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The toppling and alleged seizure by invading American military units of Venezuela's socialist president will dispatch a tremor of fear and consternation around the world. This coup is illegal, unprovoked, and destabilizing for the region and the world. It overturns international norms, disregards national territorial sovereignty, and risks creating an anarchic situation inside Venezuela itself.

It is chaos made policy. But this is the reality we currently inhabit – the universe as defined by the US President.

An Extraordinary and Perilous Declaration of Unchecked American Might

The direct attack on Venezuela marks an extraordinary, dangerous declaration of unfettered US power and comes in the same week that the President menaced military strikes against a further disliked anti-western regime: the one in Tehran. It comes after months of escalating US pressure through military, economic, and political means on Maduro, encompassing lethal maritime attacks on vessels suspected of drug smuggling.

Trump asserts he is acting to stop illicit drugs entering the US through Venezuelan routes 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 huge oil and gas resources – suspicions reinforced by frequent, unlawful US confiscations of Venezuelan petroleum carriers.

But Trump’s primary motives seem to be personal animosity directed at Maduro, and a wish to resurrect the historical Monroe Doctrine by establishing a US sphere of influence and dominance throughout the west.

Hemispheric Alarm and Global Repercussions

Regional leaders, such as Colombia’s president, who has clashed with Trump in the past few months, greeted the coup with fury and concern; not least, perhaps, because they fear they too could become targets of Washington’s aggressive new hegemony. Cuba’s leftwing government has special reason for worry. It depends significantly on Venezuela’s regime for low-cost fuel and backing in politics and economics.

The US secretary of state has made no secret of his wish to see a change in government in Havana. In Panama, too, anxiety levels will be elevated. Trump has in the past menaced military action there, over control of the Panama Canal. Indeed, the alleged apprehension of Maduro recalls the 1989 US incursion into Panama and the overthrow and detention of its then dictator.

Autocratic, undemocratic governments globally will be closely observing Trump’s next steps, as will Washington’s allies in democracy. Iran condemned the coup. It has valid cause to be fearful. But Russia’s president might not be totally displeased by the removal 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 illegally attacked a bordering nation and sought to remove its government. For China’s leader, whose forces were last week conducting military exercises against the “separatists” of Taiwan, Trump has just established a benchmark he may one day gladly follow.

Trump’s coup is of significant worry to Britain, the EU and western democracies. They should, and must, clearly denounce it. It directly challenges the laws and tenets of the global system they cherish. The US has yet again disregarded the United Nations and traditional methods of addressing inter-state grievances. And it is acting with seemingly little consideration for what happens next 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 at their posts. They are calling for opposition and, possibly, retaliation against the US. There are unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties. If a leadership void develops, public order could collapse, sparking civil war or a potential armed takeover. And it is unclear whether the most recent American armed intervention has ended, or may escalate further.

The notion that exiled opposition leaders will swiftly return and that complete democratic rule will now be restored is naive. The next few days will be decisive. And it’s all down to Trump.

The Myth of the Peacemaker

Trump’s reckless action should at last bury his perpetually deceptive characterisation of himself as a “world peacemaker”. It’s past time that European leaders publicly recognise him for who he is – a global warmaker, a worldwide threat.

Each time he stumbles clumsily into areas of dispute, setting deadlines, delivering final demands, choosing sides and monetising misery, the pursuit of fair and enduring peace is hindered.

Little wonder peace remains distant. And strangely, even while presenting himself as a disinterested peacemaker and non-interventionist, Trump concurrently conducts warfare on the world. The US conducted unprecedented levels of aerial bombardments in the Middle East and Africa last year, surveys show.

A Legacy in Blood

Since resuming the presidency a year ago, peace-loving Trump has launched strikes in Yemen, carelessly killing numerous civilians after loosening rules of engagement; bombed Nigeria, to detrimental outcomes; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and bombed Iran, where he mendaciously exaggerated the success of US strikes on nuclear facilities. He even will not exclude attacking Greenland, a sovereign territory of a NATO partner.

What is occurring in the President's mind? A charitable view is that in matters of war and peace, he has no conception what he is doing – no plan, no understanding – and invents strategy on the fly, based on how he feels.

The sinister interpretation says he is fully aware what he is doing, that more and worse is to come. Like previous second-term presidents who ran out of road domestically, Trump finds the global platform provides more opportunities for the application of authority and ego. He is forging a historical record in blood.

Trump’s reckless, perilously unstable conduct is getting measurably worse. His Venezuela “triumph” may embolden him to try further and bigger, unhinged outrages. He parades and postures, shouts for chaos! and lets slip the dogs of war.