The Trump administration’s capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife “doesn’t serve the American people,” outgoing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker on Sunday.
“We don’t consider Venezuela our neighborhood,” she added. “Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the southern hemisphere.”
Taylor Greene vehemently argued pursuing Maduro was antithetical to the platform Trump was elected on.
“Well, you know, I served on the Homeland Security Committee for three years. And I am overwhelmingly in support of a strong border. I impeached Secretary Mayorkas, those were my articles of impeachment that passed the House because fentanyl overdose has skyrocketed to 280% in my own district. And the majority of American fentanyl overdoses and death come from Mexico,” she told Welker.
If the focus is truly on overdoses, she added, then the administration would more aggressively focus on cartels in Mexico.
“Now I am not defending Maduro and of course I’m happy for the people of Venezuela to be liberated,” she continued. “But Americans celebrated the liberation of the Iraqi people after Saddam Hussein. They celebrated the liberation of the Libyan people after Gaddafi. And this is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn’t serve the American people, but actually serves the big corporations, the banks, and the oil executives.”
Trump campaigned on the MAGA platform “that we thought was putting America first,” Taylor Greene noted. “I want to see domestic policy be the priority that helps Americans afford life after four disastrous years of the Biden administration. I want to see domestic policies that prioritizes jobs and affordable housing for Americans after four disastrous years of the Biden administration.”
Health care, jobs, and housing are “issues that matter to Americans. We don’t consider Venezuela our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is right here in the 50 United States, not in the southern hemisphere.”
Taylor Greene was also asked about Trump’s insistence that he can define what “America First” means.
“You know, ‘America First’ should mean what was promised on the campaign trail in 2024. So my understanding of ‘America First’ is strictly for the American people, not for the big donors that donate to big politicians,” she answered.
“Not for the special interests that constantly roam the halls in Washington. And not foreign countries that demand their priorities put first over Americans. “America First” actually means for the American people. And the American people have been put last consistently, decades and decades, by both political parties for far too long.”
Taylor Greene’s interview echoed a lengthy message she posted on X Saturday.
“If U.S. military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs then why hasn’t the Trump admin taken action against Mexican cartels?” she wrote in part. “And if prosecuting narco terrorists is a high priority then why did President Trump pardon the former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez who was convicted and sentenced for 45 years for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into America? Ironically cocaine is the same drug that Venezuela primarily traffics into the U.S.”
She continued, “The next obvious observation is that by removing Maduro this is a clear move for control over Venezuelan oil supplies that will ensure stability for the next obvious regime change war in Iran … Regime change, funding foreign wars, and American’s tax dollars being consistently funneled to foreign causes, foreigners both home and abroad, and foreign governments while Americans are consistently facing increasing cost of living, housing, healthcare, and learn about scams and fraud of their tax dollars is what has most Americans enraged. Especially the younger generations.”
“This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end,” Taylor Greene added. “Boy were we wrong.”
