Rep. Matt Gaetz

This indeed is America first.

And it brings our attention closer to home.

Look, they're excited by it because for so long when we made decisions on the Armed Services Committee, where I served for eight years, it was all about CENTCOM.

It was all about EUROCOM.

And often Southern Command here in the Americas was left at the end of the whip, not having priorities funded, not having cooperation occur, not having capabilities built up.

Our sense is that when you back strong leaders like CENTCOM,

like President Bukele, like Malay in Argentina, like Marino in Panama, then you're able to avoid circumstances where these bandits become MS-13 level problems for the United States of America.

There are 70,000 MS-13 currently incarcerated just miles from where I am now.

They're no trouble to the United States anymore, and strong leadership does that.

It doesn't require spilling American blood or treasure,

But it does mean we have to be more serious about our own borders.

And when we get rid of the USAID and the NGOs, then you get rid of one of the principal irritants that get in the way of strong borders and rule of law.

It's many of those funders of the NGOs who are actually rooting for Maduro now.

I don't believe under President Trump the mere moving of all of this material into the Gulf of America means that the die is already cast for kinetic conflict.

I do believe it creates leverage.

I do believe it creates uncertainty that Maduro's regime will survive.

And unlike so many places in Arabia where we were eager to topple a dictator and then had no plan for what's next,

In Venezuela, they had an election.

Edmundo Gonzalez won that election by a margin of better than two to one, and the military just came in, destroyed the ballots, and indicated that they were still loyal to Maduro.

If that ceases to exist, there does remain a civil society, a civic infrastructure that I think will have serious challenges, but ultimately can prevail.