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The overthrow and reported capture by invading US forces of Nicolas Maduro will dispatch a tremor of fear and consternation around the world. This coup is illegal, unprovoked, and regionally and globally destabilising. It upends international norms, ignores sovereign territorial rights, and risks creating an state of anarchy within the country.

It is chaos made policy. But this is the world we now live in – the world according to the US President.

A Remarkable and Dangerous Assertion of Unchecked American Might

The direct attack on Venezuela signifies an extraordinary, dangerous declaration of unfettered US power and arrives the same week that the President menaced armed attacks against another unpopular anti-western regime: that of Iran. It follows months of escalating US military, economic and political pressure on Maduro, encompassing lethal maritime attacks on vessels suspected of drug smuggling.

Trump claims to be acting to prevent illegal narcotics flowing into the US via Venezuela and to cease an alleged influx of “criminal” migrants. In an repetition of the American incursion into Iraq in 2003, he is also charged with desiring Venezuela’s huge petroleum and natural gas reserves – suspicions reinforced by repeated, illegal US confiscations of Venezuelan petroleum carriers.

But Trump’s chief motivations seem to be personal animosity aimed 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

Regional leaders, such as Colombia’s president, who has clashed with Trump in recent months, met the takeover with fury and concern; not least, perhaps, because they worry they also could become targets of Washington’s aggressive new hegemony. Cuba’s leftwing government has particular cause for concern. 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 in the past menaced armed intervention there, over authority over the Panama Canal. Indeed, the reported capture of Maduro recalls the 1989 US incursion into Panama and the overthrow and detention of its then dictator.

Authoritarian, anti-democratic regimes globally will be closely observing Trump’s next steps, as will Washington’s allies in democracy. Iran denounced the overthrow. It has valid cause to be fearful. But Russia’s president might not be completely unhappy by the removal of his Venezuelan ally.

A Dangerous Precedent for Global Conflicts

Trump’s unprovoked resort to violence is not entirely dissimilar from actions in invading Ukraine. Both have illegally attacked a bordering nation and attempted to oust its government. For China’s leader, whose forces were last week practising military action against the “separatists” of Taiwan, Trump has just set a precedent he may eventually happily emulate.

Trump’s coup is of significant worry to Britain, the EU and western democracies. They should, and must, unequivocally condemn it. It openly confronts the rules and principles of the global system they cherish. The US has once again disregarded the United Nations and conventional approaches of addressing disputes between nations. And it is acting with seemingly little consideration for the subsequent events in Venezuela.

An Unclear Future and Risk of Disorder

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, potentially, reprisals against the US. There are unverified accounts of civilian casualties. If a leadership void develops, civil stability could collapse, igniting civil war or a possible military coup. And it is unclear whether the latest US military action has ended, or may intensify more.

The idea that banished dissident figures will quickly come back and that full democracy will now be reinstated is naive. The coming days will be critical. And it’s all down to Trump.

The Myth of the Peacemaker

Trump’s imprudent move should at last bury his perpetually deceptive characterisation of himself as a “global peacemaker”. It’s high time that leaders in Europe publicly recognise him for what he is – a global warmaker, a worldwide threat.

Each time he stumbles clumsily into areas of dispute, setting deadlines, issuing ultimatums, picking favourites and profiting from suffering, the quest for fair and enduring peace is set back.

Little wonder peace remains distant. And strangely, even while presenting himself as a neutral peace broker and non-interventionist, Trump simultaneously wages war on the world. The US conducted record numbers of air strikes in the Middle East and Africa last year, data indicates.

A Legacy in Blood

Since returning to office a year ago, the ostensibly peace-seeking President has launched strikes in Yemen, carelessly killing numerous civilians after relaxing combat protocols; bombed Nigeria, to counter-productive effect; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and targeted Iranian sites, where he mendaciously exaggerated the success of US strikes on nuclear facilities. He even refuses to rule out attacking Greenland, a independent land of a Nato ally.

What’s going on in the President's mind? A charitable view is that in issues of conflict and tranquility, he has no idea what he is doing – no plan, no understanding – and invents strategy on the fly, depending on how he feels.

The sinister interpretation says he knows exactly what he’s at, that greater and more severe actions are forthcoming. Like previous second-term presidents who exhausted options domestically, Trump finds the world stage offers greater possibilities for the exercise of power and ego. He is forging a historical record in blood.

Trump’s irresponsible, dangerously erratic behaviour is getting measurably worse. His Venezuela “triumph” may embolden him to attempt more and bigger, unhinged outrages. He struts and preens, shouts for chaos! and unleashes the hounds of conflict.