Trump struggles with Venezuelan dilemma as Maduro digs in and storm builds at home over potential ‘war crime’

President Donald Trump’s Venezuela regime change adventure is in danger of degenerating into a strategic, political and legal morass.

Trump gathered top national security officials and aides at an Oval Office meeting Monday evening seeking to define next steps in a showdown now slipping out of his control, both inside the impoverished oil-rich nation and in Washington.

Before the talks, President Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator, defiantly danced before a huge crowd of supporters in Caracas in a Trump-style open air rally, shattering previous rumors he’d bowed to US calls to leave the country. “We do not want peace of slaves, nor do we want peace of colonies,” Maduro said.

The thin domestic political underpinnings of Trump’s campaign are growing more fragile as the White House fails to quell a growing controversy over a follow-up US strike that reportedly killed surviving crew members of an alleged drugs trafficking boat in the Caribbean. Trump’s Democratic critics on Capitol Hill are warning of a potential war crime. And several powerful Republicans are shaken and are signaling a rare willingness to rigorously investigate the administration.

The US standoff with Venezuela is now beginning to consume Washington after more than four months of escalating political, economic and military pressure epitomized by the hulking presence of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald. R. Ford and an armada of US ships in the waters off Venezuela.

There is increasing scrutiny of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in the boat strikes. The former Fox News anchor was a controversial pick to run the Pentagon, and his lack of experience, abrasive manner and rejection of some the military’s ethical and legal safeguards is threatening to make him a political burden for the president as Democrats demand his resignation.