Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez dishes on her

There’s something fitting about this meeting happening at a hotel in New York, just blocks from the United Nations. For years, the international community talked about Venezuela in conference rooms and issued statements from podiums, while Nicolás Maduro kept a grip on power through pure cruelty. It took a decisive military action in January to remove him, and now President Trump is sitting down with Delcy Rodríguez as her country actually tries to rebuild. The symbolism isn’t subtle. It’s just true.

The left spent years insisting Maduro was a legitimate leader and that any opposition to him was a coup or an imperialist plot. They called for diplomacy and patience, and that approach delivered exactly nothing to the Venezuelan people except more hunger, more exile, and more misery. The old playbook was a dead end. Meanwhile, this administration looked at a ruthless dictator and acted. The capture and removal of Maduro wasn’t a talking point; it was an operation that put real consequences behind the words. That’s the difference between our side and the people who run the chanceries in Europe.

Rodríguez getting the first meeting with a U.S. president is a clear signal. The era of hedging is over. We are backing the people who want to hold free elections and restore property rights, not the ones who party with autocrats. It’s still early, and Venezuela’s road back will be long and rocky. But when you compare the Trump administration’s resolve on this to the feckless, deal-with-the-devil approach of the previous White House, the contrast is stark. The world just watched a demonstration of what American strength looks like — and for once, it wasn’t accompanied by apologies or caveats.