Trump does not need congressional approval for this type of operation. Presidents, including Democratic presidents, have launched lethal attacks regularly against individuals. President Barack Obama killed an American citizen under this "kill list" policy. If Obama can vaporize an American citizen without even a criminal charge, Trump can capture a foreign citizen with a pending criminal indictment without prior congressional approval.

This argument is not very good, but it'll satisfy MAGA. The reality is that a President can do almost anything for 60 days. They key to me is - do other nations that carry weight with world opinion really care? No, they don't. It took decades for it to get to where those nations don't care. Couldn't do it while Chavez was in power - those nations cared. The first term of Maduro they might have still cared, but now they don't. The excuse for the invasion is full of lies and fabrications, but now that we're there, can we make Venezuela into a good county? It's given that Trump doesn't really care about much beyond the oil, but maybe we can get some serendipity and end up with a cherry and an ally?

Now that we've done this and paid lip service to helping Venezuela, let's see if Trump comes out of this fine or whether it just deteriorates back into authoritarianism but with the oil companies relatively secure.