What KY’s congressional delegation says about Trump’s attack on Venezuela
Kentucky’s congressional delegation reacted with varying degrees of support Saturday to President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Northern Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was among the first to weigh in, suggesting the action might not stand up to constitutional muster, and he pointed out that the indictment of Maduro makes “no mention of fentanyl or stolen oil.”
“If this action were constitutionally sound, the Attorney General wouldn’t be tweeting that they’ve arrested the President of a sovereign country and his wife for possessing guns in violation of a 1934 U.S. firearm law,” Massie said in a statement posted on the social media platform X.
He later added: “AG and others legally characterize attack in Venezuela as ‘arrest with military support.’ Meanwhile Trump announces he’s taken over the country and will run it until he finds someone suitable to replace him. Added bonus: says American oil companies will get to exploit the oil.”
The commonwealth’s lone Democrat in Congress, Rep. Morgan McGarvey of Louisville, said he was concerned about the possibility of war and said Trump needs to be reigned in.
“America must not start another reckless, unjustified war fought for the interests of oil companies,” McGarvey wrote. “While Maduro is a cruel and illegitimate dictator, Trump is not a president who prioritizes democracy or civil rights at home or abroad.
“If this is actually about drugs, we cannot ignore the hypocrisy of a president who pardons a drug trafficker like former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez one day, and then bombs another country the next under the same premise. Trump is using our troops for personal gain, for oil companies, and in the interest of billionaire executives, not the interest of the American people.
“Only Congress has the ability to declare war. Republican leadership needs to wake up and join us in reigning in this President.”
Sen. Rand Paul penned a lengthy response to the situation in which he cautioned about the balance of power when it comes to war, decried a positive view of socialism among many young Americans and called out the recent election of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“While celebrating the demise of Maduro, the fact that his toppling came by executive order and not by Congressional declaration is not an insignificant point,” Paul wrote in an article posted on X. “In this case, a leader who monopolized central power is removed in an action that monopolizes central power. Defenders of limitless Presidential powers call this ‘the Unitary President.’
“Easy enough to argue such policy when the action is short, swift and effective but glaringly less so when that unitary power drains of us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, such as occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam.”
Paul said what happened under Maduro should be a lesson for Americans.
“The evil story of Maduro in Venezuela is a sad one, it is the story of socialism in all its drab and dreary machine-like-destruction of individual thought, creativity, and ambition. It is the story of socialism in all its violence, bloodshed, and tyranny,” he wrote. “It is a cautionary tale of how America has so far eluded the siren call of something for nothing, an equality determined and enforced by the government — but also a warning to those in NYC who seem enchanted by Mamdani’s socialist cant.”
Meanwhile, Central Kentucky Rep. Andy Barr and Eastern Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers praised Trump’s actions.
“I applaud President Trump for taking decisive action to protect the American people from narco terrorists seeking to poison and murder the American people—and carrying out that action pursuant to his Commander in Chief powers under Article II of the Constitution to protect U.S. personnel from an actual or imminent attack,” Barr said in a statement posted on X.
“For states like Kentucky, this threat is not abstract—narco-terrorism has fueled a deadly flood of drugs that has taken thousands of innocent lives and devastated families across the Commonwealth. Nicolas Maduro is NOT the legitimate President of Venezuela. He is a narco terrorist and leader of the Cartel de Los Soles, indicted in the Southern District of New York for committing grievous crimes against the United States, including Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machine Guns and Destructive Devices against the United States.”
Barr is vying for the GOP nomination for Kentucky’s open U.S. Senate seat — a race in which Trump has yet to make a public endorsement.
Hal Rogers applauded Trump “for taking decisive action to dismantle the narco-terrorist regime in Venezuela, led by its President Nicolas Maduro.
“Our brave military service members have shown extreme excellence in accomplishing this historic mission, and I salute each one of our heroes,” Rogers said in a post on X. “For years, we have battled an epidemic of deadly drugs flooding into our American communities from Venezuela, and this is a monumental display of US force against the cartels and dictators who pursue terrorism over peace.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell offered his response on social media Saturday afternoon.
“Maduro is a thug, and the hemisphere would be safer without this lackey of Iran, Russia, and China in power,” he wrote. “@POTUS has broad constitutional authority and long historical precedent for the limited use of military force, and I’m grateful to the U.S. personnel who carried out orders in harm’s way. A free, democratic, and stable Venezuela, led by Venezuelans, is in America’s national security interests — I expect the Administration to brief Congress soon on how it intends to secure this outcome.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 2:34 PM.
