When it was pointed out to Donald Trump on Sunday (AEDT) that the US has a “mixed track record” when it comes to ousting dictators – which is putting it mildly – he responded in typical Trumpian fashion.

“That’s when we had different presidents, but with me that’s not true,” he said. “With me, we’ve had a perfect track record of winning. We win a lot.”

A photo posted by US President Donald Trump to Truth Social showing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima.Credit: @realDonaldTrump/ Truth Social

He has a point. Trump listed examples: the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; the killing of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani; and, in this term, the disabling of Iran’s nuclear facilities in a daring US military operation last year. You can see why he would be confident.

But regime change is a different beast. It is something the US has done, or tried to do, only to end up locked into “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan – against which public opinion soured so completely that it created the conditions for the rise of Trump himself.

Now Trump is doing regime change in Venezuela. Or, he might be. After an hour-long press conference, it was entirely unclear how Trump and his team envisage the next few days – or few years – playing out.

Let’s start with what we know. The brazen military and intelligence operation was clearly a stunning success. We heard lots of detail about how it unfolded: more than 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases; low-flying choppers guided under cover of darkness into Nicolás Maduro’s compound in the middle of Caracas, where he and his wife were captured as they tried to enter their safe room.

It was a scarcely believable display of American military might, made all the more striking by the fact Trump wasn’t even watching from the White House Situation Room; he was at his........

© The Sydney Morning Herald