Earlier this year, President Donald Trump backed calls for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step down from his position, and allow opposition leader Juan Guaidó to assume the presidency.
Trump retweeted a tweet by Vice President Mike Pence in the spring, in which Pence wrote that “Maduro must go.” Trump also tweeted out in February his belief that Maduro should leave office.
“LET YOUR PEOPLE GO,” Trump tweeted out in all capital letters. He added, “Nothing could be better for the future of Venezuela” than for Maduro to leave office.
I ask every member of the Maduro regime: End this nightmare of poverty, hunger and death. LET YOUR PEOPLE GO. Set your country free! Now is the time for all Venezuelan Patriots to act together, as one united people. Nothing could be better for the future of Venezuela!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019
But lately, Trump’s been somewhat mum about the whole topic.
The Washington Post noted, citing anonymous past and present officials within the administration, that Trump lacks any type of strategy moving forward on the issue of Venezuela’s future. The president has lost patience with the situation, it seems, and has lost interest in the matter altogether.
Some officials dispute this notion. “Not only is this patently false, but once more the Washington Post traffics in fairy tales rather than the truth,” National Security Council spokesman Garrett Marquis said.
But characterizations of Trump becoming less interested in Venezuela seem true, based on casual observations of the president’s actions and statements (or lack thereof) in recent weeks.
Trump, who once considered dealing with Venezuela a “low-hanging fruit” foreign policy that could deliver him an easy “win,” according to some officials, is now largely silent on the matter altogether. Indeed, the president has rarely made any public comment about Venezuela since early May, outside of one tweet mentioning Russia’s removal of “their people” from the nation earlier in June.
The administration’s lack of action or any strategy at all, really, has led other nations to try and resolve the crisis. Last week, the Vatican attended a meeting in Sweden, among other nations, to try and determine what course should be taken in the future with regards to the situation in the South American country, CruxNow reported.