Trump Wanted to Replicate His Venezuela “Success” in Iran. What Has It Even Looked Like?

President Trump compared his January 2025 military operation in Venezuela to a "perfect scenario" he hoped to replicate in Iran, but the Iran war has spiraled far beyond the Venezuela model: a four-week conflict that has killed at least 3,000 people across Iran, Lebanon, and beyond, involved over a dozen countries, and threatens to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Trump's search for an Iranian counterpart to Delcy Rodríguez—the Maduro-era official now running Venezuela—collapsed when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed most potential successors to Ayatollah Khamenei in the war's opening days. In Venezuela, the Trump administration has effectively seized control of the country's sovereignty through a colonial arrangement: the Rodríguez government must submit monthly budgets for U.S. approval, the U.S. controls 80 million barrels of seized Venezuelan oil and its proceeds, and Trump-pressured reforms have slashed foreign oil companies' taxes from 65 percent to as low as 25 percent while eliminating joint-venture requirements with Venezuela's state oil company. Cabinet members including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have visited Venezuela to negotiate access to the country's oil and mineral resources, with Rodríguez pledging to work at "Trump speed" on mining law reforms that mirror the oil sector overhaul. Venezuela has also severed ties with Iran, Russia, China, and Cuba—halting all oil shipments to Cuba and deepening an energy crisis there—marking a dramatic reversal from the Chávez and Maduro years.