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The toppling and reported capture by incursive US forces of Venezuela's socialist president will dispatch a tremor of fear and consternation across the globe. This coup is illegal, unprovoked, and regionally and globally destabilising. It upends international norms, disregards sovereign territorial rights, and risks creating an anarchic situation within the country.

It is policy crafted from chaos. But this is the world we now live in – the universe as defined by Donald Trump.

An Extraordinary and Dangerous Assertion of Unfettered US Power

The overt assault on Venezuela marks an extraordinary, dangerous declaration of unfettered US power and comes in the same week that Trump threatened armed attacks against another unpopular anti-western regime: the one in Tehran. It follows months of escalating US pressure through military, economic, and political means on Maduro, encompassing deadly naval strikes on boats of alleged drug traffickers.

Trump asserts he is acting to stop illicit drugs flowing into the US via Venezuela and to cease an alleged influx of “criminal element” migrants. In an repetition of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, he is also accused of coveting Venezuela’s vast oil and gas resources – doubts strengthened by repeated, illegal US confiscations of Venezuelan oil tankers.

But Trump’s primary motives seem to be individual hostility directed at Maduro, and a desire to revive the 19th-century Monroe doctrine by creating a American zone of control and dominance throughout the west.

Regional Outrage and Worldwide Consequences

Hemispheric heads of state, such as Colombia’s president, who has conflicted with Trump in recent months, met the takeover with fury and concern; not least, perhaps, because they worry they also could become victims of Washington’s newly aggressive dominance. Cuba’s socialist administration has special reason for worry. It depends significantly on Venezuela’s regime for cheap energy and backing in politics and economics.

The US top diplomat has made no secret of his desire for a change in government in Havana. In Panama, too, levels of concern will be elevated. Trump has previously threatened armed intervention there, over control of the Panama Canal. Indeed, the reported capture of Maduro brings to mind the 1989 US invasion of Panama and the overthrow and detention of its leader at the time.

Autocratic, undemocratic governments globally will be carefully watching Trump’s subsequent moves, as will Washington’s allies in democracy. Iran condemned the coup. It has valid cause to be fearful. But Russia’s president may not be completely unhappy by the defenestration of his Venezuelan ally.

A Perilous Benchmark for International Disputes

Trump’s unjustified turn to force is not entirely dissimilar from moves during the invasion of Ukraine. Both have unlawfully assaulted a bordering nation and attempted to oust its leadership. For China’s leader, whose forces were recently conducting military exercises against the “breakaway factions” of Taiwan, Trump has just set a precedent he may one day gladly follow.

Trump’s coup is of significant worry to Britain, the EU and democratic Western nations. They should, and must, clearly denounce it. It directly challenges the rules and principles of the global system they hold dear. The US has once again disregarded the United Nations and traditional methods of resolving inter-state grievances. And it is proceeding with seemingly little consideration for the subsequent events in Venezuela.

An Unclear Future and Potential for Chaos

The Caracas government has been decapitated, but other senior members of the regime seem to remain in place. They are urging resistance and, possibly, reprisals against the US. There are unverified accounts of civilian casualties. If a power vacuum forms, public order might disintegrate, igniting civil war or a possible military coup. And it is uncertain whether the latest US military action has ended, or may intensify more.

The idea that banished dissident figures will quickly come back and that complete democratic rule will now be restored is naive. The next few days will be critical. And the responsibility lies entirely with Trump.

The Illusion of a Peacemaker

Trump’s reckless action should finally lay to rest his always misleading characterisation of himself as a “world peacemaker”. It’s high time that European leaders publicly recognise him for who he is – a global warmaker, a universal menace.

Each time he stumbles clumsily into areas of dispute, imposing timelines, delivering final demands, picking favourites and monetising misery, the quest for fair and enduring peace is set back.

No surprise peace remains distant. And strangely, even while posing as a neutral peace broker and non-interventionist, Trump concurrently conducts warfare on the world. The US conducted unprecedented levels of air strikes in the Middle East and Africa the previous year, surveys show.

A Legacy in Blood

Since returning to office a year ago, peace-loving Trump has launched strikes in Yemen, carelessly killing many non-combatants after relaxing combat protocols; attacked targets in Nigeria, to counter-productive effect; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and bombed Iran, where he falsely inflated the success of US strikes on nuclear facilities. He even refuses to rule out attacking Greenland, a sovereign territory of a NATO partner.

What’s going on in the President's mind? A benign interpretation is that in issues of conflict and tranquility, he has no idea what he is doing – no strategy, no clue – and makes up policy on the fly, depending on how he feels.

The sinister interpretation says he is fully aware what he’s at, that more and worse are forthcoming. Like previous leaders in their final term who ran out of road at home, Trump finds the world stage provides more opportunities for the application of authority and ego. He is building a legacy in blood.

Trump’s reckless, perilously unstable behaviour is getting noticeably more severe. His Venezuela “triumph” may embolden him to attempt more and bigger, unhinged outrages. He parades and postures, shouts for chaos! and unleashes the hounds of conflict.