Schumer blasted Trump for failing to oust Maduro — now warns arrest could lead to ‘endless war’

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Schumer criticized Trump in 2020 for failing to remove Maduro from power

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Trump administration in 2020 for Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro's continued leadership in the country. (Credit: C-SPAN - Feb. 5, 2020)

Nearly six years ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., delivered a Senate floor speech slamming President Donald Trump's State of the Union remarks in 2020, including ripping the president because Venezuelan dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro was still in power.

Fast-forward to the U.S. arrest of Maduro on sweeping narcotics charges under the second Trump administration. Now Schumer is accusing the Trump administration of potentially sparking an "endless war" in Venezuela with Maduro's removal from power. 

"Maybe his best metaphor was his claim to bring democracy to Venezuela. There’s a big policy there. It flopped," Schumer said in February 2020, just a day after Trump delivered his State of the Union address touting that Maduro's dictatorship would be "smashed and broken." 

"The president brags about his Venezuela policy? Give us a break. He hasn’t brought an end to the Maduro regime," Schumer continued. "The Maduro regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the president began his anti-Maduro. Same thing with North Korea, same thing with China, same thing with Russia. Same thing with Syria."

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the Trump administration's strike on Venezuela and capture of its dictatorial president, Nicolas Maduro, Jan. 3, 2026. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Trump invited Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó to Washington, D.C., to attend his State of the Union address, identifying him as the "legitimate" leader of Venezuela as Maduro clung to power. Guaidó declared himself interim president after Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly said Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate. 

"The United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro," Trump said in his speech before pointing to Guaidó's presence at the joint session of Congress. "Maduro is an illegitimate ruler, a tyrant who brutalizes his people. But Maduro’s grip on tyranny will be smashed and broken."

Schumer said in his Senate speech the next day that Guaidó's presence at the State of the Union was proof Trump's foreign policies were not effective, or the opposition leader would have been in the president’s palace and not D.C.

Trump confirmed a successful U.S. military operation in Venezuela Saturday morning that led to the capture of Maduro and his wife, who were swiftly transported to the U.S. to face criminal trial in New York. The Venezuelan dictator was charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Nicolás Maduro and other officials in the regime were indicted in 2020 under the first Trump administration for allegedly operating a large-scale narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking conspiracy. (Pedro Rances Mattey/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Maduro, as well as other officials in the regime, were indicted in 2020 under the first Trump administration for allegedly operating a large-scale narco-terrorism and drug-trafficking conspiracy. Maduro denied the charges and was not arrested to stand trial. His 2026 charges expanded on the 2020 indictment. 

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Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, first reported to court Monday. 

News of the operation spread like wildfire across the world Saturday, as many Democratic lawmakers took issue with the administration carrying out the strike and capture without first notifying Congress. Schumer was among prominent Democrats voicing outrage over the operation, saying it threw open the doors to an "endless war."

"Maduro is a horrible, horrible person, but you don't treat lawlessness with other lawlessness, and that's what's happened here," Schumer told "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos Sunday. "There is no authority... they did not just do ships off the water. They went inside Venezuela, bombed civilian as well as military places, and it's a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress."

President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)

"The American people are worried that this is creating an endless war," he added. "The very thing that Donald Trump campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars. And right now, we're headed right into one, with no barriers, with no discussion." 

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer's office and the White House regarding Schumer's 2020 remarks but did not immediately receive replies. 

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital when asked about Schumer's 2020 comments that "Chuck Schumer’s Trump Derangement Syndrome is so overpowering that he will flip-flop on anything to attack President Trump – even bringing narcoterrorist Nicolas Maduro to justice."

"The Biden administration and over 60 countries have recognized Maduro’s rule as illegitimate, but only President Trump had the courage to hold him accountable for his crimes of killing countless Americans with illicit narcotics," Kelly continued. 

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy also criticized the Trump administration in 2019 for not intervening in Venezuela as Guaidó declared himself interim president and protests broke out on the streets of the nation. 

"If Trump cared about consistency, he would make the realist case for intervention in Venezuela (getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States) rather than trying to pretend his Administration all of the sudden cares about toppling anti-democratic regimes," Murphy wrote on X at the time. "Finally, don't get me wrong - I support a U.S. foreign policy that cares deeply about democracy. I think we are better off pressing for political reform everywhere we do business or have interests, not just the place where the guy who controls the oil doesn't like us."

Murphy said Sunday during an appearance on CNN that "there are evil, brutal dictators all over the world. That does not give the American president the right to invade those countries, in large part because we have seen how this script plays out."

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Trump and his administration have celebrated the capture as a success, noting that no U.S. military personnel or equipment was lost during the operation while also defending criticism from Democrats. Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined Sunday morning news shows and was grilled about the operation, including why Congress had not been notified prior to its launch. 

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"This was not an action that required congressional approval," Rubio told NBC's "Meet the Press." "In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This is not an extended military operation. This is a very precise operation that involved a couple of hours of action. It was a very delicate operation, too. It was one that required all these conditions to be in place at the right time, in the right place."

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Rubio added that officials could not risk congressional leaks, as such information could have "endangered the mission and gotten people killed, or killed off the mission in the optionality."