alleged charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons trafficking. You know â minor things, really, if youâre in the Biden State Department.
The reaction online was swift. Bidenâs old tweet got dragged harder than a CNN town hall. âThis did not age well,â one user quipped. Others took aim at Biden himself â âNothing about Biden aged well,â someone added. Ouch. Another simply replied with the universal sign of digital embarrassment: âOof.â
Meanwhile, Trump was on Truth Social doing what Trump does best â posting a picture of the moment. âNicolĂĄs Maduro onboard the USS Iwo Jima,â he wrote, casually letting the world know where Americaâs most wanted dictator had been processed after a flawless military operation that, according to reports, resulted in zero American deaths.
Was the strike clean? No. About 40 civilian and military deaths were reported on the ground in Venezuela, and a handful of U.S. troops were injured. But the mission? Complete. And judging by Trumpâs remarks, he has no plans to back down. In fact, he made it pretty clear: âWe will run the country.â As in, Venezuela.
Now, thatâs got the new interim leader of Venezuela â hardline socialist and Maduro loyalist Delcy Rodriguez â breathing fire. Sheâs calling Maduroâs arrest a âviolation of international law,â and accusing the U.S. of bending sovereign nations to its will. Maybe she missed the part where her beloved regime was allegedly flooding U.S. communities with cartel-sourced cocaine and harboring terrorists. But sure, tell us more about sovereignty.
And as for her cozy relationship with the U.S. that Trump hinted at during his press conference? Yeah, Rodriguez didnât exactly sound like she was volunteering for the MAGA Venezuela fan club. She insisted she wasnât ready to hand over the keys to Washington and warned other countries that âwhat was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone.â Translation: dictators, beware â thereâs a new sheriff in town.
So hereâs the punchline: Biden got ratioed by his own words. Rubioâs calling him out. Trumpâs flexing military precision. Maduroâs sitting in a jail cell. And Delcy Rodriguez is left trying to keep a regime afloat without her head honcho, while sending angry press releases about international law from an oil ministry office.
If this is what the Donroe Doctrine looks like in action⌠something tells me the Western Hemisphere just got a little more orderly.
