1A 'If You Can Keep It': How Trump Deals With Foreign Adversaries
Mar 23, 2026
Kelly Grieco, a foreign policy and military strategy analyst, and Vera Bergen-Gruen, a national security reporter, break down a pattern of precision strikes and leadership-targeting. They discuss the 'decapitate and delegate' approach, limits of air power for political change, comparisons between Venezuela and Iran, risks of relying on popular uprisings, and what a Cuba strategy might look like.
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Decapitate And Delegate As A New Playbook
- The Trump administration's 'decapitate and delegate' playbook aims to remove a regime's top leader and expect internal actors to finish the rest.
- It's pitched as pragmatic and cheaper than nation-building, using targeted strikes and political leverage instead of long ground occupations.
Air Power Can't Replace Ground Forces
- Air power alone has no historical record of achieving regime change without ground forces or organized local actors.
- Kelly Grieco stresses 100 years of air-power history showing decapitation via strikes fails without ground control.
Venezuela's Political Structure Made Extraction Feasible
- Venezuela's recent history of elections and organized opposition made it uniquely susceptible to a swift U.S. decapitation operation.
- Vera Bergengruen notes Venezuela retained civic structures that Iran lacks, enabling a smoother U.S. post-operation opening.