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The toppling and reported capture by incursive American military units of Nicolas Maduro will send a shiver of fear and consternation around the world. This power grab is unlawful, unprovoked, and regionally and globally destabilising. It overturns international norms, ignores national territorial sovereignty, and potentially creates an state of anarchy inside Venezuela itself.

It is chaos made policy. But this is the reality we currently inhabit – the universe as defined by Donald Trump.

A Remarkable and Perilous Declaration of Unfettered US Power

The direct attack on Venezuela signifies an remarkable, hazardous assertion of unchecked American might and arrives the same week that Trump threatened armed attacks against another unpopular anti-western regime: the one in Tehran. It comes after many months of increasing US military, economic and political pressure on Maduro, encompassing lethal maritime attacks on boats of alleged drug traffickers.

Trump claims to be acting to prevent illegal narcotics entering the US through Venezuelan routes and to cease an alleged influx of “criminal” migrants. In an echo of the American incursion into Iraq in 2003, he is also accused of coveting Venezuela’s vast oil and gas resources – doubts strengthened by repeated, illegal US seizures of Venezuelan petroleum carriers.

But Trump’s chief motivations appear to be individual hostility directed at Maduro, and a wish to resurrect the historical Monroe Doctrine by creating a American zone of control and supremacy throughout the west.

Regional Outrage and Worldwide Consequences

Regional leaders, such as Colombia’s president, who has conflicted with Trump in recent months, met the takeover with fury and concern; in part, possibly, because they worry they also could become targets of Washington’s aggressive new hegemony. Cuba’s leftwing government has special reason for worry. It relies heavily on Venezuela’s regime for cheap energy and backing in politics and economics.

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 recalls the 1989 US incursion into Panama and the toppling and arrest of its then dictator.

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

A Dangerous Precedent for Global Conflicts

Trump’s unjustified turn to force is not so very different from actions in invading Ukraine. Both have unlawfully assaulted a neighbouring country 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 one day gladly follow.

Trump’s coup is of great concern 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 international order they cherish. The US has once again ignored the UN and traditional methods of addressing inter-state grievances. 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 remaining high-ranking figures of the regime seem to remain in place. They are calling for opposition and, possibly, reprisals against the US. There are unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties. If a power vacuum forms, public order could collapse, sparking civil war or a potential armed takeover. And it is uncertain whether the latest US military action has concluded, or may escalate further.

The notion that banished dissident figures will swiftly return and that full democracy will now be restored is unrealistic. The coming days will be critical. And it’s all down to Trump.

The Illusion of a Peacemaker

Trump’s imprudent move should finally lay to rest his always misleading self-portrayal as a “global peacemaker”. It’s high time that leaders in Europe openly acknowledge him for what he is – a international provocateur of war, a worldwide threat.

Each time he blunders noisily into conflict zones, imposing timelines, delivering final demands, choosing sides and profiting from suffering, the quest for just and lasting peace is set back.

Little wonder peace remains distant. 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 last year, surveys show.

A Legacy in Blood

Since resuming the presidency a year ago, peace-loving Trump has launched strikes in Yemen, negligently causing the deaths of many non-combatants after loosening rules of engagement; attacked targets in Nigeria, to detrimental outcomes; bombed Somalia, Iraq and Syria; and bombed Iran, where he falsely inflated the effectiveness of American attacks on atomic energy sites. He even will not exclude attacking Greenland, a independent land of a NATO partner.

What’s going on inside Trump’s head? A charitable view is that in matters of war and peace, he has no idea what he is doing – no plan, no understanding – and makes up policy as he goes, based on how he feels.

The more ominous reading says he knows exactly what he’s at, that more and worse are forthcoming. Like previous leaders in their final term who ran out of road at home, Trump finds the global platform provides more opportunities for the exercise of power and ego. He is forging a historical record in blood.

Trump’s reckless, perilously unstable conduct is getting measurably worse. His Venezuela “triumph” may embolden him to try further and bigger, unhinged outrages. He struts and preens, shouts for chaos! and lets slip the dogs of war.