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The overthrow and reported capture by invading American military units of Venezuela's socialist president will send a shiver of fear and consternation across the globe. This power grab is unlawful, unprovoked, and regionally and globally destabilising. It upends international norms, disregards sovereign territorial rights, and potentially creates an anarchic situation within the country.

It is policy crafted from chaos. But this is the world we now live in – the universe as defined by Donald Trump.

A Remarkable and Perilous Declaration of Unfettered US Power

The direct attack on Venezuela marks an extraordinary, dangerous declaration of unfettered US power and comes in the same week that the President menaced armed attacks against another unpopular government opposed to the West: the one in Tehran. It follows months of increasing US military, economic and political pressure on Maduro, including lethal maritime attacks on vessels suspected of drug smuggling.

Trump asserts he is acting to stop illicit drugs entering the US via Venezuela and to cease an purported flood of “criminal element” migrants. In an echo of the American incursion into Iraq in 2003, he is also accused of coveting Venezuela’s huge petroleum and natural gas reserves – doubts strengthened by repeated, illegal US seizures of Venezuelan petroleum carriers.

But Trump’s primary motives appear to be individual hostility 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 Worldwide Consequences

Hemispheric heads of state, including Colombia’s president, who has conflicted with Trump in recent months, met the takeover with outrage and alarm; in part, possibly, because they worry they also could become targets of Washington’s newly aggressive dominance. Cuba’s leftwing government has particular cause for concern. It relies heavily on Venezuela’s regime for cheap energy and political and economic support.

The US secretary of state has made no secret of his desire for a change in government in Havana. In Panama, too, levels of concern will be running high. Trump has previously threatened armed intervention there, over authority over the Panama Canal. Indeed, the alleged apprehension of Maduro brings to mind 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 subsequent moves, as will Washington’s allies in democracy. Iran condemned the coup. It has good reason to be fearful. But Russia’s president might not be completely unhappy by the defenestration of his Venezuelan ally.

A Dangerous Precedent for International Disputes

Trump’s unjustified turn to force is not so very different from actions in invading Ukraine. Both have unlawfully assaulted a bordering nation and sought to remove its government. For China’s leader, whose forces were last week conducting military exercises against the “breakaway factions” of Taiwan, Trump has just established a benchmark he may eventually happily emulate.

Trump’s coup is of significant worry to Britain, the EU and western democracies. They ought to, and have to, clearly denounce it. It openly confronts the rules and principles of the global system they cherish. The US has yet again disregarded the United Nations and traditional methods of addressing disputes between nations. And it is acting with seemingly little consideration for the subsequent events in Venezuela.

Uncertain Aftermath and Potential for Chaos

The Caracas government has been decapitated, but remaining high-ranking figures of the regime appear still to be at their posts. They are urging resistance and, possibly, reprisals against the US. There are unverified accounts of civilian casualties. If a power vacuum develops, public order could collapse, igniting internal conflict or a potential armed takeover. And it is unclear whether the latest US military action has concluded, or may escalate further.

The notion that banished dissident figures will swiftly return and that complete democratic rule will now be reinstated is naive. The coming days will be decisive. And the responsibility lies entirely with Trump.

The Illusion of a Peacemaker

Trump’s reckless action should finally lay to rest his always misleading self-portrayal as a “global peacemaker”. It’s past time that European leaders publicly recognise him for who he is – a international provocateur of war, a universal menace.

Each time he stumbles clumsily into areas of dispute, imposing timelines, delivering final demands, choosing sides and monetising misery, the quest for fair and enduring peace is set back.

Little wonder peace is elusive. And strangely, even while presenting himself as a neutral peace broker and non-interventionist, Trump concurrently conducts warfare on the world. The US conducted record numbers of aerial bombardments in the Middle East and Africa the previous year, surveys show.

A Legacy in Blood

Since returning to office a year ago, the ostensibly peace-seeking President has launched strikes in Yemen, carelessly killing many non-combatants after loosening rules of engagement; attacked targets in Nigeria, to counter-productive effect; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and bombed Iran, where he mendaciously exaggerated the effectiveness of American attacks on atomic energy sites. He even will not exclude bombing Greenland, a sovereign territory of a NATO partner.

What is occurring inside Trump’s head? A charitable view is that in matters of war and peace, he has no conception what his actions entail – no plan, no understanding – and invents strategy on the fly, depending on how he feels.

The sinister interpretation says he knows exactly what he is doing, that more and worse is to come. Like previous leaders in their final term who ran out of road domestically, Trump finds the world stage offers greater possibilities for the exercise of power and ego. He is forging a historical record through violence.

Trump’s irresponsible, dangerously erratic behaviour is getting measurably worse. His Venezuela “triumph” may encourage him to try further and bigger, unhinged outrages. He struts and preens, cries havoc! and lets slip the dogs of war.