President Trump is set to meet with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday as lawmakers in both chambers are calling for more details on the weekend operation in Venezuela and the U.S. role there moving forward.
The gathering in Washington, D.C., comes a day after top administration officials briefed Capitol Hill leaders for several hours behind closed doors, leaving a largely partisan divide on the military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
The Monday briefing was the first opportunity for top party leaders, along with members from key committees in Congress, to question administration officials about a mission for which they were given no advance warning.
Following the briefing, Republicans said the president was well within his powers to order the mission without congressional input.
"We are not at war. We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after the briefing. "The Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war — that is true — but it also vests the president of the United States with vast authorities as commander in chief."
The Monday briefing was led by key members of the president's foreign policy team, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.
It was attended by the Gang of Eight, made up of the House and Senate leaders from both parties and the top Republican and top Democrat serving on each chamber's intelligence committees. Joining them were bipartisan leaders from the foreign affairs, foreign relations and armed services committees.
The Tuesday gathering at the Kennedy Center will be an opportunity for Trump to address members of his party as they are gearing up for a fight to maintain control over the House in the midterm elections. In the past, his addresses to these gatherings have focused on broader topics and rallying together as a party.
Speaker Johnson said the administration scheduled a separate briefing on Venezuela for all members of Congress on Wednesday, where it is expected that more details will be shared about next steps in the region.
A partisan divide persists over Trump's handling of Venezuela
Following the meeting, Johnson told reporters that the operation in Venezuela was not "a regime change," but rather "a demand for change in behavior by a regime." And while Trump said over the weekend that the U.S. will run Venezuela until a "proper transition can take place," Johnson told reporters, "we don't expect troops on the ground" or direct involvement in Venezuela "in any other way" beyond coercing reforms from the interim government now in place.
Other lawmakers leaving the briefing said they did not yet have clarity on whether there would be more U.S. involvement in Venezuela.
Republicans' solidarity with the president and his top officials signaled that Trump continues to draw fierce loyalty from the vast majority of his party in Congress. However, Democrats said the operation illustrated a dangerous expansion of Trump's executive powers and risked plunging the U.S. into the very same kind of ongoing conflict that Trump campaigned on avoiding.
"It seems at every turn, Donald Trump is trying to figure out how he avoids Congress," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. "And unfortunately, Congress allows him to do it."
Meeks, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, voiced a concern that Democrats have raised throughout the last year — that Congress is abdicating its constitutional authority in deference to the White House.
Johnson addressed that criticism.
"Look, I can tell you, as speaker of the House, as the person who's in charge of defending Article I powers, I'm just going to insist to you that those have not been traversed in any way by what happened here," he told reporters.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned of troubles that could lie ahead, arguing the briefing left more questions than answers.
"Their plan for the U.S. running Venezuela is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying," Schumer said. "I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries."
This marked the first of what will likely be several more briefings for lawmakers about the events that unfolded in Venezuela and next steps.
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