Kamla, Quite Contrary: Trinidad PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s Pro-Trump Policies Spark ‘Vassal State’ Accusations

When Kamla Persad-Bissessar returned to office as Prime Minister on May 1, 2025, after a landslide electoral victory, few predicted the Indo-Trinidadian leader would become the Caribbean’s most vocal ally of President Trump’s military campaign against Venezuela—or that her pro-U.S. stance would fracture regional unity and draw accusations she is turning Trinidad into an American “vassal state.”

Within months, Persad-Bissessar, 73, positioned Trinidad and Tobago as Trump’s key Caribbean partner, welcoming U.S. military radar systems and Marines, granting American warships and aircraft access to ports and airports, and publicly breaking with CARICOM over what she calls the bloc’s support for “Maduro’s narco-government headed by a dictator.”

According to the Trinidad Express, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised her immediately after her April 28, 2025 election, calling her “a strong leader, friend, and U.S. ally who shares @POTUS’s priorities on security and immigration.”

But her alignment has sparked fierce domestic opposition, regional diplomatic crisis, and questions about whether her 26-seat parliamentary majority translates to popular support for such dramatic foreign policy realignment.

A Bridge Too Far?

Surprisingly, Persad-Bissessar found U.S. operation that “extracted” Venezuelan leader, went too far. When U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro, Persad-Bissessar issued an immediate statement distancing Trinidad from the operation—a striking shift after months of vocal pro-Trump positioning.

According to the Trinidad Express, Persad-Bissessar stated: “Earlier this morning, Saturday 3rd January 2026, the United States commenced military operations within the territory of Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago is NOT a participant in any of these ongoing military operations. Trinidad and Tobago continues to maintain peaceful relations with the people of Venezuela.”

According to the Trinidad Express, when questioned about her whereabouts and failure to address the nation following Maduro’s capture, the Prime Minister insisted “there is no crisis in Trinidad and Tobago.” Asked about citizens worried by events in Venezuela, she stated: “We are not involved, so citizens have no need to be bothered.”

However, Persad-Bissessar also predicted that Caribbean politicians implicated in drug trafficking charges against Maduro would be exposed. “I’m not surprised at all. As the story continues to unfold, I have no doubt that many ‘respectable’ and ‘celebrated’ people across all sectors of society will be exposed,” she stated.

Civil society groups responded by accusing the Prime Minister of complicity: “The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, by siding from day one with Washington’s agenda, without question has been an active and complicit in the division of Caricom and the attempt to delegitimize the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.” The groups declared: “The government has become a lackey of U.S. imperialism and no amount of ole talk about our being a friend of the Venezuelan people or denials about being involved in today’s actions by the US can erase that fact.”

Her sudden assertion of non-involvement, after months of offering “unflinching” support for U.S. operations and hosting American military assets, drew criticism as disingenuous—particularly given her October pledge to provide U.S. forces access to Trinidadian territory for operations defending Guyana.

The Trump Alignment

Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress won 26 of 41 seats on April 28, 2025 —what party organizer Barry Padarath called “the best result for the United National Congress since the party’s foundation.” She campaigned on increasing salaries, protecting pensions, and addressing crime in what the Atlantic Council called “the deadliest year in Trinidad and Tobago’s modern history, with a homicide rate of 45.7 per 100,000.”

But her subsequent foreign policy shift caught observers off-guard.

According to the Trinidad Express, when U.S. forces fired upon an alleged drug-trafficking boat from Venezuela in September 2025, Persad-Bissessar immediately endorsed the action, stating: “For more than 25 years, narco-traffickers have unleashed hell upon Trinidad and Tobago, fuelling our murder rate, flooding our streets with guns and drugs, and brutalising our people through torture, intimidation, extortion, kidnapping and violence.”

Her sudden assertion of non-involvement, after months of offering “unflinching” support for U.S. operations and hosting American military assets, drew criticism as disingenuous—particularly given her October pledge to provide U.S. forces access to Trinidadian territory for operations defending Guyana.

The Pentagon installed radar systems in Trinidad where Marines remain deployed, with U.S. military aircraft granted airport access. The Express reported the USS Gravely warship docked in Port of Spain in September 2025.

Most dramatically, according to the Jamaica Observer, Persad-Bissessar pledged: “If the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela launches any attack against the Guyanese people or invades Guyanese territory and a request is made by the American Government for access to Trinidadian territory to defend the people of Guyana, my government will unflinchingly provide them that access.”

When CARICOM called for the Caribbean to remain a “zone of peace” in October 2025, Persad-Bissessar broke publicly with the regional bloc. According to WIC News and teleSUR, she accused CARICOM of “siding with Venezuela against the United States” and declared it “is not a reliable partner at this moment” and “has lost its way,” characterizing it as “an organization that chooses to disparage our greatest ally, the United States.”

Venezuela’s Maduro declared her persona non grata; she responded: “Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?”

According to teleSUR, in December 2025, “the Bolivarian Government of President Nicolás Maduro immediately terminated any contract or negotiation involving gas supply to this neighboring country” in retaliation for Trinidad’s cooperation with U.S. operations. Venezuela had previously supplied natural gas to Trinidad.

