As Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised President Donald Trump for a surprise U.S. military operation in Venezuela that ended with the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling — appearing remotely on The Bulwark Podcast — could be seen live on camera, head dropping into his hand in a visible facepalm.  The silent response spread rapidly online, crystallizing a broader unease over the administration’s escalating use of military force and the rhetoric surrounding it. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago club on January 03, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. During the event, President Trump confirmed that the U.S. military carried out a large-scale strike in Caracas overnight, resulting in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The strikes on Venezuela and Maduro’s sudden removal overnight Saturday marked the most dramatic episode yet in what has been a combative first year for Hegseth, who asserted that Maduro “F’d around and found out,” which prompted Hertling’s unmistakable eyeroll of disbelief. Standing beside Trump at Mar-a-Lago hours after the covert mission, Hegseth framed Maduro’s abduction as proof that the administration had restored what he calls a “warrior ethos” to the U.S. military. “As the president said, our adversaries remain on notice. America can project our will anywhere, anytime,” Hegseth said. “The coordination, the stealth, the lethality, the precision. The very long arm of American justice all on fill display in the middle of the night. Nicolás Maduro had his chance just like Iran had their chance, until they didn’t and until he didn’t. He F’d around and found out.”  ‘This Is Madness’: Trump Just Received a $250M Reason to Break the Law, Openly Brags About It — Then the Donor Drops Three Words That Change Everything While those words were still hanging in the air, Hertling reacted in real time. He held his palm over his face and stared downward as if absorbing the weight of what he was hearing. The podcast, hosted by Tim Miller with rotating guests from the Never Trump movement, continued its discussion of the invasion, but Hertling’s wordless response quickly became the focal point. Online, viewers interpreted the moment as an unfiltered verdict from a career military officer. “He’s all of us,” one commenter wrote. Another noted, “Dude knew he was on camera and didn’t avoid reacting.” A third added, “He definitely made a statement loud and clear without speaking. He took his stance.” View on Threads Others framed Hertling’s reaction as instinct rather than performance.  “It’s called being a human with knowledge of what is actually happening and reacting the exact same way a billion other people reacted when they first heard the f—kery,” one person wrote. Another said, “That’s the point. He realized the gravity of it and didn’t let his face hide it.” Some reactions went further, urging action from retired military officers.  “These retired guys need to get together with some active members of the military and cook up a plan to deal with this. Your oath doesn’t end because you’re retired,” one commenter wrote. Another summed up the broader embarrassment some felt: “It’s embarrassing beyons comprehension.” Republican lawmakers and administration officials spent the weekend justifying Trump’s actions, pointing to Maduro’s long-disputed hold on power. Maduro remained in office after a 2018 reelection dismissed as illegitimate by the United States and European Union, triggering a presidential crisis when the opposition-led National Assembly declared its leader, Juan Guaidó, interim president.  The standoff split the international community for years. In 2024, Maduro claimed a third term amid disputed vote counts favoring opposition challenger Edmundo González, and by November 2025, the U.S. had labeled him a foreign terrorist, solidifying its view of his rule as authoritarian and illegitimate. How Maduro’s capture ultimately affects Hegseth’s standing with the Senate remains unclear, with some lawmakers already questioning why the administration did not brief the bipartisan Gang of Eight ahead of a surprise operation that resulted in the seizure of a sitting foreign president. Most of the criticism of the Venezuelan operation came from progressives. Bulwark Managing Editor Sam Stein and Publisher Sarah Longwell challenged the administration’s reasoning, highlighting contradictions in Trump’s stated justification for the mission. “He said in his Fox interview,” Stein said during a live podcast reacting to Trump’s Saturday press conference, “… This gets to motivations and obviously there’s a question of [Venezuela’s] oil or is it the drugs?” Stein noted that Trump has previously linked Maduro’s election to his own 2020 defeat and suggested that persistent, debunked MAGA conspiracy theories about Venezuelan election interference may have influenced the decision to remove Maduro. Longwell argued the reasoning doesn’t add up, especially in light of Trump’s recent pardon of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was serving a 45-year U.S. prison sentence for drug trafficking conspiracy.  “[Since] there [is no] direct American benefit from this then what you have left is Trump’s weird grievance over his belief that Venezuela interfered in his reelection and the cosplaying he loves to do looking like a tough guy on the international stage,” she said. “Who can make sense of what’s going on in Trump’s head?” On Capitol Hill, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the “hypocrisy underlying this decision is especially glaring.” “This same president recently pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted in a U.S. court on serious drug trafficking charges, including conspiring with narcotics traffickers while in office,” Warner said. “Yet now, the administration claims that similar allegations justify the use of military force against another sovereign nation. You cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case, while issuing a pardon in another.” Hertling had raised similar alarms a day before the invasion in an editorial for The Bulwark. In the piece, he warned that the administration appeared to be drifting toward “regime change” without defining what that meant or reckoning with the consequences. From a military standpoint, he argued, the phrase is dangerously vague and not a mission the armed forces are designed to carry out. He stressed that while the military can destroy targets and topple governments, it cannot by itself rebuild political systems. “Regime change is a political act of extraordinary consequence,” Hertling wrote, one that demands a whole-of-government commitment measured in years, not weeks. Drawing on his Iraq War experience, Hertling warned that removing a regime without planning for what comes next risks chaos, insurgency, and foreign meddling. He noted that Venezuela’s region is crowded with criminal networks and backed by powerful allies like Russia, China, Iran, and Cuba, and cautioned that pursuing multiple goals—weakening Maduro, combating drug cartels, and securing oil—could trap the U.S. in an open-ended conflict without public or congressional support. ‘Keep This One for History Books’: Pete Hegseth Heaps Praise on Trump, But Viewers Zoom In on Retired Army General’s Expression That Says It All ...read more read less