US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls out a CNN reporter over cost of Venezuela operations on January 7, 2026. Photo: Screenshot of CNN

As Trump administration touted what he called "amazing military achievement" in the forcible seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, dissenting voices from multiple quarters have raised questions about the operation's legality. During a live interview on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called out when a CNN reporter asked, "How much does the [Venezuela] mission cost American taxpayers?" 

"It's a disingenuous question to begin with," Hegseth said to the reporter. "You're trying to find any angle possible to undermine the success of one of the most historic military missions the world has ever seen!" Hegseth said, according to the transcript by media outlet Mediaite. 

"The questions never asked [of] how much does it cost when they're in the Mediterranean or the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean or the Pacific," Hegseth argued.

Hegseth spoke with the CNN reporter on Capitol Hill during a live broadcast as he prepared to brief lawmakers on the Trump administration's operations in Venezuela following the strike and the seizure of Venezuelan President Maduro, Mediaite reported. 

Prior to Hegseth taking the floor for the CNN interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio answered the same question categorically, saying that US involvement in Venezuela was "not going to cost any US money," even as CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked three times to confirm the response. 

Beneath the US media's coverage of Hegseth framing aggression as virtue in Venezuela on social media, criticism emerged. A TikTok user @GBG1962 said, the US is becoming unhinged with this current government….The rest of the world is thinking it's no longer safe to go there. 

"The World is watching, they are not stupid, they know what is going on. Don't turn and twist with words. All are lies to justify US piracy, one more user @mkasimtawil wrote.

User @Lampbulb5 said that "American citizens continue to suffer in country but they rather 'help' another country by liberating them from their oil."

The US attitude on military actions in Venezuela have shifted from seeking excuses—"even if I have to fabricate one, I need a reason"—to blatant boasting, "I don't even bother with the packaging." The underlying logic is the belief that "seizing things by force is a beautiful thing, done without any sense of shame," Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

This mindset, Lü noted, explains the visceral reaction of officials like the defense secretary, whose loss of composure when questioned about the operation's costs laid bare a sense of personal offense. In his view, what was an "amazing achievement" deserved praise, rather than skepticism and criticism.

"The military mission was a calculated political maneuver aimed at reinforcing the Republican base," Lü Xiang said in the interview.

Despite facing layered criticism at home and abroad, the administration chose to go so far as to openly acknowledge behavior of questionable legality, a posture that will merely further deepen divisions within American society, Lü said. 

Protesters gathered Wednesday night at King's Cross railway station in London, calling the US action against Venezuela a "breach" of the Latin American country's sovereignty, "illegal" and "naked, blatant imperialism," Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Dozens of demonstrators of various backgrounds gathered outside the federal courthouse in freezing temperatures in New York on Monday to express their views on the US criminal charges against Venezuela's forcibly seizing of Maduro, the Guardian reported. The New York Times also reported that Americans took to the streets in Chicago and Washington on Saturday to protest the US military intervention.

Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including key US allies, have warned that the abduction of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife by US special forces could be a precedent-setting event for international law. 

ABC on Wednesday reported that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated her strong opposition to the American operation. "I believe that every country has the sovereignty to decide what to do with its natural resources; I do not believe that one nation should decide for another, no matter how problematic the situation may be," Sheinbaum said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Monday also slammed the US move a clear violation of international law, basic norms governing international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. China calls on the US to ensure the personal safety of Maduro and his wife, release them immediately, stop toppling the Venezuela government, and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation.

Lü told the Global Times that such US posture marks the US abandoning its self-proclaimed role as a "rule defender" and instead openly embracing a "law of the jungle" logic of hegemony that requires no excuse—aimed at short-term political gain and resource plunder, Lü said. He added that in essence, in the long run it will harm the US' own interests.