The “Trinis First” Rhetoric

Persad-Bissessar’s alignment extended to immigration, adopting Trump-style rhetoric. According to Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, in November 2024 she alleged Venezuelan migrants were “committing crimes daily against our citizens” and vowed to deport illegal Venezuelan migrants “by any means necessary.”

According to Newsday, “Persad-Bissessar, two days later, doubled down on her comments, calling out the ‘idiocy’, ‘lunacy’ and ‘wokeism’ of her critics before pointing to Trump’s policies and declaring, ‘Trinis first!'”

Newsday noted: “This is similar to Trump, who has taken a hard-line approach against illegal immigrants.”

Former Prime Minister Keith Rowley (2015-2025), whom Persad-Bissessar defeated, launched the fiercest criticism. According to teleSUR, Rowley “denounced that the head of government is attempting to turn Trinidad and Tobago into a ‘vassal state’ and warned that the country’s sovereignty and national pride ‘are being undermined.'”

“For me it is horrible to see a prime minister secretly and contemptuously turn proud Trinidad and Tobago into a vassal state,” Rowley stated, according to teleSUR.

According to the Trinidad Express, Rowley “added his name to a rare joint statement by former Caribbean leaders against U.S. militarization in the region” and “said he is ashamed of the country’s recent actions.”

Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles questioned “whether Caricom was consulted or engaged before ‘such unprecedented alignment with foreign military action,'” according to the Express. Persad-Bissessar dismissed this, stating: “I have made it clear before that all countries in Caricom can speak for themselves on this issue.”

Crime and Cartels

Persad-Bissessar consistently justifies her stance by citing Trinidad’s crisis. According to the Jamaica Observer, her government argues that “most Caribbean countries and in particular Trinidad and Tobago have been dealing with out-of-control crime for the last 20 years” and “small island states like ours simply do not have the financial and military resources to take on the drug cartels.”

According to the Observer, she argues: “Cartels have been enabled to embed themselves into the high echelons of Caribbean societies, thereby exhibiting significant influence in political, legislative, media, banking, security and economic decisions.”

According to WIC News, she emphasizes that “Venezuela has publicly threatened to invade Guyana and has similarly claimed that Trinidad and Tobago is part of its territory,” yet CARICOM “failed to take decisive action.”

An Indo-Trinidadian Journey

Kamla Susheila Persad-Bissessar was born April 22, 1952, in rural Siparia in southern Trinidad to Hindu parents of Indian descent. Her father was a bookkeeper at Texaco; her mother worked as a maid, cocoa field laborer, and operated a roti shop.

According to BlackPast, Persad-Bissessar left Trinidad at age 17 to pursue education in England at Norwood Technical College in London, working as a social worker. She spent 14 years in Jamaica teaching at St. Andrew High School while studying at the University of the West Indies, earning education diplomas and a master’s degree.

According to Wikipedia, in 1987 she graduated from Hugh Wooding Law School “at the top of her class, with awards for being the most outstanding student and having the best overall performance.” In 2006, she obtained an Executive MBA from UWI.

Persad-Bissessar first served as Prime Minister from 2010-2015, becoming “the country’s first female prime minister, attorney general, and opposition leader, the first woman to chair the Commonwealth of Nations and the first woman with Indian ancestry to be a prime minister of a country outside of India and the wider subcontinent,” according to Wikipedia.

Her Indo-Trinidadian identity is significant in a country where, according to the 2011 census cited by Wikipedia, approximately 35.4% of the population is of East Indian descent—descendants of indentured laborers brought from India by British colonial authorities between 1845 and 1917. This demographic reality shapes Trinidad’s politics, with the United National Congress traditionally drawing strong support from Indo-Trinidadian communities.

After losing the 2015 election, she led the opposition for a decade before her 2025 comeback, representing Siparia constituency since 1995 and serving as UNC Political Leader since 2010.

Her Legacy

Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s alignment represents the most significant foreign policy departure in modern Trinidad and Tobago history. No previous prime minister has positioned the country so explicitly as a U.S. military partner or broken so publicly with CARICOM.

Her defenders argue she pragmatically addresses Trinidad’s existential crime crisis by partnering with the only power capable of confronting Venezuelan cartels. With homicide rates at historic highs, cooperation represents realism, not subordination.

Her critics warn she surrenders sovereignty, turning Trinidad into an American “vassal state,” fracturing Caribbean unity, and choosing Trump’s militarism over the region’s “zone of peace” doctrine.

For the daughter of a Texaco bookkeeper and roti shop owner who rose from rural Siparia to become the first woman with Indian ancestry to lead a country outside the subcontinent, who topped her law school class and chaired the Commonwealth—the question becomes whether history judges her as a pragmatic leader prioritizing citizen security, or as a prime minister who compromised sovereignty for U.S. favor.

That verdict likely depends on whether crime decreases and whether U.S. Caribbean operations escalate into broader conflict. For now, at 73, Kamla Persad-Bissessar has cast Trinidad’s lot with Trump’s Venezuela campaign. The consequences will define her legacy and Trinidad’s place in a militarizing Caribbean.

This story was aggregated by AI from several news reports and edited by American Kahani’s News Desk.