Republicans struggling to connect Trump's 'war powers' to voter concerns: report
President Donald Trump's allies are fully on board with his Venezuela invasion, but they're still trying to figure out how to make his aggressive foreign policy moves connect with voter concerns.
The president seemed to acknowledge the political risk in the Venezuela raid in an interview this week, saying he worried the operation could end up a “Jimmy Carter disaster" like the failed 1980 operation to rescue 52 hostages from Iran, but his Republican allies fear that his moves present another type of political risk, reported Politico.
"Republicans say they need to connect Trump’s policy in the Western Hemisphere to domestic issues around high prices, drug trafficking and border security — or risk voters feeling the president isn’t responsive to their top concerns," the website reported. "It comes amid ongoing questions about how long Washington’s intervention will last and new pushback on the president’s war powers from Republicans on Capitol Hill."
That messaging is made even more difficult by Trump's threats against Cuba, Greenland and other foreign counties, which could overtake his presidency like the 2003 invasion of Iraq did for George W. Bush.
“There’s a big difference between the nation building and regime change of the neocons and what the president is doing,” said Trump political adviser Alex Bruesewitz.
Bruesewitz praised White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller for linking the president's moves in Latin America to domestic policy, as he attempted to do Monday on CNN by arguing that Venezuela had closer ties to adversaries like Russia and China than the U.S.
"We just need to stay very clear on our message on how our foreign policy impacts us domestically,” Bruesewitz said.
A senior White House official told Politico that the administration was trying to send out surrogates on TV in the first two days after the invasion to make the connection to voters.
“It’s disingenuous for someone to say, ‘Oh, this action doesn’t benefit America,'" that official said. "Of course it benefits America in a lot of different ways. I can go through a list of 10 different things how it helps America. We’ve defined it in a way that’s easily understandable … we’ve properly explained why this benefits Americans.”
Republicans have tried to make the case that Trump's moves in Venezuela would bring down fuel prices and halt the flow of migrants and drugs from the South American nation.
“Gas prices are going to come down, especially if Trump is brokering these oil deals,” said a Republican operative helping coordinate the party’s 2026 strategy. “All these issues are intertwined."